Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., told Newsmax Thursday that Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., singlehandedly created the looming government shutdown on Capitol Hill by failing to do his job last year. Any shutdown, he said, will be the fault of Senate Democrats if they don't vote to approve the continuing resolution to fund the government.
"The reason it's a CR is because Chuck Schumer, Sen. Schumer, refused to put one single appropriations bill, not one bill, on the floor last year," Hoeven told Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "So of course we're in this situation. He forced it. And actually, in this continuing resolution, we do a number of things. One, for the first time in a long time, we actually reduce spending. That's important to get after the debt and deficit. We actually increased spending though for our military and provide more flexibility.
"So, we've done a number of things that I think are positive, and we've done the best we can, given what Sen. Schumer created, which was his refusal to bring the appropriations bills to the floor, even though – and I'm on the Appropriations Committee – we passed all the bills," he said. "We were ready to go, and he wouldn't do it and now he laments the situation? Look, I think they're going to have to vote for it or the shutdown is going to be right square on Senate Democrats."
Pointing to the House's passage of the legislation to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year in September, Hoeven said President Donald Trump supports it, as well as the Republicans in the Senate.
"We're going to see if the Democrats actually shut down government or step up and do what they should do, and that's vote for the CR and keep government funded," he said.
Hoeven predicted that his Democrat colleagues are "going to go through a number of steps before we actually have a vote, and they may drag this out until Friday night." Funding for the various federal agencies expires at midnight Friday and a shutdown would begin on Saturday.
"I think they're going to want to vote on a 30-day continuing resolution and argue that we need to keep negotiating," he said. "Well, that dog won't hunt. The House has already voted. The president is on record.
"That's just a stalling tactic. But I would guess we'll probably let them have that vote and see if that clears the way, but ultimately, Democrats are going to have to decide whether they vote for this continuing resolution."
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