The U.S. Senate passed the continuing resolution (CR) which will keep the federal government operating through December 20, 2019, but it split Senators Jim Inhofe and James Lankford. President Trump signed the bill on Thursday.
Inhofe voted no on the CR, while Lankford joined 73 other Senators to pass the bill.
Lankford has been railing against Congress to do it’s job and properly set budgets.
“Funding the government through short-term continuing resolutions is never my preference, but since the House is preoccupied with impeachment, Congress needs a little more time to actually pass appropriations bills and legislation to permanently prevent government shutdowns,” said Lankford. “As I have said many times before, the Senate and House have got to get serious about addressing deficit spending and our escalating $23 trillion national debt. Passing numerous continuing resolutions and stubbornly relying on the same broken budget and spending practices that got us here in the first place do nothing to help that. Oklahomans are counting on us to properly fund the government and to stop the debt problems already barreling toward us.
“This bill avoids a government shutdown in the short term, but we must continue to press for a long-term solution to ensure the consequences of Washington dysfunction fall squarely on Congress, not federal families. Senator Hassan and I have worked diligently to move our Prevent Government Shutdowns Act to hold Congress accountable when we fail to pass full appropriations bills. We are very close to actually bringing a bill to the floor for a vote. Our federal families—and private citizens throughout our nation—deserve certainty from their federal government so they can do their jobs to process grants, execute federal contracts, keep us safe, and keep the government functioning,” said Lankford.
Lankford co-authored the Prevent Government Shutdowns Act with Senator Maggie Hassan after the previous 35 day government shutdown that ended earlier this year. It has passed the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee earlier this month.
Sen. Lankford should have voted like Sen. Inhofe! Lankford has just help prevent a real budget to be sent to the President. All these CR’s do is confuse the process and go along to get along, instead of doing their job!