Time for Bipartisanship
Earlier this month, news outlets reported the unexpected: President Trump had struck a deal on the debt ceiling and funding the government that favored the timeline requested by Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer rather than that of his own party. Politics aside, this deal – particularly in funding the government – affects all Americans, and it is important for everyone to understand its consequences.

Funding the government is one of the most important jobs Congress is tasked with every year. Having served on the House Appropriations Committee charged with drafting these funding bills, they are important because we are making sure that government services and offices are open for anyone who needs them, active duty troops and other federal employees get paid, and millions more Americans get their Social Security checks, while also ensuring families are able to visit our national parks.

Furthermore, shutting down the federal government, even for a short time, is extremely detrimental to the economy. During the last government shutdown in 2013, the United States lost an estimated $24 billion in economic output. Many government programs were frozen, creating a ripple of effects: nearly $4 billion in tax refunds were delayed, import and export licenses were put on hold, which negatively impacted trade, and federal loans to small businesses and families in rural areas could not be processed. Congress must, at all costs, avoid another government shutdown.

Earlier this month, the House passed a spending bill that makes cuts to a number of important programs including worker training, education, infrastructure, economic development and investments in clean air and clean water. It also included poison pill riders undermining the work of the Environmental Protection Agency to protect nature and the environment, and repealing important parts of the

Dodd-Frank Act that was passed to prevent another financial crisis like the one in 2008. What’s more, because of “sequestration,” a policy put in place in 2011 following a previous shutdown, Congress must act by the end of the year to ensure that the Dept. of Defense will not see an immediate cut amounting to billions of dollars.

With millions of Americans relying on federal programs, and our national defense at stake, Congress must return to a functional appropriations process, free from shutdown threats. Including drastic cuts to domestic programs or inserting poison pill provisions make a shutdown more likely, and we must move past these brinksmanship tactics.

The agreement to extend government funding another three months, averting a potential shutdown, was a breakthrough simply because Democrats in Congress and the President agreed to keep the lights on. Furthermore, it gives Congress time to negotiate other bills that would reauthorize important programs including the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the National Flood Insurance Program and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The political reality is that Republicans need Democratic votes to pass a budget that will fund the federal government. I was pleased Congress passed this short-term funding bill, which also increased the debt ceiling and provided emergency funds to those affected by Hurricane Harvey in Texas. Now the House will have to work with its counterparts in the Senate to draft a good, long-term funding bill that can get support from a majority on both sides of the aisle and not one that caters to the extremes.

Congress has a lot of work to do before the year ends, and I hope this agreement, modest though it may be, is a step towards a return to a regular process of negotiation and compromise across the aisle that will avoid a damaging shutdown. The American people have the right to expect no less.