Senator says we must compromise to avoid a government shutdown

Today, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill made the following statement after the Senate’s passage of a three-week continuing resolution, needed to keep the government running after the current funding expires March 18. McCaskill is continuing to stress the need for bipartisan compromise as the Senate works to address our deficit and debt in the long-term budget. McCaskill voted for today’s measure, which passed with a vote of 87-13.

“Today’s vote was a temporary solution to the much larger problem of how we’re going to fund the government while finding responsible spending cuts that will help reduce the deficit. It’s important to do everything we can to avoid a government shutdown, which would have a huge impact on ordinary Americans, but we’re going to have to get serious about compromise,” McCaskill said. “There’s no question that cuts have to be made, but they must be done so in a responsible way that are in line with the priorities of Missouri’s families.”

The Continuing Resolution came after the Senate voted to reject both the Democratic and Republican spending bill proposals last week. McCaskill voted against both measures. She opposed the Republican proposal because it focused all of its $61 billion in cuts on the 17% of the budget that goes to domestic discretionary spending and because it would have forced irresponsible cuts to priorities like education. She opposed the Democratic plan, which only cut $6.2 billion, because she did not feel it went far enough.

McCaskill has focused on spending restraint and fiscal responsibility since she came to the Senate. She has introduced legislation with her colleagues Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Bob Corker (R-TN), that would rein in spending both in the short- and long-term, respectively. She introduced Pay-As-You-Go legislation to require that any new tax cuts or spending be deficit neutral. She also supported legislation to establish a fiscal ‘task force’ to make recommendations on how Congress should approach the deficit and debt in the long term, which led to the creation of the President’s Fiscal Commission in 2010.