By Doug Reardon
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Georgia’s delegation of Congressional Democrats is urging their Republican colleagues to return to Washington as the government shutdown enters its seventh day.
Many members of the House of Representatives returned home after passing their version of a short-term spending bill in late September.
The Senate was unable to pass a version before the Oct. 1 deadline, leading to the shutdown.
Several vote attempts since then have failed in the upper chamber, and any changes they make would then need final approval from the House.
In a letter addressed to House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, representatives Hank Johnson, Nikema Williams, Lucy McBath, Sanford Bishop, David Scott and Democratic senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock urge GOP members to get back to the capital in the event they’re needed.
“We are shocked to learn that you have decided the U.S. House of Representatives will not even come to work this week,” the letter states. “House Republicans have now not come to work for 18 days.”
The fight over funding the government comes down to health care.
Democrats said they refuse to support a bill that doesn’t include full funding for the nation’s Medicaid program.
Republicans want to slash nearly a trillion dollars of what they call waste and fraud in the health care system.
Democrats also want to renew Affordable Care Act tax credits that lower healthcare costs for millions of Americans through the health care program colloquially known as Obamacare. The credits are set to expire at the end of the year.
“Overwhelming majorities of Americans want Congress to act to prevent huge increases in health care costs and to end the government shutdown,” the letter states. “We urge you to call the U.S. House back to Washington immediately to engage in good-faith bipartisan efforts to address these issues.”
But Republicans are holding tough on the cuts, and want Democrats to fund the government — even if only for a few weeks — before the conversations about health care are had. Republicans in the Senate still need a handful of Democrats to support any legislation for it to pass.
“Right now, we need to pass a clean CR, something that the Democrats supported 13 times when they were in control the last several years,” said state Rep. Houston Gaines (R-Athens).
Gaines is currently running for an open House seat vacated by Georgia Republican Congressman Mike Collins, who is running for Ossoff’s seat.
“You think about Hurricane Helene, the impact that’s having on Georgians when the federal government, frankly, has been a challenge to deal with for particularly our farmers and ag communities, now they’re going to see a slowdown in those payments,” Gaines said. “So we need to get the government back open and a clean CR is the way to get it done.”