Congress Must Pass a Clean Continuing Resolution and Final Budget Package in December
Sept. 6, 2017
Congress Must Pass a Clean Continuing Resolution and Final Budget Package in December
Statement of Lisa Gilbert, Vice President of Legislative Affairs, Public Citizen
Note: If press reports are correct, then President Donald Trump is agreeing to work with Democrats in Congress to pass a short-term continuing resolution (CR) that keeps the federal government open through Dec. 15.
Congressional Republicans need to put politics aside and do what’s best for the country.
It’s never a good time for a costly and disruptive government shutdown. But in the wake of Hurricane Harvey’s unprecedented flooding and with another terrifying storm barreling toward Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Florida, now is not the time for high stakes brinkmanship on the budget or the debt ceiling.
Putting politics aside also means passing a clean CR. The CR cannot and must not contain any of the hundreds of poison pill policy riders lawmakers have proposed that do nothing but shower corporate lobbyists with handouts and ideological extremists with special favors. These measures have no place in a CR – or in the final spending package lawmakers agree to in December.
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