Fedorchak on Democrat-led government shutdown

Republicans are simply unwilling to compromise on common sense: 

Americans don't want to be providing Medicaid and health care for illegal aliens.  

We don't want to compromise on providing the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Fund to help rural hospitals throughout this country.  

We don't want to compromise on eliminating work requirements for able-bodied, healthy Americans who receive benefits.  

I would encourage the Democrats across the aisle to listen to what they've said in the past. We've got Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, Nancy, Pelosi—all firmly opposed to government shutdowns, talking about how damaging they are for Americans. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has said shutting down the government should not happen when you don't get your way. It was her very first Floor speech.  

It sends a strong message that the Democrats really are willing to put politics over people.  

What we have provided is a very common sense, simple solution—something that Democrats have supported many times in the past, and Republicans have too. We went along with continuing resolutions 13 times under President Biden.  

The Democrats digging their heels in like this just sends a very strong message that they're supporting politics over people, and political theater over problem solving.   

“I hope that some of the Democrats start to think about this more clearly and think about what they have said in the past,” Fedorchak said, noting that many Democratic leaders over the years have gone on record saying government shutdowns hurt Americans and it’s not the right way to do business. 

“Republicans passed this clean Continuing Resolution with nothing attached to it – just a clean extension of government funding as it stands today,” Fedorchak said at a news conference.  

“We’re not willing to compromise on common sense, and what the Democrats are proposing and what they are asking for is not common sense. It does not reflect what North Dakotans want, and quite honestly, would be pretty bad for North Dakota.” 

Fedorchak said the Democrats’ plan increases spending while taking away the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Fund, removing work requirements in Medicaid and restoring nursing home staffing mandates that North Dakota facilities have opposed. 

Fedorchak said the ACA premium tax credits do not expire until the end of the year. “We are absolutely working on solutions for that program,” she said, “and have made it very clear to the Democrats that that’s something that we want to work together on, in a bipartisan way, to figure out what to do with that.” 

“I don’t support them expiring and going away entirely,” she said. “But I do think we need to reform them so that they help correct the big challenges in the system, which are – we want costs to go down. We want health care costs to go down. We want health care outcomes to get better. We want people to be healthier. And so, government programs should be aimed at achieving those two goals. Currently, this one does not really accomplish that first goal, for sure, in terms of making health care less expensive.” 

She said Democrats could have made the program permanent and didn’t, suggesting even they viewed it as a temporary program to encourage more people to get health insurance. 

“It’s expanded significantly. And I think we need to rethink how it performs and redirect and reform it. And that’s what we will work on after we get past this government shutdown,” she said. 

U.S. Congresswoman Julie Fedorchak says Democrats are “holding the government hostage” when commenting on the shutdown of the federal government, which began at 12 a.m. on October 1. 

Rep. Fedorchak criticized Democrats, saying, “They have used this opportunity to create attention to use it for political theater to advance many of their radical ideas.” 

Rep. Fedorchak characterized the Democratic plan as “providing Medicare for illegals.” 

The congresswoman stressed that republicans “Provided [Democrats] a clear, clean way forward to provide funding at the current levels.”  

Medicare and Medicaid will see minimal impact from the shutdown through at least the end of December, which is the timeline Medicaid is currently funded through. Open enrollment for Medicare set to start Oct. 15 will go forward as planned, according to U.S. Rep. Julie Fedorchak, R-N.D. 

The delegation has been vocal about the shutdown. Fedorchak spoke about it during her Monday tele-townhall, and both Sens. John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer have spoken to the Tribune about the situation.  

All three expressed frustration at Democrats in the Senate for choosing not to back what they say is a “clean” Continuing Resolution. 

North Dakota Representative Julie Fedorchak says the current stalemate puts critical farm policy and government funding at risk.  

“We got our work done by passing a very nonpartisan, commonsense solution to this, which is stopgap funding in a clean, continuing resolution to allow us to continue our work on 12 separate appropriations bills and to appropriately fund our government.” 

The shutdown delays unfinished work, including the ‘skinny’ farm bill.  

“Thank goodness we got the bulk of it, probably 85 percent of the funding, passed in the Working Family Tax Cut Plan,” said Fedorchak.  

“We included the crop insurance reform, we included the reference price increases, we included ag export assistance, and research.”  

Important components, such as funding for the Conservation Reserve Program and year-round E-15 remain on the ‘to do’ list. Fedorchak said she hopes lawmakers can move past political theater to avoid a lengthy shutdown. 

U.S. Rep. Julie Fedorchak expressed frustration and disappointment Thursday over the ongoing federal government shutdown, blaming congressional Democrats. 

Speaking during a virtual press conference with North Dakota media, Rep. Fedorchak said Democrats are prolonging the shutdown by tying negotiations to extensions of Affordable Care Act tax credits. She accused Senate Democrats of halting progress for political reasons. 

Healthcare costs were a central theme of the press conference. Rep. Fedorchak said she is focused on reducing expenses for families and clarified that she does not support cutting existing health care tax credits outright.