Rep. Tokuda Rejects Partisan Plan to Extend Government Shutdown

Washington D.C. - Today, U.S. Representative Jill Tokuda (HI-02) released the following statement after voting against the Republican funding bill that would further prolong the 42-day government shutdown instead of restoring funding for essential workers in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS):

"Essential workers and their livelihoods should never have been used as political leverage. House Republicans rejected a bipartisan funding deal that was adopted by the Senate and would have ended this shutdown immediately. Only after weeks of missed pay and airport chaos did Trump suddenly find the authority to issue an executive order to pay TSA officers. You do not stand with our essential workers by prolonging the shutdown that is hurting them. You do not help TSA officers, FEMA personnel, or Coast Guard servicemembers by holding their paychecks hostage to extract more funding for ICE and CBP, who already received a $140 billion blank check from the Big Ugly Bill. It's completely backwards that Republicans chose ICE over the FEMA teams who have been on the ground helping our Hawaiʻi communities recover from both wildfires and floods.

Republicans continue to choose ICE over everyday Americans. You deserve better, and I refuse to support a 60-day patch that drags on this shutdown when we should be voting to pass a bipartisan solution that will fund DHS right now."

The bill passed the House by a vote of 213 to 203.

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