Tonight, bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate voted to keep the government open, averting an unnecessary crisis that would cause unnecessary pain to millions of hardworking Americans. The bill ensures that active-duty troops continue to be paid, travelers are spared airport delays, millions of women and children continue to receive vital nutrition assistance, and more. This is good news for the American people.
But I want to be clear: we shouldn’t have been in this position in the first place. A few months ago, Speaker McCarthy and I reached a budget deal to avoid precisely this kind of manufacturing crisis. For weeks, hard-line House Republicans have tried to walk away from that deal by demanding drastic cuts that could be devastating for millions of Americans. They failed.
While the Speaker and a majority of Congress remained committed to supporting Ukraine, the deal contained no new funding to continue that support. Interruption of US support to Ukraine cannot be allowed under any circumstances. I fully expect the Speaker to keep his commitment to the people of Ukraine and to safely deliver the support needed to help Ukraine at this critical time.
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