Florida Parish News

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) has called on Senate Democrats to end the ongoing government shutdown, which he says is causing harm to families, servicemembers, and federal employees. In an interview with Fox News’ America Reports, Scalise criticized Democrats for what he described as prioritizing their political base over the needs of Americans.

“We all ought to be concerned that our men and women in uniform that do such an incredible job keeping our families safe and defending our country's freedoms are out there doing their work, and many of them are not sure whether or not they're going to get paid because the Democrats shut down the government. It's why we passed the bill over a month ago through the House to pay everybody, all federal employees, and open the government. But as you know, Democrats in the Senate, because of the 60-vote requirement, are keeping it shut down over and over, 13 times now. Democrats have joined together to appease their socialist base that frankly wants to defund the cops, defund the military. They voted to deny that pay. It's hurting real families.

“It's hurting not only our men and women in uniform, air traffic controllers, you're seeing flight delays. Food stamps, I mean, families, 42 million families are about to lose their food stamp benefits starting this weekend. That's real pain. Also that Democrats can get what they call ‘leverage’ to go show their base that they're fighting Donald Trump. It's insane.”

Scalise noted concerns for federal workers missing paychecks during the shutdown.

“It's that dire. We've seen numbers from the Department of Defense, over a third of our men and women in uniform live paycheck to paycheck. And Democrats are right now denying them that next paycheck. Thank goodness, President Trump worked incredibly hard to find money in other pots to move that money around to pay them this last paycheck. But those other pots of money are running dry. And so short of getting when the government reopened, there's a threat that those men and women in uniform, like other federal employees, won't get paid. And when they don't get paid, by the way, their mortgages are still due. Their car notes still due. They still need to put food on the table for their family. It's devastating. You got these Democrats running around. They can't even articulate why they've shut the government down. They just know their base hates Donald Trump, and they're upset they lost the election. Well, they've got to get over their tantrum and stop hurting real families. Stop hurting our men and women in uniform. It's disgraceful.”

He also addressed how SNAP benefits could run out for many Louisiana residents if funding is not restored.

“You look at what's going on with the SNAP program. You mentioned Sandra, Louisiana. 700,000 people in my home state would be impacted by those SNAP benefits running dry that Secretary Rollins talked about. 42 million nationwide. I mean, these are real families that are going to be devastated this weekend. It's not some hypothetical, maybe one day down the road. It's this weekend.

“There's a vote. There's a bill that funds these programs. You vote yes or no to fund these programs Right now you can go see the vote We only need five Democrats in the Senate to come to their senses and vote yes and bill passes but they won't They've been hell-bent on keeping government shut down there's no reason for it It's totally unnecessary But party is morally bankrupt right now They're about elect socialist Mayor New York more afraid Marxist socialist left base than caring about these families who really struggling so use it as you mentioned leverage”

Steve Scalise currently serves as U.S Representative for Louisiana’s 1st district since replacing Bobby Jindal in 2008 (https://www.congress.gov/member/steve-scalise/S001176). He previously held positions in both chambers of Louisiana's legislature prior his congressional tenure (https://scalise.house.gov/about/full-biography). Born in New Orleans in 1965 and residing in Jefferson Parish today at age 57 (https://www.nola.com/news/politics/steve-scalise/article_0bba123a-61b4-11ee-b02c-cf76dbe7ca9e.html), Scalise holds a bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University.