More on the shutdown
Arizona’s delegation was as divided as the rest of Congress when the federal shutdown arrived.
Arizona’s congressional delegation seemed as stubborn about solving the partisan budget stalemate as the rest of their colleagues in Washington on Friday night.
As the deadline approached, Arizona’s members alternately tried to establish why the shutdown was inevitable and what needed to happen to soften the effects of one.
On Thursday, six of the eight members in Arizona’s House delegation voted against the 30-day stopgap spending plan, known as a continuing resolution.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., joined most Senate Democrats in voting down the measure in the upper chamber. U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who is battling a brain tumor, did not vote.
Flake, however, injected a note of optimism in an interview with the Washington Post not long after the shutdown. He said, based on a commitment from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, that he expected an agreement on Saturday by lawmakers to the House stopgap spending plan that would keep the government funded through Feb. 8 — and a vote on the bipartisan bill to protect young migrants known as “dreamers” from deportation.
The House plan was largely similar to the temporary spending bill that also passed in December. It included a six-year reauthorization for the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program and would have delayed some health-care taxes.
Two of Arizona’s Republicans — U.S. Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar — joined the state’s four Democrats in voting against the latest measure, though for different reasons.
Those GOP members cited frustration at the lack of a permanent spending plan and pointed to the measures that passed the House months ago.
The Democrats, meanwhile, noted the lack of action on about 700,000 “dreamers” who entered the U.S. illegally when their parents brought them as children. But the Democrats also sought to cast the stalemate about other unresolved issues as well.
“I don’t want to see the government shut down, but at some point, we need to fight,” Biggs wrote in a tweet. “The House sent our budget to the Senate over 100 days ago. We need predictability for our military — not a never-ending series of CR’s.”
All three of Arizona’s House members who are in competitive districts clamored for action to mitigate the financial effects of a shutdown on the military and other federal workers.