Congressman Cohen Votes to Re-Open Key Departments

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today voted for, and the House passed, two spending bills to reopen the Departments of Transportation, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Agriculture in an effort to end the destructive, ongoing Trump government shutdown, and made the following statement:

"On the first day of this new Congress last week, I voted to restore some certainty to the lives of 800,000 federal workers and their families by voting for Republican-drafted language to re-open government. So far, Senate Republicans have refused to bring that bill up for a vote. So we are now taking up individual spending bills nearly identical to measures that passed the Senate with broad bipartisan support last year.

"It is past time to re-open government and return some stability to the federal workforce and the citizens of this country who rely on government services every day."

The Transportation-HUD appropriations bill provides $71.4 billion in discretionary spending, $1.1 billion more than the current level. It funds the 3,000 Federal Aviation Administration safety professionals who are not now being paid. It passed the Senate in August on a 92-6 vote.

The Agriculture appropriations bill provides $23.2 billion in discretionary spending and also passed the Senate in August on a 92-6 vote. It includes the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Women, Infants and Children nutrition service (WIC) and other childhood nutrition assistance programs. It also funds the Food Safety and Inspection Service and the Food and Drug Administration.