Senate Majority Leader John Thune tells “Meet the Press” that government funding fate rests with the opposition, accuses them of holding spending bill “hostage.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press this morning, placing the responsibility for a potential government shutdown directly at the feet of Democrats, just two days before the funding deadline.
In an interview with moderator Kristen Welker, Thune asserted that the solution to avert a shutdown is simple and readily available: a spending bill already passed by the House and awaiting action in the Senate.
“Totally up to the Democrats. The ball is in their court,” Thune stated. “There is a bill sitting at the desk in the Senate right now, we could pick it up today and pass it, that has been passed by the House that will be signed into law by the president to keep the government open.”
Thune claimed that Republicans only need “eight Democrats to pass it through the Senate” and invoked recent history, noting that Republicans supported Democrats on 13 continuing resolutions (CRs) when they held the majority over the last four years.
The Leader went on to accuse Democrats of using the essential government funding as leverage to push a broader agenda. “What the Democrats have done here is take the federal government as a hostage… to try and get a whole laundry list of things that they want,” he alleged, criticizing the party for seeking “special interest groups on the far left” priorities through a seven-week funding resolution.
The comments come as the funding deadline looms and with Congress seemingly at a standstill. The President reportedly canceled a planned meeting with Democratic leaders, and the House of Representatives is not scheduled to be in session until after the deadline has passed.
READ: White House Showdown: Trump To Meet Top Congressional Leaders As Shutdown Looms
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