WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine released the following statement after the House of Representatives passed a bill to reopen the government last night and sent it over to the Senate to consider: 

“Yesterday, the House passed funding bills that the Senate already supported in the last Congress. Leader McConnell should let us take a vote on those bills to reopen government and force President Trump to decide whether to sign them. Virginia is home to more than 170,000 federal employees and tens of thousands of government contractors. If we first end President Trump’s shutdown and stop the pain he is putting on them and their families, then we can focus from now until February 8^th on agreeing to a reasonable approach on border security.”

Warner and Kaine have been outspoken against President Trump’s use of a government shutdown as a negotiating tactic. Virginia is home to more than 170,000 federal employees. The bills that passed through the House would fund the Department of Homeland Security through February 8^th and remaining departments through September 30^th.

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