VIDEO: Capito Joins BloombergTV

To watch Senator Capito's interview, click here or on the image above.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a member of Senate Republican leadership, joined BloombergTV's "Balance of Power" to discuss the ongoing shutdown.

HIGHLIGHTS:

ON VICE PRESIDENT VANCE AT REPUBLICAN POLICY LUNCH: "It's always productive to have the vice president. He wanted to reemphasize that opening the government is the most sensible, easiest, sanest way to begin negotiations after we open the government. He's very supportive of the position that many of us have taken. I think he feels as strongly about it as we do…It was a comprehensive visit, but it really reinforced to me anyway that we have this country set on a path to really bring more prosperity to the American worker and that's a very uniting principle for us."

ON SENATOR HAWLEY'S BILL TO FUND SNAP DURING THE SHUTDOWN: "The simple answer here is that if you reopen the government all of these [funding] issues go away. Now that we're getting into 29 days, it's really beginning to wear on the American people. You take my state of West Virginia, 18% of our households have a SNAP benefit. I think of the young, single mother with children, that's a frightening aspect that she might not have the money to feed her children, or the disabled, or an elderly couple. These are real human problems that honestly, Chuck Schumer can pontificate on the floor about how it's John Thune's fault… I don't think the American people care whose fault it is. Reopening the government is the simplest, easiest way to proceed. I am on Josh Hawley's bill because of the heavy impacts on my state…if his bill were to come to the floor, I'm a cosponsor now, I would vote for it."

ON RETURNING TO REGULAR ORDER APPROPRIATIONS: "I want to have President Trump's priorities in the appropriations process, I want to have my priorities in the appropriations process…I would rather see us go through the appropriations process on the floor, like Senator Thune has brought to the floor, which by the way, Senator Schumer never did the year before, so we can actually do the bipartisan work that we do so well on appropriations. We've worked on these bills before and their exceedingly important to make sure that President Trump gets the priorities that he has and that we share with him into the appropriating cycle."

ON THE SHUTDOWN'S IMPACTS: "A shutdown asks people to skip not just one paycheck, now we're into two paychecks, these are families, these are people that have obligations. It's such a disservice not just to the air traffic controllers, but to every single federal employee, which in my state are quite a few. Not to mention the troops, the Coast Guard, the TSA agents, all of these folks. Simply open the government, get the money flowing to those that are working and provide the services. Let's drop the politics of a shutdown. I don't think it's working for Senator Schumer."

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