In the News

Taurean Small
Spectrum News 1

WASHINGTON— Frustration is starting to boil over on Capitol Hill as the longest government shutdown in U.S. history continued into Day 27.

“Stop blocking a vote so we can reopen the government,” said Sen. Tammy Baldwin during a Senate floor speech on Wednesday.

Folks on the left of the aisle are growing restless as another House-approved spending bill to end the shutdown won't get the time of day in the Senate.

And while Sen. Baldwin is pointing the blame at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Congressman Mark Pocan spoke directly to President Donald Trump during a speech on the House floor on Thursday.

“Reopen the government before you further damage the United States of America,” said the congressman.

For nearly five weeks, 800,000 federal employees have gone without pay.

And Rep. Gwen Moore has taken to social media to hear from them.

“People are sharing not only their own personal grief, but the grief of our entire community,” said Rep. Moore.

The congresswoman has been sharing a submission form on Twitter, soliciting her constituents to share their stories about how the government shut down is impacting them using the hashtag #ShutdownStories.

Moore said she was moved by the story of a woman named Sylvia, a federal employee who needed to return to work after recovering from a car accident.

“She exhausted all of her savings and now that she’s ready to go back to work, she’s furloughed,” said Rep. Moore.

Rep. Moore believes the White House could fix this.

Congressman Bryan Steil however, thinks this is a job for Congress.

“This is something we need to get through,” he said. “I do believe we need to properly secure the border. The funding request by the president is reasonable. We need to see people working together to get something passed and this government back open and operational.”

The freshman congressman gave his first speech on the House floor Thursday calling on his colleagues to get to work.

And while congressional leadership has canceled next week’s recess because of this shutdown, the congressman in his speech went even further.

“It’s disingenuous to walk away,” said Rep. Steil. “The best negotiation we can have is to sit here, have conversations, lock all 435 of us on the House floor, take our cell phones away, shut the TVs off and say nobody is leaving until we reach a deal.”

The lack of a deal now puts the president’s scheduled State of the Union address in jeopardy.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged Pres. Donald Trump to postpone the annual speech out safety concerns as the secret service is also impacted by the shutdown.

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