GOP Wisconsin lawmakers vote no on averting a federal government shutdown

Bipartisan majorities in Congress voted on Sept. 25 to approve a three-month stopgap spending bill and avoid a partial federal government shutdown. Dozens of Republican lawmakers opposed the legislation, however, after former President Donald Trump demanded they shut down the government unless Democrats agreed to last-minute changes to election laws that could have prevented 13 million U.S. citizens from voting.

With the funding for the operation of the federal government set to expire at the end of September, the House of Representatives approved a continuing resolution to keep it operating until Dec. 20 and increase funding for the Secret Service by a vote of 341-82. The Senate then approved the legislation by a vote of 78-18, sending it to President Joe Biden, who backed the effort. All no votes in both chambers were cast by Republicans.

For weeks, Trump pushed Republicans to block any continuing resolution unless it was paired with the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, a Republican-backed bill that would require citizens to provide specific forms of identification to prove their eligibility to vote and would increase voter roll purges. Supporters claim the SAVE Act would curb noncitizen voting, which is statistically nonexistent and already prohibited.

“If Republicans don’t get the SAVE Act, and every ounce of it, they should not agree to a Continuing Resolution in any way, shape, or form,” Trump posted on social media. “BE SMART, REPUBLICANS, YOU’VE BEEN PUSHED AROUND LONG ENOUGH BY THE DEMOCRATS. DON’T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN.”

But the House Republican majority could not muster the required votes to pass a six-month stopgap bill with that legislation attached, failing on a 202-220 vote on Sept. 18.

Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin voted in favor of the stopgap, as did most of the state’s House delegation; Republican Sen. Ron Johnson and Reps. Tom Tiffany and Derrick Van Orden voted no.

“I voted against the CR to save American agriculture. Instead of cherry-picking Democrat programs from the committee’s farm bill to extend in the CR and playing politics with hungry children and production agriculture, we should be providing our farmers with the resources and certainty they need to do their jobs,” Van Orden said in a statement. “We cannot keep kicking the can down the road on a bill that our farmers needed authorized a year ago. I am unwilling to risk everything they have and continue to work for.”

He faces a competitive November reelection race against Democratic nominee Rebecca Cooke, who posted on social media after the vote: “Derrick Van Orden just voted to shut down our government. Thankfully, our government will remain open because the House chose common sense over partisan brinksmanship. In 41 days, this district will too when we vote DVO out of office.”

“American families suffer if we let the government shut down,” Sen. Baldwin said in a statement. “It threatens to take Border Patrol off the beat, halt benefits for our Veterans, and block food for families in need. I joined my Democratic and Republican colleagues to vote to avoid a harmful shutdown, boost funding for the Secret Service, and keep the lights on as we work to pass our bipartisan funding bills. I will continue to make sure Wisconsin has a seat at the table in our ongoing negotiations and that our full year government funding bills support our Made in America economy, lower costs for working families, and tackle the opioid and fentanyl crisis.”

Shutdowns have long been shown to be damaging to the economy, hurt public servants, and leave Americans unable to access vital government services. 

Without operational funding, the federal government can only provide the most essential of functions, and no federal workers receive pay for their work. This means no food safety inspections, no processing of Social Security applications, and no services for veterans. 

Trump forced the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history in December 2018 and January 2019. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated at the end of it that it had reduced the nation’s gross domestic product by about $8 billion.

Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance did not show up to vote on the stopgap bill; according to the Washington Post, Vance has missed every vote in the Senate since Trump selected him to be his running mate on July 15.