Rep. Darin Lahood, R-Ill., told Newsmax Thursday that if Senate Democrats don't vote to pass the stopgap funding bill to keep the government open, the closure of federal agencies on Saturday will be "the Schumer shutdown."
"Democrats are in disarray," Lahood said on "American Agenda." "I think you're seeing that. They can't come up with a plan.
"And I'm glad you played those clips of [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer [D-N.Y.] at the very beginning. It's really rich for him to say that he wants to shut down the government, but it is the Schumer shutdown if the government does shut down.
"Remember what we did in the House just two days ago. We passed the CR [continuing resolution] with bipartisan support.
"We had a Democrat that supported us on passing that. ... This shouldn't happen. Most Democrats know what they should do here in following President [Donald] Trump's leadership and what we did in the House, and hopefully they'll be able to do that," he said.
On Wednesday, Schumer said that Senate Republicans do not have enough votes to pass the continuing resolution to fund the government on their own. Though Republicans hold a 53-47 advantage in the Senate, they need some Democrats to support the measure or it will fail to achieve the 60 votes necessary to clear the upper chamber.
Lahood said he wasn't sure why Schumer called for bipartisan legislation when the stopgap measure passed in the House with the support of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle. Schumer blamed Republicans for choosing a "partisan path" and for "drafting their continuing resolution without any input ... from congressional Democrats."
The Illinois Republican said he wants the Senate minority leader to explain to him "why it wasn't bipartisan when we passed it in the House."
"Going back to his own words over the course of his career on voting to never shut down the government, that seems pretty rich right now," Lahood said. "I've not heard him articulate any justification for wanting to shut down the government."
With Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a solid "no" vote, the GOP will need the support of eight Democrats for the bill to pass, which looks to be an unlikely outcome given the Schumer-led resistance to the measure.
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