Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Monday that the government shutdown is on track to become one of the longest in history unless Democrats accept the House-passed, GOP-drafted stopgap bill to reopen the government.
“We are headed for one of the longest shutdowns in American history unless Democrats drop their partisan demands and pass a clean, non-binding budget to reopen the government and pay our federal workers,” Johnson said in a news conference on the 13th day of the government shutdown.
Members of Congress are locked in a standoff over government funding as Democrats demand Republicans make concessions on health care, particularly the Affordable Care Act tax credits that expire at the end of the year. Republican leaders have refused to negotiate health care during a shutdown, arguing that Democrats must accept the “clean” funding stopgap that the House passed in September – and which has failed to advance in the Senate seven times.
The shutdown, which has lasted 13 days, already marks one of the longest federal government funding shortfalls in current history.
The longest government shutdown, which was also the last time there was a shortfall in federal funding, occurred from 2018 to 2019 during President Trump’s first term and lasted 35 days.
The second-longest shutdown under former President Clinton lasted 21 days, while the funding shortfalls under former President Obama in 2013 and former President Carter in 1978 lasted 17 days.
“Republicans are eager to return to the actual negotiating table to set full-year appropriations and work on all the other issues that lie before us, but we will not negotiate in smoke-filled back rooms, and we will not negotiate as hostages,” Johnson said Monday.
The speaker has kept the House in an extended recess during the shutdown and canceled weeks-previously scheduled votes as Republicans try to pressure Senate Democrats to accept their emergency funding measure.
Some Republicans have expressed dissatisfaction with this tacticHe argued that the chamber can work on measures such as regular full-year budget bills and other legislation even during a shutdown.
However, Johnson defended the move.
“You can poll individual Republicans in the House, maybe you should, and 98.7 percent of them will tell you this is the right thing to do,” Johnson said.
“We’re working on the resources,” Johnson said. “The next legislative package is in preparation.”
“I don’t know what the Democrats are doing, but the Republicans in the House have been very busy. They are doing their best work in the district and helping their constituents deal with this crisis that they created [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer [D-N.Y.] and the Democrats. “The Schumer shutdown is causing real pain for real people, veterans and seniors who rely on these services,” Johnson added.
