LEADER JEFFRIES: "ALL WE WILL NEED IS A HANDFUL OF SO-CALLED TRADITIONAL REPUBLICANS TO JOIN WITH US IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE"

Press Release

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Well, good evening, Joy. Great to be with you. And you're absolutely correct. It's just for show. These are not serious individuals, but they are being led by individuals like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is driving the House of Representatives toward a government shutdown that would be reckless and hurt the American people because we are wasting time doing things that have no shot of becoming law, like cutting the Defense Secretary's salary to $1 per year and also engaging in this illegitimate impeachment inquiry when there is a bipartisan bill moving through the Senate right now that 77 senators voted to advance yesterday, that would fund the government in a way that meets the needs of everyday Americans, provide support for the Ukrainian war effort, provide relief to everyday Americans who have been hit hard by extreme weather events across the country and also doesn't include any of these extreme policy poison pill amendments like trying to undermine reproductive freedom for women. That is the only option forward.

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Absolutely nothing. President Joe Biden has done his job. In fact, we all did our jobs a few months ago when we resolved the reckless, extreme MAGA Republican default crisis. Came to an agreement. More than 300 members of the House of Representatives supported that agreement. Strong bipartisan vote in the Senate. It came to the President's desk. President Biden signed it into law. And that agreement included setting the top line spending numbers for the upcoming fiscal year. But a few days after that agreement was signed into law, the extreme MAGA Republicans in the House decided that they were going to go back on the agreement that they themselves negotiated and supported overwhelmingly on the House floor. Why? Because apparently they want to drive us toward this government shutdown or demand payment for an extreme ransom note, which, as you've articulated, Joy, includes things like cutting and slashing funding for public education. They want to impose, discontinue, march toward undermining reproductive freedom, criminalizing abortion care, cutting access to Social Security that would hurt millions of older Americans over time, you know, do things like undermine public housing and public health and things of this nature. It's extraordinary that they want to jam their right-wing ideology down the throats of the American people and -- unless we pay those ransom notes -- shut down the government. These are unserious people.

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That is what should happen and we are calling for an up or down vote when the Senate sends over a bipartisan continuing resolution to fund the government and meet the needs of the American people. And if that happens, we will provide a substantial number of votes -- the lion's share of votes -- and all we will need is a handful of so-called traditional Republicans to join with us in the best interests of the American people and avoid an extreme MAGA Republican shutdown that will hurt everyone.

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It's my view Joy that all options should be on the table, and we should be able to come together in a bipartisan way to do the basic things that we are here to do, which is fund the government and meet the needs of everyday Americans.

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