Houlahan co-sponsors anti-shutdown bill

Calling the recently concluded U.S. government shutdown “a painful experience for our community,” U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan on Wednesday discussed the bill she and others introduced to protect federal employees from being used as “pawns in future political negotiations.”

The bill, called the Shutdown to End All Shutdowns (SEAS) Act and crafted by Houlahan and three other new members of Congress, would seek to transfer the financial hardship of future shutdowns to both the executive branch and members of the U.S. House and Senate.

“Intentionally shutting the government down to negotiate policy differences is irresponsible and failed policy,” said Houlahan, D6th, of Easttown on Tuesday at a Capitol Hill press conference to announce the legislation, joined by fellow Democrats U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, and U.S. Rep. Colin Allred of Texas.

“As we recently saw, millions of American families are adversely affected when our government fails to do its most basic responsibilities. We cannot let this happen again and this bill will appropriately put the pain in situations like these on the executive and legislative branches rather than on the people that we serve,” she said.

In addition to shifting the hardship caused by a federal government shutdown to those responsible for it, the SEAS Act would allow government to continue operating under an automatic continuing resolution for as long as Congress and the president fail to agree on an appropriations measure.

“This was a painful experience for our community, for our state, and for our country,” Houlahan said in a telephone interview. “It really affected a lot of people” — from Foreign Service workers from her district who were stranded in Togo, to mushroom industry leaders stifled in a bid to begin using a new pesticide, to a TSA agent forced to withdraw a child from pre-school because of lack of funds.

“This is not the first time that this has happened, but I hope it is the last time that it happens,” she said.

The idea behind the SEAS bill is to keep any future failures to

pass budget legislation from withholding pay to the federal workers whose agencies are not reauthorized and instead cut off pay to Congress and the White House, the new congressmen and women said. And to force legislators to continue negotiations rather than vacate the capital, the bill would require daily quorum calls — “present votes” — for members of Congress.

In the executive branch, the use of federal funds would also be prohibited for bonuses, receptions, entertainment, exercise facilities and golf courses during a shutdown. Funds could only be spent on national

“There is a lot of apprehension as to whether there will be another future shutdown, and how long that will last. When you really don’t know what is in store, it’s hard to plan, it’s hard to budget.” — Guy Ciarrocchi, president and chief executive officer of the Chester County Chamber of Business and Industry

security and natural disasters.

The latest shutdown — the third of President Donald Trump’s presidency — ended Friday after he agreed to reopen the government for three weeks and give lawmakers time to negotiate a deal.

An estimated 800,000 federal workers nationwide went without pay during the 35-day impasse, which affected nine departments and other federal agencies making up roughly a fourth of the federal government. There are abut 2,380 federal workers who live in Chester County, but it is unclear how many were directly affected by the shutdown, being told to stay home.

The impasse began with Trump’s Dec. 22 decision to partially close the government when Congress did not allocate $5.7 billion to build a wall along the Mexican border as he requested. Democrats, who took control of the U.S. House this month, refused his request, leaving some agencies without money.

Houlahan’s bill to put pressure on legislators and the administration to forgo the increasing use of shutdown politics was greeted with qualified praise by the county’s largest business group.

Guy Ciarrocchi, president and chief executive officer of the Chester County Chamber of Business and Industry, said that discussions among members of this organization had centered on the uncertainty that the shutdown had created for the future.

“There is a lot of apprehension as to whether there will be another future shutdown, and how long that will last,” he said in a telephone interview Friday. “When you really don’t know what is in store, it’s

hard to plan, it’s hard to budget. If they don’t reach a resolution (this month) will a 30-day shutdown turn into a 300-day shutdown?”

Chamber members had experienced some inconveniences in the recently concluded shutdown, such as delays on the processing of small business loans, but none had experienced any massive problems, he said.

The idea of using legislation to avoid future shutdowns, such as the bill offered by Houlahan and her colleagues, was a “nice first step,” he said, but what business members in his organization want more than anything is a return to budget talks that don’t involve “take it or leave it” threats.

“This is a symptom of a problem. It results in a sense of unease in business,” Ciarrocchi said. “There is no real negotiation or governing going on. Let’s go back to budgeting,” where one agency is not held hostage for the sake of another.

“It’s dysfunctional,” he said. “It might sound overly simplistic, but none of our members would run their businesses like this.”

Rep. Chrissy Houlahan