January 19, 2018

Duckworth Statement on Vote Against House GOP Short-Term Continuing Resolution

 

[WASHINGTON, DC] – U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) released the following statement after voting against a 4-week House Republican continuing resolution that fails to address vital government priorities, protect Dreamers, give the military the funding certainty it needs, support Veterans or adequately fund community health centers:

“This short-term funding bill deprives roughly 45,000 servicemembers in Illinois—and the whole of our military—of the certainty needed to protect and defend our nation. Even the Pentagon warned this week about the ‘wasteful and destructive’ national security ramifications of failing, once again, to provide long-term funding. I’m listening to them, and I wish Donald Trump and the Republicans who control both houses of Congress would as well.

“In addition to seriously harming our Armed Forces, this bill fails to adequately support Veterans or fund community health centers, and it leaves hundreds of thousands of Dreamers in a state of uncertainty. Enough is enough. I didn’t spend 23 years in the military going through multiple deployments just to weaken our national security, hurt our troops and kick the can down the road again. If they wanted to, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump could address these concerns with bipartisan votes on Republican-written legislation that solve each of these problems, and they know it. That they haven’t—even though they control all levers of government—jeopardizes not just our military, but the well-being of the very people we took an oath to serve.”