WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Mark Warner voted with Chuck Schumer to shut down the federal government and furlough nearly 320,000 federal Virginia workers. Instead of supporting a clean government funding bill, Senate Democrats are pushing for outrageous demands that include $1.5 trillion in new spending, funding free healthcare for illegal aliens, and cutting $50 billion in funding for rural hospitals provided by the Working Family Tax Cuts.
“Chuck Schumer and Mark Warner are holding the federal government hostage in a ridiculous attempt to force their woke wish list on Americans,” said NRSC Regional Press Secretary Samantha Cantrell. “Instead of keeping our government open, paying our troops and federal workers, and ensuring veterans receive their benefits, Mark Warner and Democrats are demanding free healthcare for illegal aliens and cutting $50 billion in rural hospital funding. Virginia’s federal employees will remember that when it mattered most, Mark Warner played political games with their livelihood.”
Despite voting to fund the government in the past, Mark Warner is supporting Chuck Schumer’s reckless shutdown:
- In 2024, Mark Warner said that “Shutdowns aren’t victimless crimes.”
- Amid the possible December 2024 shutdown, Warner lamented the
service members who would be “working without paychecks during
Christmas,” “won’t be” fine.
- Amid the possible December 2024 shutdown, Warner lamented the
- In September 2024, Warner called a shutdown “pointless, painful,” and that a
shutdown needed to be averted “at all costs.” - Warner said that it was a “basic duty” of Congress to avert a shutdown.
Mark Warner and Chuck Schumer’s Shutdown would:
- Furlough Virginia’s nearly 320,000 full-time civilian federal employees
- Leave military families without pay
- Put law enforcement lives on the line
- Jeopardize flood insurance for millions of Americans during hurricane season
- Threaten vital healthcare and housing programs for veterans
- Allow funding for a critical Medicare patients’ treatment program to expire
- Hurt farmers and ranchers who need certainty to produce our food
- Drive up food prices for America’s most needy families
Democrats are demanding $1.5 trillion in spending increases to end the shutdown and:
- Cut $50 billion in rural healthcare funding
- Restore Biden-era free healthcare for illegal aliens
- Expand taxpayer-funded Medicaid to unemployed, able-bodied individuals without dependents under 14 years old
- Eliminate Republican-passed fraud protections for taxpayer benefits like Medicaid and SNAP
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