Freshman Republican to Senate: Get to work to avert shutdown

A freshman House Republican is telling the Senate to get to work if they’re so worried about the possibility of a government shutdown.

With officials on both sides of the aisle over the weekend discussing the chances for a shutdown, Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R-N.Y.) said Monday that the Senate should follow the House’s lead on cutting spending, even if it meant giving up their scheduled week back home. 

“I have only been here 40 days and may be new to the process, but I must wonder why the Senate is taking this week off if they are so concerned about a shutdown on March 4th,” Buerkle said in a statement.

“I understand that today is Presidents’ Day, but why not start work this Tuesday instead of waiting another week to get the Continuing Resolution enacted,” the congresswoman added. “We are about to hit the ‘fiscal wall’, yet the Senate is in recess.”

Before it left for a district work week, the House passed a measure that cut roughly $60 billion from current spending levels. With that legislation widely seen as having little chance in the Senate, lawmakers will have just days to reach an agreement to keep the government funded past March 4 once they return to Washington. 

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the chairman of the House Budget Committee, said this weekend that even a temporary government spending measure would need to include budget cuts, reiterating what House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said last week. 

Republicans on Capitol Hill have also charged that Democrats are the ones who seem to be rooting for a shutdown, but Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) declared recently that the GOP was laying the groundwork for that sort of outcome. 

Buerkle narrowly defeated then-Rep. Dan Maffei (D-N.Y.) in November to punch her ticket to Washington.