CONGRESSMAN BISHOP URGES BIPARTISAN PATH FORWARD TO GET CONGRESS BACK TO WORK FOR THE PEOPLE

WASHINGTON – Congressman Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. (GA-02) issued the following statement after the Republican majority caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives failed – for a third time – to come to a consensus and elect a Speaker:

“The House of Representatives has been without a Speaker for three weeks, resulting from 10 months of a dysfunctional Republican majority which is divided against itself. An extreme, Republican, MAGA minority created this chaos by punishing bipartisanship and holding their own conference hostage.

“Last year and in the year before that, Congress was able to pass laws that helped us recover from a worldwide pandemic, make a bipartisan commitment to rebuild and repair our country’s infrastructure, revitalize manufacturing in the United States, and fund the government so it can work for the American people. Yet, when Democrats and the President stepped up this June to help Republicans ensure that America pays its debts and compromised on topline federal spending amounts for the rest of this fiscal year, two things happened. Within weeks of that agreement, Republicans were forced by extremists in their own ranks to break their word by abandoning the bipartisan agreement. Then, those same extremists formed a circular firing squad to take down their own leader who negotiated the bipartisan agreement.

“At the outset of this Congress, after 15 rounds of voting, the Speaker changed House rules and gave up vast power to a handful of Republican MAGA extremists in order to secure the Speaker’s gavel. Nearly three weeks ago, after Democrats worked with Republicans to find a compromise that kept the government open and working for the people, those extremists used this power to dethrone that same Speaker.

“Let us be clear, this is a crisis of their own creation, and – unfortunately – their continued infighting is paralyzing the House of Representatives.

“And there is much at stake for our nation. We are less than a month away from a government shutdown, our national security is in jeopardy because we have yet to pass a bipartisan national defense bill, the Farm Bill remains in limbo, and the House cannot vote to address emergency crises like the Hamas-Israel war, Russia’s invasion of democratic Ukraine, and China’s efforts to undermine American interests – all of which threaten our country’s security and raise the cost of food, fuel, and other resources Americans need every day.

“Despite this, Democrats remain united and at the ready to take a bipartisan pathway forward based on common-sense solutions that put people over politics so that Republicans and Democrats can meet America in the middle and Congress can get back to work for our country.”

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