Jerry Moran: “We for a second time failed to pass a continuing resolution to allow the Federal Government to continue to operate. It…”

“We for a second time failed to pass a continuing resolution to allow the Federal Government to continue to operate. It is because we are coming to the end of the fiscal year. Not all the appropriations bills have been approved, though most all of them have been approved by the Senate Committee on Appropriations. In fact, three have been passed by the Senate. This makes no sense to me. This is not a shutdown that makes any sense at all. The American people, Kansans, deserve something different from the U.S. Senate. Every city council or commission, every school board, every local government office in my State passes a budget and then lives within that budget every year. Every local unit of government can figure this out, and the U.S. Senate is failing one more time. A shutdown means uncertainty. A shutdown means dysfunction. The issue to me is this continuing resolution that would fund the Federal Government until November 21--a short period of time--is designed to avoid that dysfunction, to avoid that uncertainty. All that is required is that we pass the continuing resolution, 60 votes in the U.S. Senate, to keep the government functioning so--and this is the reason it makes no sense to me--so that we can pass the remaining appropriations bills, all but one of which have been passed by the Senate Appropriations Committee and most in a bipartisan manner. For whatever purpose and for whatever reason, that seems beyond our capability.”