Political Fallout Over The Shutdown: What The Pols Said Monday

NEWPORT, RI — Good thing the government shutdown is over. According to Wallet Hub, Rhode Island was among the states with the most to lose, if the impasse continued. The personal finance website looked at government jobs, federal contracts and funding for children's health insurance. It found Rhode Island's children would have been hard hit if the government stayed closed and failed to fund CHIP. Rhode Island ranked 12th on the list of states with the most to lose from a continuing shutdown. Mississippi came in 13th.

But Congress managed to find a solution to end the impasse. CNN and other media reported the Senate broke the Democrats filibuster and voted to re-open the government. Then the House voted Monday night and passed the similar measure 266-150. President Trump signed the bill Monday night.

But the political fallout is still coming.

Cong. James Langevin called the situation "the Trump shutdown" and made this statement on Monday night.

“Republicans are four months overdue in starting negotiations on a bipartisan long-term spending plan, yet here we are voting on another temporary funding bill that doesn’t address our country’s most urgent needs," Langevin said. "I voted to end the Trump shutdown because members of our military deserve to be paid and seniors and children need to be cared for. But I am sorely disappointed that this measure does not provide the long term certainty needed for infrastructure projects and national security investments. I remain ready to work in a bipartisan manner to finally develop a real budget, fund community health centers, provide disaster relief to communities affected by fire and flood, and restore protections for dreamers.”

Salvatore Caiozzo, a Republican seeking Langevin's seat, anticipated some finger-pointing and made these comments:

"As a result of the government shutdown I am sure that representatives from both sides of the aisle will be playing their childish games. 'I’m right, you’re wrong. No, I’m right, you're wrong,' he said."From the beginning it’s been clear that we need a bipartisan agreement. However, for months they have been artificially setting dates to move things along, then taking these dates away and substituting one extension after the next. Rather than resolve their differences they allowed the United States government with all its entities to close, impacting every citizen, especially national security and the men and women of the armed forces. Congress needs to pass a long term budget that provides stability and not return month after month with artificial deadlines. Let them all be right and do what is right for our country."

According to Sen. Senator Sheldon, (D-RI), “The shutdown has ended. In spite of a President sending confused and conflicting messages, Republican and Democratic Senators negotiated in good faith to arrive at an agreement to end the impasse. We will fund the children’s health insurance program and we will vote on a solution for the Dreamers. It will be the first Floor vote for Democrats since the election (outside the sham budget process), and we hope that is a breakthrough. We have accelerated the negotiations on a funding bill, and we still must vote on the debt limit. This is what progress looks like.”

But Coventry Republican and state Rep. Bobby Nardolillo said Whitehouse should never have backed the shutdown last week.

"The sworn duty of all Senators is to keep the Government functioning as efficiently as possible," Nardolillo said. "It is not to hold budget appropriations hostage to an unrelated social engineering issue."

He is running for Whitehouse's Senate seat. According to his campaign press release, by 'unrelated social engineering issue,' "Rep. Nardolillo referred to the insistence on the part of Sen. Whitehouse and his caucus that amnesty for Delayed Action for Child Arrival (DACA) illegal immigrants be a precondition to any passage of the Budget of the United States."

"In casting a No Vote on the Continuing Resolution to fund the government," Nardolillo said. "Mr. Whitehouse crippled military pay and planning, allowed the Child Health Insurance Program to lapse before being renewed, and left perhaps one million federal employees with a no income for a few days or, maybe, a few weeks."

First District Cong. David Cicilline voted against ending the shutdown again on Monday night. He said the Republicans created the crisis.

“The past year has shown that Republicans are incapable of governing. Nothing demonstrates this fact more than the federal government shutdown. Operating a $4 trillion federal government without an annual budget, limping along month-to-month, wasting millions of taxpayer dollars, and hurting our military, is no way to lead.” He went on to say he could not support a funding bill that leaves so many critical priorities for Rhode Island unaddressed and just creates another crisis three weeks from now.”

Cicilline is running again and is unopposed so far. The filing deadline for candidates is in June.

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