David Obey: “I note that there are stories that continue to appear in the press to the effect that we are facing a possible…”

“I note that there are stories that continue to appear in the press to the effect that we are facing a possible government shutdown. The fact is that, in my view, there is virtually no chance whatsoever that we will experience a government shutdown. The President has already made clear that if the Congress cannot get its work done before the fiscal year expires on October 1 that he will immediately sign any neutral short-term continuing resolution in order to keep the government open while the Congress does catch up to the schedule that it is supposed to be on. I would assume that the majority leadership of this House would make certain that such a short-term continuing resolution is in fact ready, because it is obvious that this House is way behind the curve in getting all of our appropriation bills done in the necessary time period before the beginning of the next fiscal year. So I think rather than hearing more of this rhetoric about a possible government shutdown, I think that people need to be aware of the fact that there certainly is no predisposition on this side of the aisle nor is there any predisposition on the part of the White House to allow that to happen.”