Time for Democrats to end the shutdown shenanigans

Like millions of Americans, I’m deeply frustrated by this unnecessary government shutdown that was easily avoidable. It’s hurting families, small businesses, and service members across the nation, which is why I voted for a clean extension of existing funding levels that have previously passed both the House and the Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support. I’ve supported these funding bills under the previous administration as well, and here’s the kicker: so did Senators Schumer and Gillibrand and the rest of the New York City delegation.

Yet today, we find ourselves in a government shutdown because Senate Democrats, led by our own Senator Chuck Schumer, are refusing to pass the exact same funding bill with the same language and levels they’ve supported before not once, twice, or thrice – but four times since March 2024!

So why is this happening if Republicans now control the Senate, House, and White House? It’s simple math. In the Senate, funding bills require 60 votes, meaning at least seven Democrats would need to join the 53 Republicans to pass any funding bill. When Democrats had majority control of the Senate, Republicans joined them to support these types of short-term funding bills to keep the government open because it is the right thing to do for the American people.

This is personal for our district. We’re proud to be home to U.S. Coast Guard Sector New York, Fort Hamilton Army Base, multiple national parks and two Veterans Affairs healthcare facilities. Since the shutdown began on Oct. 1, I’ve worked to ensure our VA hospital and clinic remain open without any interruption so veterans continue receiving the care they deserve. I’ve also made it a priority to keep our national parks open and accessible, personally visiting these sites to ensure they remain clean, safe, and maintained. However, the consequences of this shutdown are already starting to be seen in other areas of life with airport delays across the country due to shutdown staffing shortages and delays in everyday services such as applying for Social Security, disability, tax refunds, passports, and citizenship.

Every day this shutdown continues, it costs taxpayers $400 million and the White House estimates a $15 billion weekly hit to our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Locally, New York’s economy could lose $1.2 billion per week — with a projected 2,600 jobs lost statewide, according to the Council of Economic Advisors.

Additionally, food assistance for nearly 3 million New Yorkers — including more than 1.1 million children — is at risk of disruption. Fortunately, President Trump stepped in to ensure the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) nutrition program remains funded during the shutdown by using tariff revenue, protecting the benefits of 438,000 women and children in New York alone.

However, if the government is not reopened by Oct. 15, more pain will be inflicted. Roughly 115,000 federal employees across our region, including more than 61,000 brave service members throughout our state will not receive paychecks, potentially forcing them to make difficult choices regarding rent, food, and other basic necessities. This is wrong, and in solidarity with these service members and federal employees, I have asked Treasury to withhold my own pay until the shutdown is over.

The Democrats say they’re waging this shutdown war because they want an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at the end of the year. However, for all their talk about healthcare, their “no votes” are blocking $1.4 billion for New York’s safety-net hospitals, including $75 million for hospitals in our own district. I have been clear about my willingness to address the rising cost of healthcare resulting from the fact that President Obama’s Affordable Care Act was never really affordable as was sold to the American people.

However, it needs to be done in conjunction with reining in the health insurance companies. Since the Affordable Care Act took effect in 2014, insurance companies’ profits have skyrocketed 230% while denying as many as one out of three claims and receiving your tax dollars in subsidies. I am not the only Republican willing to work across the aisle to address these healthcare concerns. But it simply does not make any sense to keep our government closed and create a myriad of other problems for something that does not expire until the end of the year, which, by the way, is the expiration date chosen and set by the very Democrats now complaining.

It’s time for Senate Democrats to do the responsible thing and vote to reopen the government with the exact legislation they already supported just six months ago, while we continue bipartisan negotiations.

As a member of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, I remain committed to working across the aisle, as I always have, to find common ground on the issues that matter most to our district and the nation.

(Rep. Nicole Malliotakis is the Republican congresswoman representing Staten Island and part of Brooklyn.)