Quigley Statement on GOP Failure to Avoid Government Shutdown

Today, U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05), Ranking Member of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee, released the following statement on today’s vote on the Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the government funded before the end of the fiscal year:

“With Republicans in the majority, they have the power to pass reasonable funding bills and avoid a government shutdown. Instead, they have spent nearly two years entangled in intraparty squabbles, Speakership vacancies, and nonsense messaging bills. It appears this week is no different.

“Rather than moving forward in a bipartisan fashion, Speaker Johnson introduced a CR contaminated by a poison pill. The SAVE Act operates under the guise of preventing noncitizens from voting, when in fact, that’s already illegal. In reality, the SAVE Act would make it harder for millions of legal citizens to register to vote. Americans would not be able to use military IDs or Tribal IDs alone when registering to vote. People who have changed their names, including millions of married women, would not be allowed to use their birth certificates when proving their citizenship. Those who support this legislation don’t care about election integrity – they are laying the groundwork for former President Trump to claim fraud in the 2024 election.

“The SAVE Act is a direct threat to ballot access and for that reason, I was unable to support this CR. 206 Democrats and 14 Republicans also opposed this legislation, proving how out of step Speaker Johnson is with this body and with the American people. I ask Speaker Johnson to introduce a clean CR that accomplishes one of our most basic duties as members of Congress: funding the government.”