Sen. Chuck Grassley Criticizes Dems’ Refusal to Fund the Gov’t: To Support and Score Political Points with Their Activist Base

EXCERPT:

GRASSLEY: “It's the responsibility of Congress every year to pass appropriation bills to fund the government. Failure to enact the 12 annual appropriation bills by the end of the fiscal year of September 30th, as with increasing frequency, resulted in major government shutdowns. Last year, Senator Collins, as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, worked with strong bipartisan support to report funding bills to the floor. Unfortunately, that is where the minority parties' cooperation ended. They refused to work with the majority party to get these appropriation bills across the finishing line, even refusing to pass a short-term, clean, continuing resolution to keep government open while funding continued as the negotiations would continue. Rather than prioritizing ordinary Americans, the other side of the aisle decided to hold government funding hostage to support and score political points with their activist base. The end result was the famous 43-day government shutdown, which was the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.”