DeGette Slams GOP for Shutdown

Washington, DC – After failing to provide a budget solution that addresses a wide array of critical priorities, Republicans have shut down the federal government. As Americans brace for the Trump Shutdown, Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO), Chief Deputy Whip, strongly condemned Republican leaders for failing to meet the needs of the American people.

"Coloradans stand to suffer because Republicans have spent the last months focusing their energy on securing tax breaks to corporations and the wealthiest. Meanwhile, they could only muster shoddy stopgap funding patches to fund the government that were bound to wear thin, "DeGette said. "Republicans control the House, the Senate and the White House, but they couldn't manage something as basic as keeping government open. Now, Republicans' incompetence has endangered our economy, hurt our communities, and dangerously deprived the military of the certainty they need to keep our nation safe."

In 2013, President Trump called Fox & Friends to lay blame for the GOP government shutdown at the feet of President Obama, saying, "the problems start from the top and have to get solved from the top… The president is the leader, and he's got to get everybody in a room and he's got to lead." In the White House, however, President Trump explicitly called for a shutdown, tweeting in May of 2017, "our country needs a good shutdown."

A government shutdown has stark consequences. A report issued after the 2013 Republican government shutdown detailed many of the impacts of shutdown, including:

• Stopping the progress on reducing the massive backlog of veterans' disability claims;
• Furloughing 2/3rds of the Centers for Disease Control and 3/4ths of the National Institutes of Health;
• Severely limiting flu season surveillance and monitoring;
• Delaying life-saving FDA food safety inspections;
• Disrupting 1.2 million private-sector loans to individuals and small businesses;
• Delaying billions in tax refunds;
• Shuttering Head Start centers serving 6,300 children;
• Destroying 120,000 private-sector jobs and furloughed government workers for a combined 6.6 million days.

"Congress still faces a long list of urgent, overdue and overwhelmingly bipartisan business," DeGette added. "Americans demand action on a number of priorities that include funding to fight the opioid epidemic, an extension of lapsed federal support for community health centers, disaster relief for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and protections for nearly 800,000 Dreamers, many of them in Colorado, who could soon be deported. I pledge to stay in Washington until Congress negotiates a fair bill that addresses these urgent needs and provides relief to groups of Americans whom the GOP has ignored. The political will is there. Congress simply has to come together for the good of the country we represent, and I am prepared to lead that effort."

Congresswoman DeGette's Denver and Washington DC offices will remain open starting Monday, and will continue to deliver their customary excellent level of service.