Nebraska’s Republican congressional delegates relentlessly blamed Senate Democrats for the government shutdown that began shortly after midnight Wednesday, following an impasse that brought some federal services to a halt.
In remarks to reporters in separate press calls Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Pete Ricketts and Rep. Mike Flood of Nebraska’s 1st Congressional District blamed Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the top Democrat in the Senate, for the shutdown that began after Democrats refused to extend funding at its current levels, instead demanding concessions on health care that the GOP rejected.
“They own this shutdown,” Flood said of Democrats. “Specifically, Chuck Schumer owns this shutdown.”
Republicans had sought to keep the government open by passing what is known as a continuing resolution that would extend funding at current levels through Nov. 21, but the GOP did not receive enough support from Senate Democrats to approve the measure — which requires 60 votes — before the midnight deadline.
Likewise, Republicans refused to support Democrats’ plan, which would fund the government through the end of October while extending health care subsidies set to expire at the end of the year and restoring Medicaid cuts Congress initiated in President Donald Trump’s domestic policy law this summer.
The resulting shutdown caused hundreds of thousands of federal workers to be immediately furloughed and halted some services at agencies like the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In Nebraska, Transportation Security Administration officers in Omaha worked without pay Wednesday while food safety inspectors for the U.S. Department of Agriculture were furloughed, said Ruark Hotopp of Lincoln, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3928 labor union.
The true scale of the shutdown’s impact in Nebraska remained unclear Wednesday thanks to an executive order Trump signed earlier this year seeking to end collective bargaining rights for federal workers, icing out the AFGE, Hotopp said.
Flood, Ricketts and Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District all announced Wednesday that they had asked for their own pay to be withheld during the shutdown.
Day 1 of the shutdown — the federal government’s first since a 35-day closure in 2019 — was marked by a war of words between America’s two major political parties, as both sought to blame the other.
“Republicans have done our job,” Ricketts told reporters Wednesday. “We voted for the extension of the clean continuing resolution. It’s Democrats who are playing politics, and particularly Chuck Schumer.”
Both he and Flood suggested the shutdown — which Flood said could last “a long time” — would only be remedied if Democrats comply and support the resolution backed by Republicans.
And, they warned, Trump could make permanent changes to the federal workforce and budget amid the temporary shutdown. The president on Tuesday threatened to use the government’s closure to fire “a lot” of federal workers and “can get rid of a lot of things that we didn’t want.”
Flood, who said he participated in a Wednesday briefing with Russell Vought, the White House budget director, said there is “a likelihood we’re going to see some reductions in force of federal employees in the next 48 hours,” which he also blamed on Democrats.
“Those folks want a fight with Donald Trump,” Flood said. “Well, they’re gonna get one. And they’ve just empowered him to do things they’re really going to hate.”
A set of unions representing federal employees has already sued the Trump administration on grounds that mass layoffs during a shutdown would be unlawful. Hotopp, the local union president, said the threat of layoffs posed a bigger threat to federal workers than the shutdown itself.
“It’s yet another hit that we’ve taken this year where we’re being threatened to be fired from our jobs, and that’s been a constant threat since January,” he said.
Meanwhile, Democrats seized on Trump’s threats as they sought to pin the shutdown on the GOP. In a statement, Jane Kleeb, the Nebraska Democratic Party chair and a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, said Trump and congressional Republicans “own” the government shutdown.
“By controlling the presidency, the Senate, and the House, Republicans have no excuse,” she said. “This includes all of Nebraska’s federal delegation. Instead of negotiating in good faith, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told his members to go home during the most critical time, allowing the government to come to a standstill.
“Democrats have been unified in lowering costs, saving healthcare for millions of Americans, and pushing back on Trump and Speaker Johnson’s disastrous policies that do nothing to put American families first.”
Dan Osborn, a political independent seeking to unseat Ricketts next year, said the shutdown and the subsequent blame game are “right in line with what I’ve been saying all along.”
“We’re in this two-party doom loop, and they’re just pointing fingers at each other,” he said Wednesday, later adding: “We’re stuck.”
Hotopp offered a similar assessment. The local union president since 2018, he said he represents Democrats and Republicans at the bargaining table, checking politics at the door “to do what’s best for our employees, for our members.”
“And what’s best for them is to keep working, to continue to collect a paycheck,” he said. “So for me, I’m gonna look at both Republicans and Democrats and say, ‘Hey, listen. You guys were elected to do a job. … Do your job.'”
Reach the writer at 402-473-7223 or awegley@journalstar.com. On Twitter @andrewwegley
Love
0
Funny
0
Wow
0
Sad
0
Angry
0
Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox!
Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.
* I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
Andrew Wegley
State government reporter
Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily!
Your notification has been saved.
There was a problem saving your notification.
{{description}}
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Followed notifications
Please log in to use this feature
Log In
Don’t have an account? Sign Up Today