“Now is the Time for Unity, not Partisan Games”
WASHINGTON — Today, Congressman Vern Buchanan penned an op-ed the Tampa Bay Times urging his Democratic colleagues to join congressional Republicans and pass a clean continuing resolution to keep the government open. If Senate Democrats do not join Republicans to pass a clean continuing resolution, the federal government will partially shutdown at midnight Tuesday.
“Our clean continuing resolution offers a path forward to keep the government open and to continue to work on long-term funding bills,” writes Buchanan in the op-ed. “This is how Congress should work—through cooperation, not brinkmanship. I stand ready to work across the aisle to deliver responsible solutions, and I urge my Democratic colleagues to join me so we can avoid a costly shutdown.”
In the op-ed, Buchanan calls on congressional Democrats to set aside their unreasonable partisan demands—including repealing the Working Families Tax Cut and restoring taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal aliens, adding $1.5 trillion to the national debt—and pass a clean extension of current funding levels.
Read the full op-ed here or below:
America deserves cooperation, not a government shutdown
Vern Buchanan
House Republicans acted responsibly to keep the federal government open by passing a clean continuing resolution. Now, as the federal funding deadline approaches this Tuesday, Senate Democrats are holding government funding hostage over unreasonable partisan demands.
Rather than partnering with Republicans to approve short-term funding, Senate Democrats are threatening to force a shutdown unless Congress repeals the Working Families Tax Cut and restores taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal aliens—adding $1.5 trillion to the national debt.
Make no mistake: If the government shuts down this week, Democrats will be fully responsible.
This is not only unreasonable; it goes against Democrats’ own words. Less than two weeks ago, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer acknowledged that “If the government shuts down, it will be average Americans who suffer most.”
Schumer is right: If Democrats don’t join with Republicans to fund the government, Floridians will suffer. Seniors could face delays with Social Security, veterans could lose access to VA offices, troops might be forced to work without pay and families relying on government assistance could see benefits paused.
What’s more, our clean continuing resolution includes no significant alterations from previous Democrat-approved spending levels that were in place under President Biden. Rather than push a funding bill full of partisan priorities, Republicans are simply asking Democrats to join us and pass a clean two-month extension of current funding levels so that we can continue negotiating on long-term funding.
Republicans are open to negotiating long-term funding levels, but Democrats only came to the table a week before a potential shutdown to lay down their demands. This eleventh-hour approach risks pushing the country into chaos, with seniors, veterans and families left behind. A short-term, two-month extension gives Congress more time to negotiate funding in good faith and craft policies that truly serve the American people.
Critics of the House-passed clean continuing resolution will point out that Democrats’ proposed alternative resolution includes a “fix” for expiring health care subsidies. This expiration is a crisis of Democrats’ own making, and a short-term government funding package is not the appropriate vehicle to solve it.
When Democrats passed these heightened subsidies into law at the height of the COVID pandemic, they only extended them through the end of 2025. Now, rather than pass stopgap funding to engage in good-faith negotiations—and ensure any potential extension of the subsidies focuses on reducing deficits and preventing waste—Democrats are insisting on a rushed, partisan process. That’s not how we deliver durable, bipartisan solutions for the American people.
Following recent acts of tragic political violence, I hope that my Democratic colleagues will join me to show all Americans that Congress is unified behind our basic Constitutional responsibility to fund the government. Now is the time for unity, not partisan games.
Our clean continuing resolution offers a path forward to keep the government open and to continue to work on long-term funding bills. This is how Congress should work—through cooperation, not brinkmanship. I stand ready to work across the aisle to deliver responsible solutions, and I urge my Democratic colleagues to join me so we can avoid a costly shutdown.
U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan represents Florida’s 16th Congressional District, which includes Manatee County and the southern portion of Hillsborough County.
