12 House Republicans Jump Party Lines To Vote To Fund Parts of the Government
Twelve House Republicans joined with Democrats in voting for legislation to fund the Departments of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and other agencies on Thursday.
The final vote was 244-180.
The chamber then voted to fund the Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration and other related agencies with a similar 243-183 vote, with 10 Republicans siding with the Democrats.
These votes came after another Wednesday to reopen the Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service and Small Business Administration. That vote netted eight Republican members.
The Hill reported that the House voted Friday to fund the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency, with 10 Republicans members joining with Democrats to pass the measure.
The 12 GOP reps who sided with the Democrats in Thursday’s vote to open DOT and HUD included Pete King, Elise Stefanik and John Katko of New York; Chris Smith of New Jersey; Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania; Steve Stivers of Ohio; Fred Upton of Michigan; Adam Kinzinger and Rodney Davis of Illinois; Will Hurd of Texas; Greg Walden of Oregon; and Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington.
12 GOPers defect & side w/Dems on bill to fund Transportation/Housing pgmrs: RodneyDavisIL
Fitzpatrick
Herrera Beutler
Hurd
Katko
KingNY
Kinzinger
Smith
Stefanik
Stivers
Upton
Walden— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) January 10, 2019
Stefanik and Fitzpatrick have argued federal workers should not suffer because Congress and the White House cannot reach an agreement.
Friday was the first day federal workers did not receive a paycheck due to the partial government shutdown.
According to The Hill, House Democrats, under the leadership of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, brought the bills forward in an attempt to pressure Republicans to reopen parts of the government.
While the bills passed so far would fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year, the House also passed a continuing resolution that would provide funds for the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 8 so negotiations on border security could continue.
President Donald Trump walked out of a White House meeting with Pelosi, Schumer and other congressional leaders on Wednesday after the speaker rejected supporting new funding for a border barrier if he agreed to reopen the government.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy recounted that Trump turned the floor over to Pelosi and Schumer at the beginning of the meeting and asked what they would require in return for border barrier funding.
They repeated a demand to reopen the government and said negotiations on border security could continue afterward.
“The president then turned to the speaker and politely asked her, ‘OK Nancy, if we open the government up, in 30 days could we have border security?’ She raised her hand and said, ‘No, not at all,'” McCarthy said.
Trump responded, “I guess you still don’t want to deal with the problem,” and then left the room calling it a “waste of time.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has declined to bring any of the House bills to a vote, saying that would be a waste of time without Trump’s agreement to sign them into law.
In a speech from the Senate floor on Thursday, McConnell chastised Democrats for being unwilling to compromise on border wall funding when they supported it under former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
Showing side-by-side pictures of barriers built while Obama was in office and what the Trump administration has constructed, McConnell said, “I would defy my colleagues to tell me what the difference is.
“They’re exactly identical. So we went from the Obama administration when everybody was supporting a wall that looks just like this to the Trump administration where now it’s immoral.”
Democrats now say the same fencing and barriers that were A-okay when President Obama was in the White House are now “immoral” because President Trump is the one making the request. This isn’t how you make serious policy. pic.twitter.com/r7A3rqfMUm
— Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) January 10, 2019
“The proposal we’re talking about today would represent one-tenth of 1 percent of federal spending for this year,” the majority leader added.
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise told reporters on Thursday, “The far left wing of Pelosi’s conference has pulled her away from being able to reach any kind of agreement, and that’s a shame because we are seeing more and more Democrats now on their side say that they really need to try to solve this problem.”
“So hopefully that continues to…push Pelosi in a position where she actually has to negotiate in good faith and put a real offer on the table,” he said.
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