Dem calls for no weekends off until shutdown is averted

Rep. Cheri Bustos wants the House to stay in session around the clock — including weekends — until Congress passes a spending bill to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month.

The Illinois Democrat spearheaded a letter signed by 79 Democrats urging Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to keep the House in session continuously as Congress wrestles with the deadline. 

“The American people can’t afford another self-inflicted Washington wound on our economy. The stakes are just too high to take even a day off,” Bustos said in a Friday House floor speech.

{mosads}The federal government will shut down on Oct. 1 if Congress does not pass a spending bill in time.

Lawmakers have a limited number of days left to solve the impasse. Many conservative Republicans want to use the spending bill as leverage to defund Planned Parenthood in the wake of controversial undercover videos depicting the organization’s fetal tissue program.

However, a government spending bill that defunds Planned Parenthood does not have the votes to pass the Senate and President Obama has threatened to veto such a measure.

Five more scheduled legislative days remain before the deadline. But one of those days, Sept. 24, will be dominated by Pope Francis’s address to Congress.