Nebraska senators weigh in on government shutdown

“I think Donald Trump actually wants a government shutdown”. Republicans declared they would not reopen talks until the government shutdown ends, a strategy aimed at trying to erode Democratic cohesion. The current CR extends funding for several anomalies included in previous CRs, including funding for the National Flood Insurance Program, intelligence activities via emergency missile defense funding, the Child Nutrition Programs, among others.

The reason is continuing leadership adherence to the so-called “Hastert Rule”, a practice instituted almost two decades ago when former GOP Speaker Dennis Hastert refused to let the full House consider legislation that wasn’t supported by a majority of Republicans.

“Park visitors are advised to use extreme caution if choosing to enter NPS property, as NPS personnel will not be available to provide guidance, assistance, maintenance, or emergency response”.

Earmarks got a bad name because members abused them to add unnecessary “pork” projects swelling federal spending, like the infamous Alaska “bridge to nowhere” and Hastert’s earmark of funds for a highway near IL land he partially owned, enabling him to make millions.

A one-week shutdown could cost the USA economy around $6.5 billion, according to Standard & Poor’s.

“The President supports the continuing resolution introduced in the House”, said White House principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah. It will only partially curb government operations.

Senate Democrats have vowed to filibuster the spending bill.

The statement, notably, doesn’t mention the health care program.

Albany International Airport remains operational, despite the shutdown.

Trump also balked at reports that his thinking on DACA and his proposed border wall have evolved, as his chief of staff John Kelly said Wednesday. “The nation’s air traffic control system is considered essential and air traffic controllers will remain on the job”.

The spending bill would fund the government through February 8 and includes six years of funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program. “Whether they bear fruit is up to all of us”, he said.

“In the end, rightly or wrongly, the Democrats believe that DACA is a winning issue”, said Robert Destro, director of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at The Catholic University of America.

Thousands of children in Rep. Vern Buchanan’s Congressional district rely on a government-funded program for health care but Congress has yet to vote on a budget bill that would renew program funding. Our troops and children deserve to be first and deserve better. “The government shutdown in 2013 is estimated to have cost $24 billion according to Standard & Poor’s”. “I think he thinks it will be like a snow day for him to take off”, Kimmel said.

Arguing that Trump’s predecessors “weaponized” that shutdown, Mulvaney said his budget office would direct agencies to work to mitigate the impact this time. Will Senate Democrats put partisan politics over these kids & shut down the government? That wasn’t enough of a bargaining chip to persuade Democrats to cave on the demands of 800,000 young immigrants – a demand that President Trump simply follow through on a DREAM Act promise he had already made. They are both enrolled in Child Health Plus, which receives its funding from CHIP. “They could have easily made a deal but chose to play Shutdown politics instead”. Extending it permanently came with much larger savings, but that was apparently too much government health care for the GOP rank-and-file to swallow, so leadership went with the six-year bump. However, in December the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted the government’s motion to the dismiss the lawsuit, with the reduced payment rates to take effect January 1.

What should be discouraging for anyone who hopes that the Democrats can close a deal for the Dreamers-and, beyond that, present a coherent program that Americans can vote for in 2018 and 2020-is how clumsy it all was.

“It’s hypocritical. This is the very kind of thing Democrats increasingly accuse Republicans of doing”, he said. “There is a path forward, and we can reach it quickly”.