The House is scheduled to vote tomorrow on a bill that would ensure a government shutdown will not take place when current funding expires at midnight on April 8. The bill, the Government Shutdown Prevention Act, will provide for the only comprehensive funding bill that has been passed this year, H.R. 1, to become law if the Senate does not act on extending funding by Wednesday of next week. The bill would also prohibit Members of Congress and the President from collecting a salary on any day the government is in a shutdown situation, or on any day the nation's debt limit is exceeded.
To be sure, the Government Shutdown Prevention Act would need to both pass the Senate and be signed by the President to be enforced as law. However, the legislation points to the very real fact that the current funding debate is stalled by the insistence by Senate Democrats to clutch at the unsustainable status quo – after rejecting H.R. 1 by a very slim margin, Democrats have refused to offer any reasonable spending plan for the remainder of the fiscal year.
While Senate Democrats have continued to cling to the vestiges of their big government, excessive spending agenda, House Republicans have been busy enacting real, pro-growth policy by cutting government spending in short-term continuing resolutions. The $10 billion in savings enacted over the past few weeks signals House leadership is serious about putting the country back on a sustainable fiscal path. The only thing standing in the way is a Senate Majority that would rather pout than govern.
Click here to read our letter in support of the Government Shutdown Prevention Act.