AFA of PA ACTION ALERT
October 16, 2013
Issue
Government Shutdown Ends – Debt Ceiling Raised Until February 7th — Obamacare Barely Addressed — How Did Your Congressman Vote?
Details
Tonight the 16 day government shutdown came to an end. The barricades around all the open air memorials in Washington, DC will be removed, you will no longer be banned from walking on the Washington Mall and Americans will once again be allowed to take pictures of Mount Rushmore . . . and the federal government will continue spending our tax dollars at breakneck speed.
Earlier in the evening the Senate voted 81-18 to pass HR 2775 — Senator Casey voted ‘yea’ and Senator Toomey voted ‘nay.’ A couple hours ago the House voted 285 to 144 to pass the same bill. The 144 ‘no’ votes were all Republicans, only 87 Republicans voted ‘yea,’ so this is a “solution” that the Democrats fully own.
Here are some of the details of the bill:
- Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said she and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) would hold a breakfast meeting on Thursday, the start of a budget conference that both chambers agreed to in order to “negotiate broader fiscal reforms” and report its work to Congress by Dec. 13.
- Only change to Obamacare – a new process to verify the income claims of people applying for federal health insurance subsidies.
- fund the government until Jan. 15 and raise the debt ceiling until Feb. 7
- hundreds of millions of dollars more to fix flood-damaged roads in Colorado
- back pay for federal workers, including pay for approximately 800,000 workers who were deemed nonessential and furloughed during the shutdown.
- States that used their own funds to carry on government operations would also be paid back by the federal government.
How did Pennsylvania’s Congressmen do?
Lou Barletta — Yea
Robert Brady — Yea
Matthew Cartwright — Yea
Charles Dent — Yea
Michael Doyle — Yea
Chakah Fattah — Yea
Mike Fitzpatrick — Yea
Jim Gerlach — Yea
Mike Kelly — Yea
Tom Marino — Nay
Pat Meehan — Yea
Tim Murphy — Yea
Scott Perry — Nay
Joseph Pitts — Nay
Keith Rothfus — Nay
Allyson Schwartz — Yea
Bill Shuster — Yea
Glenn Thompson — Yea
Action Steps
Contact your Congressman and let him or her know what you think of the vote on HR 2775. Click here for contact information.