Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) has announced that she and the president will not support opening any parts of government until Congress approves funding for a border wall.
The House approved a bill yesterday that would open several parts of government — including the IRS and the Treasury — amid one of the longest shutdowns in U.S. history. Rodgers voted against the bill.
“The president has already said he won’t sign these bills. Democrats continue to show they would rather waste time on bills that have no chance of becoming law than try to reach a compromise,” Rodgers said in a statement.
Rodgers also said that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and other democrats need to provide funding for the wall or else a compromise will not be reached.
“Speaker Pelosi pledged last week that this Congress will be ‘bipartisan and unifying,’” Rodgers statement said. “In divided government, both parties must work together to responsibly govern, and Democrats saying they won’t allow a single penny more for a border wall is not a compromise — it’s gridlock.”
The vote on yesterday’s House bill to reopen parts of government saw eight Republicans, including Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington, join Democrats in voting yes. Every Democrat supported the bill in the House in a 240-188 vote.
If the government remains closed into Friday, it will tie a shutdown during President Bill Clinton’s administration that started in 1995 as the longest in U.S. history at 21 days.