TOPEKA — Republicans and Democrats in the Kansas congressional delegation took a partisan approach to voting Thursday on the failed U.S. House bill that would have averted a federal government shutdown.
That package endorsed by President-elect Donald Trump was rejected 174-235 with Kansas Republican U.S. Reps. Jake LaTurner, Ron Estes and Tracey Mann supportive of the measure and Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids opposed. The legislation was denounced by most Democrats and 38 conservative Republicans who defied Trump’s directive to vote for it or expect political blowback.
The bill put forward in the House would have funded the government into 2025, suspended the federal debt ceiling until 2027, appropriated $100 billion for disaster aid and delivered $10 billion to farmers. It replaced a negotiated bipartisan deal that included an array of additional spending earmarks.
Estes, the 4th District congressman from Wichita, said he opposed the initial 1,500-page bipartisan deal because it was filled with “pork.”
“After the bad bill was stopped, we voted on a clean, temporary spending bill that the incoming president supports and which provides disaster relief to Americans that the Biden administration abandoned and extends needed support for Kansas farmers,” Estes said.
Davids, the Democrat serving the 3rd District in the Kansas City area, said she voted against the bill because it didn’t meet the needs of Kansas families and risked damaging the nation. She objected to the provision allowing unlimited federal spending for the next two years.
“Congress has a responsibility to keep the government running, not play political games with people’s livelihoods behind closed doors,” Davids said. “I will keep pushing for real bipartisan solutions that provide stability, lower costs and protect critical services for families in Kansas and across the country.”
SHE WELCOMED the one-year extension of current farm programs included in the defeated bill. She objected to removal of measures to reduce prescription drug costs and lower consumer fuel costs by allowing year-round sales of E15.
If no deal cleared the House and Senate on Friday, portions of the federal government would be shuttered at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.
Davids said failure by Congress to embrace a bipartisan funding bill would result in the furlough of nearly 20,000 federal workers in Kansas. She said a shut down would cause service delays for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits and interfere with distribution of food assistance for families enrolled in SNAP.
Dislocation of the government workforce would compel travelers to face longer lines at airport security checkpoints and delay flights during the holidays, she said.
Trump said he preferred a federal government closure to occur under President Joe Biden instead of after the president-elect returned to the White House in January. Trump presided over the longest government shutdown in U.S. history during his first term.
