Rep. Chris Pappas: Lasting solutions are not found on the extremes
IN LESS than one week, the United States government may shut down because extremists in the House of Representatives are more interested in playing politics than solving problems for the American people.
My time in Congress began in 2019 during the longest government shutdown in American history. Over the course of 35 days, more than 800,000 workers were furloughed or worked without pay, including members of the Coast Guard and air traffic controllers here in New Hampshire. Essential services were threatened, federal offices closed, and FBI investigations were disrupted. That shutdown caused disarray and wound up costing taxpayers $11 billion.
Government shutdowns represent a failure of political leadership, and we have until midnight on September 30 to pass an agreement that will avoid another one.
Another shutdown would hurt our economy and threaten our safety, with our troops, disaster preparedness, air travel, and food safety all adversely impacted. The National Guard’s operations would be affected. Services through Social Security and Medicare could see backlogs and delays. And vital benefits like SNAP, Meals on Wheels, and Head Start could be disrupted. And many of the thousands of federal workers here in New Hampshire will be furloughed or forced to work without a paycheck.
Unfortunately, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has been unwilling to put forward even the most basic, bipartisan proposal that keeps our government open. Instead, he is catering to politicians on the far-right who want a plan that will end up slashing LIHEAP heating assistance for New Hampshire by $19 million, cutting funding for job training, gutting housing assistance, and threatening our security by taking 800 border patrol officers and 4,000 FBI personnel off the job.
The only way forward is to work together, not to allow those on the extremes to call the shots. That’s why I’ve joined a group of my colleagues — Democrats and Republicans who know we can do better — to propose a bipartisan framework that will keep the government open, fund critical priorities, and address the federal deficit. We need Speaker Kevin McCarthy to allow a bill to come to the floor that will accomplish these essential goals and has a chance of passing the Senate and being signed into law. The time for gamesmanship has long passed, and it’s time to do our jobs.
We have so many major challenges to tackle in Washington, from the economy to immigration to mental health and addiction. But we can’t make progress on those critical issues as long as a handful of political extremists are intent on driving us over a cliff with no regard for the consequences for the nation.
I know there are people of good faith in both parties who are willing and eager to get through this latest manufactured political crisis. Our system depends on compromise and finding common purpose for the common good, and I’ll continue to seek it out. But the clock is ticking. Every day that extreme Republicans spend playing politics and posturing, the closer New Hampshire families get to having services they depend on needlessly stripped away. I’ll continue working across the aisle to pass a bipartisan solution that will move us forward. Granite Staters shouldn’t suffer because Washington politicians refuse to govern.