COLUMN: Negotiation, Not Obstruction, Will Fully Reopen Federal Government
Article II, Section 3, clause 1 of the United States Constitution states that the President has a duty to provide an annual State of the Union address to the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. This address gives the President of the United States the opportunity to update Congress and the American people and discuss a vision for the future of the country.
We recently faced the longest partial government shutdown in our nation's history, and now, more than ever, we should be coming together as a country to address the problems facing our government. It is unfortunate, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi first invited and then rescinded her invitation to President Trump to give his State of the Union address – in a show of disrespect never before seen in our nation's history.
Citing false security concerns, Speaker Pelosi has publicly stated that she will not bring forth a resolution in the House of Representatives that would allow President Trump to speak to Congress in the House Chamber. This unprecedented move comes after the House Democrats have spent the entirety of their new majority obstructing the President's legislative agenda, refusing to negotiate with Republicans in Congress or the Administration on funding for border security and reopening the federal government, and voting against paying federal employees.
Since 1913, over 100 years, the President has delivered the State of the Union to Congress in person. Inviting and then rejecting the President's address during a time of extreme division within our federal government is shortsighted partisanship, and Speaker Pelosi has shown herself to be unwilling to negotiate with President Trump to find a compromise for our country. On January 9th, President Trump invited Democrats to the White House to negotiate a strategy to restore a fully-functioning government and address the security concerns at our southern border. Democrats refused.
Federal employees and their families have been suffering needlessly while Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats have refused to meet with the President on a path forward to secure the border and reopen the government. On January 25th, the day federal workers missed their second paycheck of the year, Speaker Pelosi cancelled votes instead of voting to pay them. Over the last week, House Republicans proposed three separate votes that would provide paychecks to federal employees who have been furloughed or working without pay due to the partial government shutdown. While all three of these votes garnered bipartisan support, the majority of House Democrats voted against them – leaving over 800,000 hard-working Americans without a pay for the entirety of 2019 so far.
That is also the same day, President Trump announced an agreement to temporarily reopen the government while Congress negotiates a Homeland Security package that will include funding for a physical barrier on the southern border. The President has remained strong on his goal to secure our border and increase safety for Americans, and he has fully demonstrated his willingness to negotiate with Democrats while they have refused to compromise and find a solution that can be agreed upon in both the House and the Senate. Now that they have agreed to negotiations, reopening the government to allow for hard-working federal employees to be paid while these negotiations happen is the right thing to do.
The American people deserve to hear what President Trump has to say – especially in this time of political division. I look forward to working with my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee to fund the government and secure our borders, but Speaker Pelosi's move to uninvite President Trump from addressing Congress and the nation makes matters worse, not better.