LEADER JEFFRIES TO REPUBLICANS: "PUT THE BILL ON THE FLOOR. IF YOU DON'T, YOU OWN THIS GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN."

Press Conference

From the very beginning of this Congress, House Democrats have made clear that we are willing to find common ground with our Republican colleagues on any issue that would make a difference in the lives of the American people, whenever and wherever possible. At the same time, we've also made clear that we will push back against Republican extremism whenever necessary. And right now, Republican extremism is rearing its ugly head. They are wasting time and taxpayer dollars in an illegitimate impeachment inquiry when we're about 48 hours away or so from an extreme MAGA Republican government shutdown? And this is what they're focused on? An illegitimate impeachment inquiry as opposed to doing the business of the American people, which is quite simple: live up to the agreement that you negotiated and that more than 300 Members of the House of Representatives voted in the affirmative on, along with a strong bipartisan group of United States senators, then sending a bill to President Biden's desk.

We have a bipartisan bill right now working its way through the United States Senate. It will pass in a strongly bipartisan way. Democrats and Republicans in the Senate doing the responsible thing to fund the government in a way that makes a difference for the American people. They will then send that bill to the House of Representatives where the extreme MAGA Republicans face a clear choice: put the bipartisan continuing resolution on the Floor of the House for an up or down vote and we can avoid the extreme MAGA Republican shutdown and end this nightmare being visited upon the American people by Marjorie Taylor Greene and others, or fail to put the bipartisan continuing resolution sent over from the Senate on the Floor of the House for an up or down vote because your objective apparently as extreme MAGA Republicans, is to shut the government down. That's their objective unless they force the American people to absorb their draconian, extreme right-wing ideology. This is a government shutdown that may occur being visited upon the American people because they want to cut Social Security, slash public school funding and criminalize abortion care. That is what the theatrics of this week is all about. There's no reason for us to be considering bills that have no support in terms of passage in the United States Senate because the Senate actually is working on bipartisan legislation. What the extreme MAGA Republicans are effectively saying to us: unless you cut Social Security, slash public school funding, criminalize abortion care, and do a whole host of other extreme right-wing things that they want to jam down the throats of the American people, we're shutting down the government, that is what this whole situation is all about. It's reckless, it's extreme, it's irresponsible, but it's their playbook.

We've seen this horror show before, shown in the 1990s when the Republicans shut the government down because they wanted to slash Medicaid. We saw it in 2013 when the Republican extremists shut the government down because they wanted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. We saw it in 2019 -- beginning in December of 2018 -- when for 35 days Republicans shut the government down because they wanted the American taxpayer to waste billions of dollars on Trump's medieval border wall. We've seen this horror show before and it's playing out again-- an extreme MAGA Republican shutdown.

So we have a simple request of the Republicans in the House. When a bipartisan continuing resolution comes over from the Senate today, tomorrow, this weekend, put the bill on the Floor for an up or down vote so we can end this MAGA Republican nightmare. And if you don't, you own this government shutdown.

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