Senator Shelley Moore Capito indicates increasing concern about a federal government shutdown at the end of the month.
“So a shutdown is a misery march,” Capito, R-W.Va., said on MetroNews Midday. “Nobody wins and it really upsets people, and I don’t blame them.”
Congress has until the end of this month to pass legislation keeping the federal government open or trigger a partial shutdown.
Congress is supposed to allocate funding to 438 government agencies before Oct. 1, the start of the fiscal year. The budget process is unlikely to be completed by then so the Republican majorities in Congress have been focusing on a stopgap continuing resolution to get to Nov. 21.
The majority Republicans in the House of Representatives hope to pass the continuing resolution by Friday and send it on to the Senate.
That’s where the stopgap funding measure could run into trouble. Passing the measure in the Senate would require the Republican majority to gain Democratic support to clear the 60-vote filibuster threshold.
Democrats want a deal to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies that will otherwise expire on Dec. 31. And they wan to reverse cuts to Medicaid and other health programs.
Democrats are also looking for greater restrictions on how the Trump administration can spend money, attempting to curtail the administration’s moves to freeze, shift and cancel funding Congress approves.
Capito was asked about the Affordable Care Act subsides during a briefing with West Virginia reporters on Thursday.
The senator noted that about 60,000 West Virginians have coverage through the exchange and benefit from premium subsidies.
“So it’s a sizable amount of West Virginians, so I’m concerned about it,” she said.
But Capito said she does not support including extending Affordable Care Act subsidies in the continuing resolution legislation because of the overall cost.
According to recent Congressional Budget Office estimates, permanently extending the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies would cost about $350 billion over a decade. Capito said she’d recently spoken with President Trump and Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“We’re making sure that we do it the right way, that we keep the coverage for the folks who need it the most, and that any kind of waste or fraud that’s in these programs is is eliminated at the same time,” Capito said.
“So I think we should take our time with it. It is does expire at the end of the year, so we have a little bit of time. We certainly are going to be relooking at the continuing resolution in November, and I think that will probably when we when we decide what we’re going to do about the premium support.”
If there’s a federal shutdown, Capito says the fault lies with Democrats.
“Senator Schumer and the Democrats look like they’re going to shut the government down. In my view, shutting the government down, as you’ve heard me say more more than a few times, it’s a misery march; it’s a road to nowhere,” Capito said during the briefing.
“It’s a disservice to our to our veterans, to our folks who rely on housing. Everybody relies, in some form or fashion, on the federal government and in terms of ease of life and in some cases being able to actually have a home and get food and all of those basics. So I’m very disappointed in this.”