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UNABLE TO BUILD consensus, the U.S. Senate rejected the latest Republican proposal on a budget.
The final Senate vote was 50-49 to pass the budget proposal. The measure needed 60 votes to be approved.
The last minute vote was preceded by intense political maneuvering between the Democrats, Republicans and Donald Trump.
After a few hours sleep, Democrats and Republicans returned to work by blaming the other party for the government shutdown.
The three AAPI senators -- Democratic senators Mazie K. Hirono, Hawaii, Kamala Harris, Calif., and Tammy Duckworth, Illinois -- voted against the proposal as they promised they would, because the GOP proposal didn't have any resolution for the fate of the 800,000 Dreamers in the DACA program.
After the late night vote, Sen. Hirono released the following statement on the government shutdown:
“Tonight, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, and Donald Trump turned things upside down. They’ve spent the past year working behind closed doors to take away health care from millions of people and pass huge tax cuts for the richest people and corporations in our country without input from Democrats or the public. At the same time, they’ve ignored reauthorizing the Children’s Health Insurance Program, funding Community Health Centers, protecting DREAMers, and providing parity between defense and non-defense programs. All of these issues have bipartisan support and should have gotten done months ago.
“Republicans are in charge of the House, the Senate, and the Presidency. They are in charge of setting the time table and the agenda, and now they’re blaming the Democrats for their own misplaced priorities.
“Congress is a separate branch of government. Instead of bowing to the unpredictable, mercurial, and unreliable positions of the President, we should do our jobs and send the President a government funding bill that addresses all of these priorities.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth issued this statement via her Facebook page:
"This short-term funding bill deprives roughly 45,000 servicemembers in Illinois—and the whole of our military—of the certainty needed to protect and defend our nation. Even the Pentagon warned this week about the "wasteful and destructive" national security ramifications of failing, once again, to provide log-term funding. I’m listening to them, and I wish Donald Trump and the Republicans who control both houses of Congress would as well.
"In addition to seriously harming our Armed Forces, this bill fails to adequately support Veterans or fund community health centers, and it leaves hundreds of thousands of Dreamers in a state of uncertainty. Enough is enough. I didn’t spend 23 years in the military going through multiple deployments just to weaken our national security, hurt our troops and kick the can down the road again. If they wanted to, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump could address these concerns with bipartisan votes on Republican-written legislation that solve each of these problems, and they know it. That they haven’t—even though they control all levers of government—jeopardizes not just our military, but the well-being of the very people we took an oath to serve."
Saturday evening, Duckworth was even more forceful and angry at Trump's unwillingness to accept the bipartisan DACA deal that was presented to him Thursday when he went on his infamous tirade on "s--hole" countries.
“Does he even know that there are service members who are in harm’s way right now, watching him, looking for their commander in chief to show leadership, rather than [trying] to deflect blame?” Duckworth said. “Or that his own Pentagon says that the short-term funding plans he seems intent on pushing is actually harmful to not just the military, but to our national security?”
"I spent my entire adult life looking out for the well-being, the training, the equipping of the troops for whom I was responsible,” continued Duckworth, an Army helicopter pilot who lost both her legs when her copter was hit over Iraq. “Sadly, this is something that the current occupant of the Oval Office does not seem to care to do — and I will not be lectured about what our military needs by a five-deferment draft dodger.”
Sen. Kamala Harris said:
"This shutdown was avoidable. The (White House) created this crisis & the GOP leaders in Congress refused to negotiate with Democrats. We must pass a bipartisan solution to fund the government, guarantee health care for millions of kids & protect Dreamers. Americans expect & deserve it."
After a few hours sleep, Democrats and Republicans returned to work by blaming the other party for the government shutdown.
The three AAPI senators -- Democratic senators Mazie K. Hirono, Hawaii, Kamala Harris, Calif., and Tammy Duckworth, Illinois -- voted against the proposal as they promised they would, because the GOP proposal didn't have any resolution for the fate of the 800,000 Dreamers in the DACA program.
After the late night vote, Sen. Hirono released the following statement on the government shutdown:
“Tonight, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, and Donald Trump turned things upside down. They’ve spent the past year working behind closed doors to take away health care from millions of people and pass huge tax cuts for the richest people and corporations in our country without input from Democrats or the public. At the same time, they’ve ignored reauthorizing the Children’s Health Insurance Program, funding Community Health Centers, protecting DREAMers, and providing parity between defense and non-defense programs. All of these issues have bipartisan support and should have gotten done months ago.
“Republicans are in charge of the House, the Senate, and the Presidency. They are in charge of setting the time table and the agenda, and now they’re blaming the Democrats for their own misplaced priorities.
“Congress is a separate branch of government. Instead of bowing to the unpredictable, mercurial, and unreliable positions of the President, we should do our jobs and send the President a government funding bill that addresses all of these priorities.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth issued this statement via her Facebook page:
"This short-term funding bill deprives roughly 45,000 servicemembers in Illinois—and the whole of our military—of the certainty needed to protect and defend our nation. Even the Pentagon warned this week about the "wasteful and destructive" national security ramifications of failing, once again, to provide log-term funding. I’m listening to them, and I wish Donald Trump and the Republicans who control both houses of Congress would as well.
"In addition to seriously harming our Armed Forces, this bill fails to adequately support Veterans or fund community health centers, and it leaves hundreds of thousands of Dreamers in a state of uncertainty. Enough is enough. I didn’t spend 23 years in the military going through multiple deployments just to weaken our national security, hurt our troops and kick the can down the road again. If they wanted to, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump could address these concerns with bipartisan votes on Republican-written legislation that solve each of these problems, and they know it. That they haven’t—even though they control all levers of government—jeopardizes not just our military, but the well-being of the very people we took an oath to serve."
Saturday evening, Duckworth was even more forceful and angry at Trump's unwillingness to accept the bipartisan DACA deal that was presented to him Thursday when he went on his infamous tirade on "s--hole" countries.
“Does he even know that there are service members who are in harm’s way right now, watching him, looking for their commander in chief to show leadership, rather than [trying] to deflect blame?” Duckworth said. “Or that his own Pentagon says that the short-term funding plans he seems intent on pushing is actually harmful to not just the military, but to our national security?”
"I spent my entire adult life looking out for the well-being, the training, the equipping of the troops for whom I was responsible,” continued Duckworth, an Army helicopter pilot who lost both her legs when her copter was hit over Iraq. “Sadly, this is something that the current occupant of the Oval Office does not seem to care to do — and I will not be lectured about what our military needs by a five-deferment draft dodger.”
Sen. Kamala Harris said:
"This shutdown was avoidable. The (White House) created this crisis & the GOP leaders in Congress refused to negotiate with Democrats. We must pass a bipartisan solution to fund the government, guarantee health care for millions of kids & protect Dreamers. Americans expect & deserve it."
Under intense lobbying from their constituents, Democrats have vowed to not approve any budget that doesn't include a resolution to extend a resolution to the status of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, instituted by President Obama.
Trump ended the program in September and gave Congress until March, 2018 to come up with a legislative solution to the children who were brought to the U.S. by their undocumented parents.
While both political parties, Trump and the American public say they want to keep the Dreamers in the U.S., the Republicans added a must-have of their own. Trump wants funding for the Damn Wall along the U.S.-Mexico border along with the DACA resolution. The Damn Wall is a deal-breaker for the Democrats but Trump insists that it be part of any bargain.
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