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WASHINGTON, DC — Following a failed vote on an extreme Republican Continuing Resolution, Congressman Paul D. Tonko (NY-20) today condemned the Republican Party’s inability to come together with Democrats to advance a budget agreement. Instead of bringing forward the bipartisan agreement House Speaker Kevin McCarthy made with President Biden months ago, they reneged on that deal in pursuit of draconian cuts that have put the nation on a crash course towards a GOP government shutdown.

Tonko stood before the U.S. Capitol today to deliver a message urging for action to avoid the looming shutdown.

“We’re now hours out from an unnecessary and harmful government shutdown, and the Republican-led House still has no viable plan to get us out of this mess. We’ve reached this dire moment because extreme House Republicans are refusing to fund the government unless they can shove draconian cuts, as well as unrelated, harmful policies — like restricting abortion access — into their legislation,” Tonko said.

Tonko continued, “If our government shuts down, our service members and federal employees will be forced to work without pay, and essential services Americans rely on will be severely degraded. Enough is enough: Speaker McCarthy and House Republicans must put an end to this road to nowhere and join with House Democrats and the Senate to end this painful episode and get back to work.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has delivered multiple rebukes to House Republicans, calling a shutdown “an actively harmful proposition” that would “take the important progress being made on a number of key issues and drag it backward.”

According to new data released by House Budget Committee Democrats, a Republican government shutdown would have extensive impacts on New Yorkers.

• 41,624 active duty and reserve personnel serving our nation's armed forces in New York would be forced to serve without pay
• 71,921 federal workers in New York would be furloughed or forced to work without pay, in addition to the many employees of businesses with government contracts who could be laid off, furloughed, or see their hours cut.
• The Small Business Administration would stop processing small business loans, halting a program that provides $1,298,267,900 in funding to small businesses in New York every year.
• 2,910,493 Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) beneficiaries in New York would lose access to benefits in a prolonged shutdown.
• The Department of Agriculture would be forced to stop processing farm loans which provide $53,347,000 in funding for farmers in New York every year.