Rep. Tonko Issues Statement on Votes to Reject Temporary Budget Band-Aid

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 -- Rep. Paul D. Tonko, D-New York, issued the following statement after voting to reject a short-term Republican stopgap funding measure that did not include long-term funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a permanent fix for "DREAMers" under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or funding for major disaster relief:

"As the current majority party, Republicans in Congress should be able to keep the lights on for the federal government. Instead, they have spent all their time providing a $1.5 trillion tax break to the wealthy and well-connected. Now, as Congress leaves for the year, children will go without healthcare, communities will be unable to recover from hurricanes and wildfires and DREAMers risk being sent away from the only country they have ever known.

"That means while the top 0.1 percent ring in the New Year expecting a tax cut of nearly $100,000, millions of working families throughout the country will still be at risk of receiving notices that their child's health insurance coverage is about to expire. DREAMers will wake up in January in the only country they've ever known, uncertain about whether they will be forced out to a foreign country come March. Disaster victims will continue to face untold hardship and, in the case of Puerto Rico, new and higher federal taxes. Critical national defense and domestic priorities will be continue to be funded on autopilot, unable to make needed investments and adjustments that make us safer and grow the economy.

"I voted no on this farce of a bill because kicking the can down the road, making sure kids have health insurance, DREAMers are not ripped away from their families, and America's national defense and domestic priorities are adequately funded are far more important than Members of Congress getting to leave for a long holiday vacation."