Florida Parish News

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) spoke alongside Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), and House Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger (R-Texas) in Washington, D.C., addressing the effects of the ongoing government shutdown. The group criticized Democrats, saying their actions have negatively impacted federal workers and families.

Scalise focused on Democratic efforts related to rural health care funding. He stated, “Democrats think this is some kind of game. Speaker has talked about this over and over again, but what has their reaction been? Not figuring out a solution to get out of it, an off-ramp, it's doing stupid TikTok videos, making fun of this situation, thinking that the American people are leverage — leverage — in their game to get some unachievable goal, a $1.5 trillion in new spending, $200 billion in taxpayer benefits for illegals, gutting $50 billion out of a health care fund for rural hospitals. And again, they try to claim it's about something else. Maybe it's about health care. Well, if it was about health care, they wouldn't be gutting $50 billion out of the rural health care fund. They wouldn't have fought, by the way, on the Senate floor months ago to remove a provision, the cost-sharing ratios, that would have lowered premiums on families by 11%. It was in our bill. We voted for it, passed out of the House...They fought to raise premiums on families, Democrats have over and over again, and now they're imposing real pain on American families with this shutdown.”

He also addressed recent disruptions caused by flight delays: “We've got some new numbers that have come in, and these are not good numbers, unfortunately. Reuters reported more than 2,700 flights delayed nationwide on Monday, and more than 8,600 flight delays just Sunday. 8,600 flight delays. Think of how many families were impacted. Every flight well over 100 people on each one of those 8,600 flights that were delayed, all because Chuck Schumer and radical Democrats want to use American people as leverage. A Democrat aide said they won't concede short of ‘planes falling out of the sky.’ Who are these people? Didn't they once care about this great nation and making it better? And now they think if a plane falls out of the sky, that's their leverage? For what? Goodness.

“Chuck Schumer, 'Every day gets better for us.' Who is us? Because I can tell you who them are. The American people are sick and tired of Chuck Schumer and his friends thinking it's a better day for him when they are feeling more pain. Senator Coons, 'The point of this shutdown is not just suffering for suffering's sake but to make a point,' as if suffering of the American people is not enough. We've heard... Katherine Clark: 'shutdowns are terrible. Of course there will be families that are going to suffer but it is one of the few leverage times we have.' They keep saying over and over again; they know American people are suffering. They don't care... Bernie Sanders... 'You reopen the government and we lose our leverage...' They're telling you what they mean..."

On food assistance programs being affected by the shutdown he said: “Rep. Emilia Sykes said: 'We know that people are going to suffer if we don't open the government. People will go hungry.' Well she knows it. She's causing that hunger... In an ABC article regarding the 42 million Americans that are going to lose SNAP benefits next week Joel Berg who's CEO of Hunger Free America said this: 'We are going to see the greatest hunger crisis since the Great Depression. And that's not hyperbole...' The greatest hunger crisis since the Great Depression when 42 million people lose their SNAP benefits this weekend.

“What are these Democrats waiting for? This is not a game... It's time to end the madness... Just five [Senators] need to get courage... do the right thing and open government today.”

Steve Scalise represents Louisiana’s 1st district in Congress after succeeding Bobby Jindal in 2008 https://scalise.house.gov/about-steve/full-biography/. He previously served both in Louisiana’s House of Representatives from 1996-2008 and briefly in its Senate during 2008 https://scalise.house.gov/about-steve/full-biography/. Scalise was born in New Orleans in 1965 and currently resides in Jefferson https://scalise.house.gov/about-steve/full-biography/. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University.