January 24, 2019

Duckworth Statement on Senate Vote to End Government Shutdown

 

[WASHINGTON, DC] — After voting to proceed to bipartisan legislation originally authored by Senate Republicans that would end the government shutdown, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) released the following statement:

“For 34 days, Donald Trump has held the paychecks of 800,000 federal workers and even more contractors hostage, leaving many families across our country in a terrible situation. Today, the Senate finally had a chance to end this unnecessary shutdown and let the government get back to work for the American people, but unfortunately many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who previously supported this Republican-authored legislation flipped their votes to side with Trump and keep the government shut down. A wall is the most expensive and least effective way to secure our border, and Donald Trump needs to drop his ridiculous demands, remember that he promised to make Mexico pay for his needless wall and let us end this shutdown immediately.”

Days before government funding expired in December, Duckworth voted for bipartisan legislation to keep the government open that passed the Senate unanimously. Donald Trump then announced he would refuse to sign any government funding legislation unless it included $5.7 billion of taxpayer dollars for a wall that he had promised Mexico would pay for, sparking the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. The bill that Senate Republicans rejected today, which passed the House of Representatives earlier this month and would reopen the government and repay federal workers for lost wages, is almost identical to the legislation the Senate passed in December.

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