To watch Senator Capito’s remarks, click here or on the image above.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a member of Senate Republican Leadership and a leader on the Senate Appropriations Committee, spoke at a bicameral press conference with U.S. Senate and House Republican leaders today on Congressional Democrats’ decision to shut down the government.

Senator Capito joined Republican leaders in calling on Democrats to come to the table and vote to pass the bipartisan, clean continuing resolution to reopen the government and fund essential services that Americans rely on.

HIGHLIGHTS:

ON DEMOCRATS HOLDING ESSENTIAL FUNDING HOSTAGE: “The resounding theme that I’ve heard today is hijack and hostage. The American people are being held hostage, and the process has been totally hijacked. We’ve heard repeatedly how simple, how nonpartisan, how easy the bill that Leader Thune has showed us today is in terms of keeping the government open, how easy that is to vote for to give us the seven weeks to work out our differences.”

ON RETURNING THE FUNDING PROCESS TO REGULAR ORDER: “The process of appropriating has been hijacked. And that’s fine for the Democrats, because last year, Chuck Schumer did not put one single appropriations bill on the Senate floor. Our Leader has put three on the Senate floor and our committee has passed eight bills out of appropriations. That’s the process to get the will of the American people, where their priorities are, where they want to see us as a nation go with spending their hard-earned tax dollars…They’ve hijacked a process that we need to have in order to demonstrate to the American people what we promised them in this election and what President Trump promised them. We’re going to go back to regular order. We’re going to appropriate the dollars. We’re going to be fully transparent…We’re going to put our own imprint on this for the American people. That’s what they wanted when they voted us in and that’s what we’re going to give them.”

THE SHUTDOWN’S IMPACT ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE: “So while they’ve held hostage the American people to keep them from doing things that they like, like touring the Capitol or accessing benefits or the services that are provided by our federal government, they’ve also hijacked a process.”

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