When the federal government shut down Oct. 1 and both major political parties in Congress dug in for a public fight over the impasse, U.S. Rep. Mike Flood of Nebraska’s 1st Congressional District warned that the shutdown, which he and other Nebraska Republicans relentlessly blamed Senate Democrats for, could last “a long time.”
He doubled down on both fronts in a Wednesday interview, again blaming Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the top Senate Democrat, for the shutdown and predicting it will not end until after an Oct. 18 “No Kings” protest in Washington, D.C., because, he said, Schumer’s “base wants that day.”
For now, Congress appears no closer to reopening the government that closed after Democrats refused to extend funding at its current levels, instead demanding concessions on health care that the GOP rejected.
Republicans had sought to keep the government open by extending funding at current levels through Nov. 21, but has not received enough support from Senate Democrats to approve the measure, which requires 60 votes.
The GOP, meanwhile, has 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 furloughed and left essential government workers, including Transportation Security Administration agents in Omaha and Nebraska food safety inspectors for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, working without pay.
Trump warned Tuesday that furloughed federal workers may not automatically receive back pay once the government reopens, in a move that would run afoul of a law Trump signed in 2019 that guaranteed back pay for the millions of federal workers following shutdowns.
In an interview with the Journal Star, Flood said he hoped federal workers would avoid such a fate and again blamed Democrats for the shutdown while acknowledging the health care subsidies they’re seeking to extend help a “not insignificant” number of Nebraskans.
The following Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.
LJS: The government is shut down. What’s the cure here? How does this end?
Flood: Well, I know why this is going on. Chuck Schumer did the right thing in March because he’s a pro. He knows political calculus, and he paid an unfair but very high price for extending the government funding to the end of September from his left base, who are now more than ever, totally invested and engaged in wanting to have a fight with Donald Trump.
I also think this comes on the heels of reconciliation, which is done with 51 votes in the Senate. So I can understand some of that frustration, because they largely were left out of the conversation.
But I think these shutdowns are fundamentally bad for America. I find myself apologizing to TSA agents when I’m going through the airport because I feel bad that they could be working next week without pay. What happens next Wednesday, when their paycheck doesn’t come? Do they show up to work on Thursday? How many of them call in sick? Does that shut down our ability to travel the country because we don’t have TSA agents?
So the question is, how do you get out of this? It’s large. This is in the Senate’s hands, and I think it has to get worse before it’s going to get better, sadly. I also believe that there’s a “No Kings” Washington, D.C., protest on October 18. That is going to be a big opportunity for the base on the left, on the far left, to be seen and heard. And I would be surprised if Chuck Schumer did anything before the 18th, because his base wants that day.
So I think that’s the calculus that’s going on here, and I understand the (health care subsidies) stuff. I’m still getting my hands around how that impacts Nebraskans. The Biden White House acknowledged there’s a lot of fraud in the program. There’s also people that are benefiting from the ACA (Affordable Care Act) credits. That was set to expire by the Democrats because it was supposed to be temporary.
That said, I’ve talked to a number of insurance agents that sell health insurance on the exchange, and they said it’s more complicated than that, and I believe it. So there’s a lot of different ways to look at that issue. I don’t think you could solve that issue with a gun to your head in the middle of a shutdown.
LJS: You’re not actually saying whether you support extending the subsidies.
Flood: I’m open-minded to it. I do think that there are a subset of Republicans, probably in the House Freedom Caucus, that are more than happy to let them expire. If the numbers are correct … I’m led to believe there are 100,000 Nebraskans that are taking advantage of the ACA tax credits, which is not insignificant. At a minimum, I hate the idea of, on very little notice, making big changes, because people need a chance to plan. But when you’re in the House and you pass a bill to fund the government and that bill is sitting over in the Senate, you know.
LJS: The president suggested Tuesday that furloughed federal workers might not receive back pay. I wonder what your thoughts are on that.
Flood: We passed a bill in 2019 that I think allows them to be or allows them to be paid. I sure hope that doesn’t happen.
LJS: His administration is making a kind of novel legal argument that the 2019 bill is not an appropriation.
Flood: Well, it’s all part of the way shutdowns work. When Congress doesn’t do its job, when the Article I branch of the U.S. Constitution doesn’t pass a bill, you default to the executive branch with special powers during a government shutdown. I don’t care who’s president; it’s Congress not doing its work, and you give any president the power to do things that normally couldn’t be done. I don’t know what the legal argument is, or be able to comment on it, but I sure hope that doesn’t happen.
LJS: “Hope” sounds a little insufficient from a congressman.
Flood: Well, I would vote to make sure it doesn’t happen. If it’s in my lap and it’s a question, I want them — they didn’t do anything wrong.
I know there’s areas in our federal budget where we could trim positions. That’s the whole DOGE thing, which I agree with. But the people that I’m talking to are food inspectors, meteorologists at the National Weather Service, TSA workers, Offutt Air Force Base airmen. I mean, it’s hard for me to argue that any of those are non-essential. They’re important. But my number of federal employees compared to a lawmaker in Virginia or Maryland — it’s a much different story.
LJS: People who are working are not going to be paid, and your party is in power, even if you don’t have the power to end the shutdown alone. Are you worried that your party will be blamed?
Flood: I don’t like the shutdown period. That’s why I’ve always voted to fund the government. When people look into what’s actually happening, they’re going to see what the House did, and they’re going to ask really good questions about why this is so hard in the Senate to not do what they did before. I think Americans and Nebraskans are smart enough to figure out exactly how we got here.
Reach the writer at 402-473-7223 or awegley@journalstar.com. On Twitter @andrewwegley
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Andrew Wegley
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