WASHINGTON, DC -- President Donald Trump is once again seeking to override Congress on bipartisan spending laws and is putting the country on a path to a federal government shutdown later this fall.

 

In an attempted end-run around Congress’ funding power, the Trump Administration is trying to use a “pocket recission” to cancel nearly $5 billion in federal funding that was previously approved on a bipartisan basis. By refusing to provide legally required funding for programs and activities it does not support, the Trump Administration is attempting to flout the law and inflict harm on taxpayers.

 

U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) a leading member of the Senate Appropriations Committee says Trump’s maneuver is unlawful, inflammatory, and clearly signals that President Trump is pushing for partisan gridlock and a federal government shutdown later this fall.

 

Reed says that he and his Democratic colleagues don’t want a wasteful, costly, government shutdown but they will not back down from defending the Constitution and fighting to protect the American people from cuts to education, job training, and agencies that fight inflation. Reed stated:

 

“President Trump wants to scrap education funding, halt promising federal research, and claw back public health and humanitarian aid to the detriment of American taxpayers. Democrats won’t stand idly by and let him circumvent Congress and ignore the Constitution.

 

“If President Trump insists on grinding the federal government to a halt, it would take a two-thirds vote in Congress to stop him, and that is extremely unlikely given the current Republican unwillingness to follow the laws they helped enact and to provide meaningful checks and balances against executive overreach.

 

“It’s time for Congressional Republicans to stand up to Trump’s increasingly erratic and king-like actions. If they don’t, they are setting up a government shutdown.”