Congressman Aderholt Statement on Democrat-Initiated Government Shutdown

WASHINGTON - Congressman Robert Aderholt released the following statement after Democrats shut down the government at 12:01, eastern daylight time.

"It is now just past midnight on the east coast of the United States and the United States Government is shut down. Let's be completely clear, this has happened because Democrats rejected a clean continuing resolution (CR) that would have kept the government running for another two months. All summer, Democrats said they would support a CR if it was clean and had no "poison pills." House leadership took this input from Democrats and delivered just that, a clean CR. In what has become typical fashion, Democrats moved the goalposts and demanded a trillion dollars in government spending in order to keep the government open.

"Some have claimed that because Republicans control the House, Senate, and the White House, this is a so-called 'Republican shutdown.' What that ignores is the fact that Senate Democrats are refusing to allow a vote. If they would simply allow the measure to come to the floor, the continuing resolution would pass and the government would remain open.

"I do not support holding the government of the United States, and therefore the people of the United States, hostage in order to force more reckless spending that we do not have the money to pay for. Democrats say they want to negotiate and that's fine. I support that. But why do they think government services must be stopped? A two-month CR would serve both purposes - giving us time to work out spending for next year, while still allowing government services to stay up and running while also continuing to ensure that government employees like our military members get paid on time.