Buffalo, NY (WBEN) Congressman Nick Langworthy says the government shutdown was never necessary, blaming Senate Democrats for a power move, which shifted after last week's election.
Langworthy says for more than 40 days, the American people have endured what he calls a completely unnecessary and entirely avoidable government shutdown. "Now that's not because Congress couldn't find common ground. It's because Senator Chuck Schumer and his allies, they turned governing into political theater. They chose performance over duty and outrage over outcomes," claims Langworthy. He says from day one, the House of Representatives did its job by passing clean funding. "We passed Biden era spending with no political gimmickry, with no policy add-ons, a straightforward measure to keep the government functioning while our appropriations process continued. It was a 52 day budget extension. Essentially. It's the same kind of measure that Congress passed repeatedly during the Biden years, and I voted for every single one of those CRS, despite the fact that I vehemently disagreed with President Biden's administration's agenda, it's because governing means putting country ahead of your own politics," says Langworthy.
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Langworthy says Americans have suffered as a result of the shutdown. "VA employees went without paychecks while still doing their job and taking care of our vets, border agents and Coast Guard members. They missed paychecks while still serving the country families, depending on SNAP and WIC critical lifelines, were left wondering how they feed their kids and put food on the table. Our air traffic control. Those controllers work without paychecks. They stretched an already small workforce thinner by the day, and they put pressure on a system that millions of us rely on for safety, and that's a real world cost of political games," adds Langworthy.
Langworthy's energy choice bill has also been delayed as a result of the shutdown. "The Energy Choice Act was supposed to be marked up in committee on October 21 and by markup, it means open for amendments and allowed to go to the House floor after it reports out of committee. So the earliest possible committee markup, which I expect will be perhaps even next week, we will get that reported out so it's eligible for a floor vote. And I've been working throughout this process, communicating with our majority leader, who sets the floor calendar as to why this is so urgent for the people of New York, but also people in other parts of the country, but the timeline is on us here in New York, so I haven't stopped working through this process. We have been reaching out to other offices. I'm proud to report that the bill now has 120 co sponsors, which is a pretty remarkable number for something that only really has the net effect of a couple states directly," says Langworthy.
NY's electrification plan goes into effect in January.