WASHINGTON, D.C. – Members of West Virginia’s congressional delegation insist there’s no chance of the government shutting down, even as Democratic lawmakers threaten to close it at the end of the month without concessions by Republicans.
US Senator Jim Justice is adamant that ultimately, neither party wants to be responsible for a shutdown.
“At the end of the day, the Democrats nor the Republicans are going to shut the government down,” he said Thursday on MetroNews Talkline.
West Virginia 2nd District Congressman Riley Moore is part of an ongoing effort by GOP legislators to avoid a shutdown and said a conference with the Senate is the first step toward keeping the government open.
“We are going to conference the MilCon-VA bill, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs bill, the (Legislative) Branch bill, and the Agriculture bill which we passed all 12 bills out of committee as of last night,” Moore said Thursday on Talkline.
According to Moore, the conference is just the first step in keeping the government open and will in turn allow for a continuing resolution to move forward that avoids a closure.
“We’re going to pass those three in the House, in the Senate, and then we’re going to attach a short-term continuing resolution to that that will probably run to mid-November, somewhere around November 20,” he said.
With the resolution keeping the government open past September 30, work in Congress would then be able to continue without the threat of the shutdown in place. Moore said that would allow the bills necessary for a long-term solution to be worked out.
“In that intervening time period, we are going to pass the rest of the appropriations bills to fully fund the government,” he said.
His counterpart in the Senate, Justice, agrees that while lawmakers on both sides of the aisle may be making noise about a shutdown, it will remain nothing but noise.
“It’ll be a lot of saber-rattling and everything in the interim, but when it really all boils right down to it, let’s move on to something else and quit worrying about that. I don’t think that’ll ever happen,” Justice said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told the Associated Press on Thursday that “things have changed” since he voted with Republicans to keep the government open in March, and he would be willing to allow a shutdown to happen this time.