House Republicans in Denial That Regular Order Means Clean, Bipartisan Bills

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House and the Senate are expected to pass a continuing resolution today that funds the government through December 20. Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen and co-chair of the Clean Budget Coalition, released the following statement:

“House Republicans have been staging and losing battles over government funding throughout this Congress, and this week is no exception. You might think that after so many years of losing these fights, Republicans would move on from their failed approach, but extremists in their party won’t let them.

“The problem is that House Republicans have two incompatible aims. On the one hand, they say they want to pass all 12 spending bills one at a time through regular order – a challenging but laudable procedural goal. On the other hand, they are demanding funding cuts that hurt programs Americans depend on and insisting on hundreds of noxious poison pills that neither the Senate nor the White House will agree to.

“All of this gamesmanship only brings the country closer to a painful, costly, and politically toxic government shutdown. And after having wasted weeks or months of precious time, the only way to stop a shutdown is with a package based on the relatively clean and bipartisan Senate-drafted spending bills. Versions of this story have played out so many times it’s like clockwork, and it’s exactly what has happened with the CR.

“Regular order means passing clean, bipartisan spending bills that provide ample funding to the agencies, programs, and services we all count on. Under divided government, our system forces bipartisanship on spending bills, no matter how hard MAGA extremists deny it.”