Menendez Statement on Trump Shutdown

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez today released the following statement after President Trump forced a partial shutdown of the federal government:

“President Trump wanted a government shutdown and now he’s got it.  After rejecting a bipartisan offer of $1.3 billion towards border security that was unanimously approved by the Senate, this President is holding the federal government of the United States hostage in the hopes of extracting billions of taxpayer dollars from Congress for a preposterous border wall that he promised Mexico would pay for and that he doesn’t have the votes in the Senate to pass.

“This President’s abject failure to govern—and the shortsighted brinksmanship of his Republican enablers in the House of Representatives—will cost American taxpayers billions each day.  Hundreds of thousands of hardworking federal employees will be furloughed or forced to work without pay—just in time for Christmas.  Families could be left hungry with unsupplied soup kitchens and food banks.  Clean water monitoring in many communities will be suspended.  Home mortgages will be delayed and small businesses won’t be able to access federal loan programs.

“If the President and Congressional Republicans were serious about border security, they would address the dangerous conditions in Central America that are forcing families to flee for their lives.  They would pursue comprehensive immigration reform that both addresses our security needs while living up to the American ideal of this being a nation of immigrants.  And they would stop stoking fear and demanding taxpayers pick up the tab for a boondoggle of a border wall that will do nothing to make our country safer.

“This is now the third government shutdown on the GOP’s watch in just two years, and it was totally avoidable.  Despite having total control of government—the White House, Senate and House—Republicans have proven time and again that they are incapable of governing or advancing policies that will help working families get ahead.  The swearing-in of the House’s new Democratic majority cannot come soon enough.”