VanHollen on WBAL: Republican Leaders are Short on Followers in Effort to Prevent Government Shutdown
Statement
Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee, joined WBAL's Mary Beth Marsden yesterday to discuss his effort -- including legislation -- to prevent a government shutdown. Congressman Van Hollen toured the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to highlight the negative impact a government shutdown would have on care for new patients, including children with rare pediatric cancers. Below are excerpts of the interview:
"Speaker Boehner has not reached out to Democrats to try to work out an agreement right now, the argument is between speaker Boehner and his own Republican caucus -- the Tea Party wing of the caucus. Many of them have said that they will oppose any bill that keeps open the government if it includes funding for women's health programs."
"Apparently they are willing to shut down the government. As I've said, they are entitled to their views on this issue, but they are not entitled to shut down the government in order to try to impose their views on the country. And that's why Speaker Boehner and Republican leaders are against a government shutdown. But apparently these are leaders without followers, because they have big factions in their party that are intent on shutting down the government."
"People are familiar with the hit to the economy -- $24 billion -- but there's also a huge human toll. And at NIH we have one of the great national clinical centers. So Americans who have rare diseases or very serious illnesses -- where their local doctors don't know how to treat them -- come to the clinical center at NIH, including a lot of kids with rare diseases like pediatric cancers. And the last time the government shut down, NIH had to turn away hundreds of people with these very serious illnesses. Today I met a boy who was there getting his lifesaving treatments, and the reality is that if the government shuts down, other kids will not be able to get important treatments during that government shutdown."
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