Washington, DC – Senator Sheldon Whitehouse issued the following statement regarding the Senate’s vote tonight on a continuing resolution, which failed to receive the sixty votes needed to end debate.
“I joined Senate Democrats and Republicans in voting against this stopgap funding bill because it did not provide the long-term stability our military and economy need and it did not address urgent, overdue bipartisan needs. Those include immediate resources to fight the opioid epidemic in Rhode Island and across the country, badly-needed relief for communities that remain ravaged by natural disasters and wildfires, reliable defense funding, and a path for Dreamers to stay in the only home they have ever known. These are all bipartisan priorities, but the Republicans refuse to work with us to get them done.
“And after months of refusing Democrats’ demands to fund a health insurance program that covers millions of children from low-income families, it is disappointing that President Trump and Republican leadership in Congress used children whose health care is now on the brink of running out as a bargaining chip to force the federal government to a halt. This is no way to govern.
“I will be working around the clock until we have hammered out a bipartisan path forward that reopens the federal government as quickly as possible with minimal disruption to Rhode Islanders.
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