Van Hollen: Radio Silence from Speaker Boehner on Budget Negotiations

Statement

Today Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee, joined Neil Cavuto on Fox Business to discuss his effort to block another disastrous Tea Party shutdown of the federal government. Below are excerpts from the interview, and the full interview is available here:

"Exactly this time two years ago, you had Speaker John Boehner and Mitch McConnell saying there's not going to be a government shutdown, and then we had a shameful 16-day government shutdown just a short time later. Two years ago, it was because Senator Cruz and others said they were going to shut down the government in order to shut down the Affordable Care Act, to shut down Obamacare. This time around you have Senator Cruz and others saying that they are going to shut down the government in order to defund women's health programs and Planned Parenthood. And so as of right now, we, the Democrats, have asked Speaker Boehner to come to the table so we can work this out, but there has been radio silence on the other end."

"I just introduced with my colleagues a bill yesterday called the Prevent a Government Shutdown Act, and the first provision in there is asking the Speaker, saying the Speaker shall appoint a group of negotiators -- Republicans, Democrats, House, Senate -- to try in the next couple of weeks -- because as you said, the clock is ticking -- to come up with an agreement to avoid a government shutdown."

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