Members of Congress who can’t come to an agreement on stopping a government shutdown could be forced to “stay after class” to resolve the impasse if one Republican has his way.
GOP Sen. James Lankford is leading an effort with a Democrat colleague to pass legislation that “would take government shutdowns off the table and force Congress to stay in town until their work is done,” according to the Oklahoma lawmaker’s website.
The bipartisan Prevent Government Shutdowns Act, which was reintroduced by Lankford and Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., would enact a “two-week stopgap spending bills and force Congress to stay in town and focus only on spending,” Daily Mail reported.
“The hardest thing to move in Washington D.C. is the status quo,” Lankford told “Good Morning America,” last week, adding that the bill is “gaining a lot of steam.”
We’re in a government shutdown cycle–it’s time we put it to an end. pic.twitter.com/GCwqolzOJS
— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) October 17, 2023
“It’s really simple: if you haven’t got your classwork done, you’ve got to stay after class to be able to finish your classwork before you go home,” the senator told Daily Mail in an interview published Monday discussing the legislation.
“You have an automatic continuing resolution at last year’s same levels,” Lankford said.
“But members of Congress and our staff, we could not travel. We’re in session seven days a week. The only thing we could move to is appropriations bills,” he explained. “If you’ve ever been around the steps of the House or the Senate at the end of the week, you see everyone running down the steps to head to an airplane because they’ve got things with their family, they’ve got things back with constituents at home.”
But this bill would put “pressure” on Congress to get the job done.
“Federal workers, members of the military, American citizens that are trying to get access to an agency they’re held harmless during this, but the pressure is actually put on us,” Lankford said.
According to Daily Mail:
In September House Speaker Kevin McCarthy put a continuing resolution on the floor that led to his historic ouster. That bill continued government funding at 2023 levels – set under Democrats in the last Congress – until November 17, buying another six weeks for the House and Senate to pass 12 single-subject spending bills.
And even if the fractured House is able to pass 12 appropriations bills, it would then have to negotiate with the Senate – an even taller feat.
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U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida was joined by seven of his GOP colleagues and all Democrats in the House to vote McCarthy out after he passed the CR.
But Lankford believes the move only hurt the process and delayed Congress even more, telling Daily Mail that he sees “no chance” of the appropriations being completed by Congress before November 17.
“My sense is that there’s some folks in the House that want to Kevin McCarthy and in nine months expected him to be able to solve what hasn’t been resolved in years in the House,” he noted. “That’s still going to be unresolved when a new speaker comes on board.”
When the bill was re-introduced, Lankford and Hassan were joined by Senators Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Bill Cassidy, (R-La.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Angus King (I-Maine), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.)
“Americans have suggested that simply cutting Member pay would help prevent or quickly end shutdowns. I believe the real way to punish Washington dysfunction is to prevent Congress, the White House, and relevant staff from leaving until the job is done,” Lankford said in a statement earlier this year.
“Preventing travel and holding mandatory roll call votes ensures the negotiators remain at the table until the job is done, while the automatic funding mechanism ensures federal employees are paid and prevents the waste of tax dollars that comes from shutting down and re-opening the government,” he added. “This is a common-sense, bipartisan bill, and I look forward to its full consideration in the Senate.”
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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