ICYMI: Rep. Takano Calls on Speaker McCarthy for No Cuts, No Layoffs, and No Shutdown
Washington, D.C. – Last week, Rep. Mark Takano, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, joined Congressional Progressive Caucus colleagues to call on Speaker Kevin McCarthy to avoid a harmful government shutdown.
Watch Rep. Takano’s full remarks here.
Rep. Takano’s transcribed remarks are below:
Thank you, Chair Emeritus, Mark Pocan. My name is Mark Takano. I am the Vice-Chair for Policy for the Congressional Progressive Caucus. I also serve as the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.
And like my Progressive Caucus colleagues, I am deeply concerned about the time wasted by House Republicans and their lack of reasonable action to fund the government and act on issues the American people care about.
We are ten days away from a potential government shutdown. Just ten days. We have a bipartisan roadmap available right in front of us. President Biden and Speaker McCarthy reached an agreement on government funding levels through the Fiscal Responsibility Act, but House Republicans have reneged on this agreement and cannot agree on a path forward.
The only appropriations bill they have managed to pass is an unserious, unreasonable Military Construction/VA funding bill. Funding our veterans should be bipartisan, and yet extremist Republicans used the MilCon/VA bill as a vehicle to initiate their plan to ban abortion nationally! Ban abortion – no exceptions. I remember they were talking about this in October of last year in the elections. “I’m for the exceptions, I’m for the exceptions.” Especially those members that represented close districts. But what do they do in this appropriations bill – the only one that passed?
It is deplorable that the GOP would start holding back abortion access by blocking the VA from implementing its interim final rule on abortion. And what was the interim final rule? The Secretary promulgated in September of last year. He said the VA will offer abortion services to those women veterans whose life is in danger, or whose health is in danger, or who have been raped or are a victim of incest. This is fully consistent with the Hyde Amendment. This put women veterans at risk by making it harder for them to access life-saving procedures. Democrats in good conscience could not vote for the MILCON/VA package and endorse the removal of bodily autonomy for those who served our country. And that’s the irony! The very people who have worn the uniform to protect all our rights - they unanimously on their side have sought to take away their rights and their freedoms.
Not only that, but Republicans went out of their way to further attack and marginalize the LGBTQ servicemembers, basically saying that the VA would have license to discriminate VA contractors by restricting access to safe and necessary evidence-based care for transgender veterans.
Now House Republicans are attempting, unsuccessfully, to advance appropriations bills that include massive cuts to programs like SNAP and Medicaid that veterans rely on. And the CR they proposed would do the same. The House Republicans appropriations process is an affront to veterans and all Americans.
Every day, Speaker McCarthy and his extremist Republican colleagues bring us closer and closer to a government shutdown. Shutting down the government is the worst thing the House Republicans can do for veterans and for our country. I know the Progressive Caucus will work with our Democratic colleagues to find common ground with Republicans and avert a shutdown, but Republicans cannot continue to govern in this way. Playing political games with veterans and the country must stop. Speaker McCarthy must bring a spending agreement based on fiscal responsibility and fairness, and without these extreme riders, to the floor so we can avoid a shutdown. Thank you.