By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Congresswoman Terri A. Sewell (D) from Selma issued a written statement after voting in favor of a bi-partisan deal to end the controversial government shutdown, raise the debt ceiling, and fund the government until January.
H.R. 2775 is the House version of a deal that was crafted in the U.S. Senate by Senator Harry Reid (D) from Nevada and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) from Kentucky. The bill to end the shutdown passed in the Senate by a margin of 81 to 18. Late on Wednesday night with the federal government about to reach the $17 trillion debt ceiling the House voted on the bill to postpone the crisis.
Rep. Sewell said, “Tonight, I voted in favor of H.R. 2775, the bipartisan funding bill, because it was the only responsible thing to do to re-open government and pay our nation’s bills. I share the frustrations of millions of Americans who are fed up with the political brinkmanship in the halls of Congress. For the last sixteen (16) days, House Republicans have placed partisan politics ahead of the needs of the American people by allowing the government shutdown to continue due to their unreasonable demands to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. We do not put America’s full faith and credit in jeopardy to score political points.”
The government has been spending record amounts of borrowed money since the financial collapse in 2008. When President Barack H. Obama was first elected the national debt has grown by over $7 trillion. By press time the debt will have passed $17 trillion even though we are years into an economic recovery.
Rep. Sewell said, “While I agree Congress must address our debt crisis, it is reckless and woefully irresponsible to do so at the expense of the American economy. There are no winners in this debacle. We all lose when 800,000 federal workers are furloughed, costing American taxpayers $300 million a day and diminishing our economic reputation globally. Enough is enough! Let’s reopen government and prevent an economic default so we can finally come to the table and deal with the pressing issues of deficit reduction and job creation.”
The bill passed the House by a comfortable margin of 285 to 144 with all the 144 nay votes being Republicans.
The package funds the government to January 15 and raises the debt ceiling by $500 billion which should be reached by February 7th. The bigger budget decisions were simply postponed to December.
The head of the Federal Office of Management and Budget said late on Wednesday night that all furloughed federal workers are expected to return to work by Thursday morning.
Congresswoman Terri A. Sewell is currently in her second term in the U.S. House of Representatives.
