‘Democracy Not at Work’: Chaos in Congress as House Democrats Blocked From Forcing a Vote To Keep Government Operating

House Democrats on Tuesday were blocked from trying to force a vote on their government funding proposal, just 12 hours before the government shutdown deadline. When the House came into session, they were not recognized despite hundreds of lawmakers shouting on the floor. After winning nothing from Republicans in March during the last funding battle, Democrats are resolved this time to get some kind of concessions from the majority. Their demands have focused on extending Biden-era enhanced tax credits for those who get their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. A bill from Democrats on the House and Senate Appropriations committees would make the subsidies permanent at a cost of more than $300 billion over 10 years. On Tuesday morning, when the House was called into a ceremonial pro forma session, the top Democrat on the appropriations panel, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, sought to be recognized by the Republican lawmaker sitting in the speaker’s chair. Despite her calls to be recognized and hundreds of fellow Democrats standing behind her on the floor, she was ignored and the House was recessed until another pro forma session on Friday. When asked if the GOP lawmaker in the speaker’s chair, Congressman Morgan Griffith, even looked at her, Ms. DeLauro told reporters he “put his head down” and did not acknowledge her. “I have a loud voice,” she said jokingly. Another Democrat, Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, asked: “How could anybody say that the speaker presiding did not hear her?”“Everbody else behind her was asking for the same thing,” Ms. Dingell said. “That was democracy not at work.”With hours to go until the midnight shutdown deadline, key Senate Democrats are not yet disclosing how they will vote on Tuesday afternoon. Senator John Thune needs eight Democrats in the chamber to break ranks in order to get to 60 votes, which would then allow the Senate to proceed to the bill on a simple majority vote.When asked by The New York Sun if she felt confident that Democratic senators would hold the line later that day, Ms. DeLauro would not even entertain the possibility that House Democrats could be betrayed like they were in March. “All I can tell you is that the House and the Senate are on the same page. Let’s not create, you know, a split,” Ms. DeLauro said. “We’re on the same page, and that’s what’s going to happen today.”Mr. Thune refused to even entertain Democrats’ demands, and is accusing the opposition of “hostage-taking.” He has said he will not consider their proposals, even if the government shuts down at the end of the day on Tuesday.“I mean, at some point, you know, they’re just going to need to keep voting it down,” Mr. Thune told the Sun Monday night after he returned from a bipartisan meeting at the White House. “The only thing right now standing between our country and a shutdown is Senate Democrats.”

‘Democracy Not at Work’: Chaos in Congress as House Democrats Blocked From Forcing a Vote To Keep Government Operating

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