When the clock struck midnight early Wednesday, the federal government entered a shutdown, after the U.S. Senate rejected two separate spending proposals to keep doors open.
Congress will continue to try to get a federal budget passed, but if an agreement is not reached on Wednesday, the next earliest vote would be Friday afternoon.
Nonessential services and spending programs are now shuttering until a spending agreement is reached.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said, “Utahns expect Congress to do its job, not play political games. Rejecting a commonsense plan to keep the government open puts Utah families and our economy at risk.”
He said state and national parks remain open in Utah, and pointed residents to a website, http://visitutah.com/shutdown, for information on what’s affected in the state by the shutdown.
Utah congressional leaders say their Democratic colleagues are being ‘unreasonable’
No Republicans voted in favor of the Democrat-sponsored Senate bill, and three Democrats voted for the Republican-sponsored bill. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has voted against the spending resolution. To pass, at least seven Democrats or Democratic-aligned independents need to vote in favor of the Republican-sponsored budget.
In a press release Wednesday, Rep. Blake Moore, who represents Utah’s 1st District, said the burden of responsibility should be set “squarely on the Democrats’ shoulders.”
“House Republicans passed a nonpartisan, clean Continuing Resolution that would keep the government funded as we continue our appropriations work,” he said.
Moore continued, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries chose “partisan exercise” over their constituents.
Utah Sen. John Curtis added that this most recent shutdown has made him “deeply concerned” that Congress is “relying on short-term Band-Aids.” Democratic congressmen “asked for over a trillion dollars in new spending just to buy seven more weeks of time. That is not reasonable, sensible or responsible,” he said.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee added, “Democrats have shut down the government, demanding that the tax dollars of American families go to illegals, corporate welfare and fraud. They will not succeed, and we will not surrender to their absurd demands.”
2nd District Rep. Celeste Maloy said the shutdown is “unnecessary,” and it is the fault of “Senate Democrats who chose to use it as leverage to push for trillions in new spending.”
“This shutdown is not principled, it is purely political,” she said.
Speaker of the Utah House of Representatives Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, said the federal government’s shutdown is “disappointing, frustrating and unacceptable.”
“No wonder Democrats’ approval rating has sunk to its lowest level since 2008 (Quinnipiac University). The American people are tired of dysfunction,” he said.
Rep. Burgess Owens says Democrats are ‘holding Americans hostage’
Utah Rep. Burgess Owens told the Deseret News the federal government is forced to close its doors, “because Senate Democrats refuse to support a clean, nonpartisan CR.”
They are “holding the American people hostage for a $1.5 trillion unserious and unreasonable liberal wish list,” he said.
The continuing resolution they voted against is the same short-term fix they voted for 13 times during the Biden administration, Owens said. “And these are the same Democrats who once warned that shutdowns were ‘dangerous,’ ‘disastrous’ and ‘self-inflicted harm’ on hardworking families,” he added.
“The Democrats’ shutdown means our service members won’t get paid, veterans’ programs will be delayed, food assistance for women and children will lapse, small business loans will stall, and the stability of more than 34,000 federal civilian employees in Utah, along with thousands of military personnel and contractors, are at risk,” he added.
Some Republicans hate both continuing resolutions
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said on X, “Both parties are ridiculous!”, reasoning that the Republican-sponsored budget includes DOGE-identified waste and is a “line-by-line continuation of Biden’s last budget.”
Also from Kentucky, Sen. Rand Paul voted against the continuing resolution, in the name of fiscal conservatism.
On Fox Business, Wednesday morning, Paul said, “The American people need to know that the debt problem is a bipartisan problem.”
The continuing resolution maintains Biden-level spending from 2024, Paul said, adding, “The irony of this is that every Democrat in the Senate voted for this in December in last year. What they’re opposing now is what they all have previously voted for.”
Paul said he again proposed the Penny Plan, which promises to balance the federal budget in five years.
The White House vs. the DNC
The Democratic National Committee explained the issue simply in a press release, Wednesday, titled, “Republicans Shut the Government Down Instead of Making Health Care Affordable.”
DNC Chairman Ken Martin specifically called out Utah lawmakers in another press release, Wednesday.
“In the clearest sign yet that Utah Republicans are weak, incompetent and lack any respect for the American people, they just shut down the federal government. Health insurance costs are about to double for Utah families because of Republicans, but instead of preventing yet another Trump price hike, they are leaving the people high and dry,” he said.
Utah Democratic Party Chair Brian King posted a “kitty” led explanation of the shutdown posted by the national party.
The bill Democrats tried to pass would have added $1 trillion in health care spending, reversed Trump’s recently approved health care cuts and permanently extended Obamacare tax credits, as the Deseret News previously reported.
Meanwhile, the White House’s release was titled, “Democrats Betray Americans with Government Shutdown.”
They reasoned, “This shutdown is 100% on Democrats, whose radical agenda is poisoning our politics and punishing our people.”