Warren and Markey Both Voted “No” on Ending the Shutdown
Only 18 senators rejected a compromise to re-open the government.
photos via AP
Massachusetts Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey both refused to support a compromise bill to re-open the government after a shutdown. They were among a minority of Senators to do so.
Three days after the government shut down, Senators approved a three-week stopgap measure that runs through February 8. It funds the Children’s Health Insurance Program for six years, but does not include the protections for DACA recipients that Democrats had sought. In exchange for a vote to reopen the government, Republican leadership has pledged to take up immigration, and other unresolved issues, immediately. Once it passes in the Senate it has to pass the House and get the president’s signature.
Thirty-three Democrats said they would support the stopgap bill. But 18 Senators, including Warren and Markey, said they would not.
“We don’t need new promises,” Warren wrote in a tweet explaining her decision. “We need new laws.”
It’s been over 100 days since protection for 800k Dreamers ended, since community health centers were funded, since hurricanes ravaged TX, FL & PR. The Republicans refused to fix any of these issues– and they still haven’t fixed them. We don’t need new promises. We need new laws.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) January 22, 2018
Markey tweeted that he could not support the bill because he doesn’t know if the GOP and President Trump will hold up their end of the bargain. A long-term budget is what is needed, he said. “I remain deeply skeptical of any short-term budget agreement that relies on the good faith commitment of” the president, Markey wrote. “A budgetary vision without funding is a hallucination.”
Others who refused to jump on board the agreement, according to the Associated Press, were Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, Dianne Feinstein, of California, Kirsten Gillibrand, of New York, and Cory Booker, of New Jersey.
The futures and families of #Dreamers will not be assured by a promise from Republican leadership. We need a long-term budget proposal that includes real protections for our Dreamers, not a short-term IOU.
— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) January 22, 2018
