Prior to the impasse over reopening the government after the Republican manufactured shutdown, a majority of House members went on record saying that if given the opportunity to vote, they would support a "clean" continuing resolution.
According to the standing rules of the House, any member could have brought the CR to the floor, a vote would have been taken, and the shutdown would have ended early, or perhaps avoided altogether. Much of the damage to the economy and to people’s lives could have been prevented.
However, on the eve of the shutdown, the House Rules Committee slipped through a resolution (H. Res. 368) denying members their long-standing privilege and giving that right exclusively to House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor, R-VA.
This was a shameless attempt by Republicans, pressured by their TEA Party caucus, to undermine the Nation’s democratic processes. Only nine House Republicans had the courage to vote against this travesty. Doc Hastings (R-WA) was not one of them. Doc Hastings, who was elected to represent a district (WA-4th) whose very existence as a viable economic entity depends mightily on the federal government, abandoned the interests of his constituents and bowed to the more extreme elements of the Republican Party.
Common Sense for Congress? Hardly.
Common Sense for Congress? Hardly.
2 comments:
...and in the end, Hastings listened to the opinions of most of his WA-4th constituents and voted to reopen the federal government, ensure seniors and veterans in his district received their benefits, and the thousands of Hanford employees in his district were able to continue carrying out their important cleanup work.
But first he voted to deny his colleagues in Congress, from either side of the aisle, the privilege of bringing a CR to floor. After delaying the reopening of the government for weeks, and after the hapless attempt to delay/defund the ACA, he, along with other WA Republicans, went along with Speaker Boehner, and voted for a CR ending a shutdown that cost the US an estimated $24b, put hundreds of thousands of people out of work, disrupting lives and livelihoods, and caused veterans in college to drop out or consider dropping out because they couldn't be sure they'd receive their VA ed. benefit. So, yeah, thanks for nothing.
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