Government Shutdown Update

Statement

Today, because of Congressional inaction and political games, thousands of El Pasoans went to work at Fort Bliss, received furlough notices, and were told to go home. Others, like our Border Patrol agents, are being asked to work without a guarantee that they will get paid on-time. Small businesses found out that they could not apply for a loan because a majority of employees at the Small Business Administration are being furloughed. Individuals calling the local Social Security office to check on benefits found their calls unanswered. Given the uncertainty facing so many in El Paso, I have decided to donate my salary to charity until we fix this problem.

The House could solve this stalemate right now by voting on a continuing resolution (CR) without extraneous provisions that has already passed the Senate and would be signed into law by the President. This "clean" CR could pass with Democratic and Republican votes and it would end the current impasse and fund our government through November 15th. I do not like this approach because it would maintain the sequester that is hurting the economy of El Paso, but I am willing to compromise to open our government back up and get El Pasoans back to work. Passing the Senate-passed CR would give us time to deal with raising the debt ceiling and come to an agreement on a budget for the rest of the fiscal year.

Unfortunately, House leadership took a different approach and decided to bring three piecemeal measures to the floor only to fund certain parts of our government. These measures--H.J.Res. 70, 71, and 72--ignore our responsibility to keep the entire government functioning. I voted NO on all three measures and all three failed to pass the House. Even if they had passed the House, they would not have passed the Senate or signed by the President.

I agree that National Parks, the government of the District of Columbia, and VA services should continue uninterrupted. I also think that the people who have contacted my office in the past two days, including civilian employees who support our soldiers at Fort Bliss, public defenders at the Federal Courthouse downtown, and civil servants who process Social Security benefits should be allowed to do their jobs.

I am meeting with my colleagues from both sides of the aisle each day and I think there is consensus building to pass a short term government funding bill that will allow us to fund the government, pay our debts and start acting like the world's biggest economy and the most powerful country on the planet.

Passing a "clean" CR is the obvious solution and it is the solution I will continue to work toward to end this unnecessary and damaging stand-off.

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