In the News

 Today, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) joined Fox News Live to discuss the Democrats’ government shutdown. Whip Emmer urged Senate Democrats to reopen the government by passing the House-passed clean continuing resolution.

Click here or above to watch Whip Emmer on Fox News Live.

Whip Emmer on today’s House Republican conference call:

“The message was very simple: The House has done its work. When people ask about negotiations, we did negotiate. The negotiation was for a clean continuing resolution that goes through November 21st. That was the negotiation. Which is, by the way, Chuck Schumer negotiated the same thing six months ago and he voted for it three times previously. So the message this morning was very simple. House Republicans are ready to get back to work and finish the people’s business as soon as Chuck Schumer and the Democrats in the Senate reopen the government.”

Whip Emmer on Hakeem Jeffries’ claims that the House-passed CR is” extreme ideology”:

“The reality is this: a clean CR, which Hakeem, by the way, supported 13 times under the Biden administration, has nothing to do with this faux argument about health care that they’re trying to bring up…We have a clean CR sitting over in the Senate. The response by Chuck Schumer and Democrats in the Senate, because frankly Hakeem is not relevant to this discussion, their response has been simply because Chuck is worried about his leadership post. Their response has been we want $1.5 trillion more in spending and, by the way, we want to put illegals back on taxpayer-funded health care, while at the same time gutting $50 billion from the rural health care fund that Republicans created. Hakeem is–one, he’s not relevant. Two, his message is way off mark. The extremists on this side are on the Democrats’ side. It’s Chuck Schumer and the Democrats in the Senate…This is obviously not about health care. Otherwise why would they be gutting rural health care, Mike? This is literally about Chuck Schumer and Democrats in the Senate trying to appease their radical left-wing base to pick a fight with Donald Trump. That’s the only reason they’re doing this.”

Whip Emmer on how Democrats are holding the government hostage and the consequences of their inaction:

“This is purely Democrats. Everybody on the Left likes to say, ‘Well, you have all three. You have the White House, the House, and the Senate, the trifecta.’ What they forget is that there is a 60-vote threshold in the Senate for cloture. To get a bill to the floor, you’ve got to get 60 senators, which means you have to have seven Democrats. They’re not willing to do this. Chuck Schumer and Democrats in the Senate, including my state leaders here at home, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, are literally holding the American people hostage in order to get $1.5 trillion in additional spending and literally to put illegals back on our taxpayer-funded health care…Because of what Chuck Schumer and Democrats like Amy and Tina are doing, guess what? 13,000 guardsmen here in Minnesota are going to be without a paycheck come October 15th. Another 100,000 women, infants, and children who are on the WIC program are not going to get those benefits, and the list goes on and on.”

Whip Emmer on potential layoffs in the federal workforce motivating Senate Democrats to reopen the government:

“Democrats should be motivated to come back and vote for the clean CR, Mike. Because it’s something they’ve done 13, 14 times already. This is nothing new. There’s no games being played. They know that. They need to come back and do their job because at the end of the day, people like Russ Vought in the administration have to make some extremely difficult decisions. And you want to avoid that? Well, just reopen the government and let’s get back to negotiating as Republicans and Democrats. Which, by the way, Mike, was already happening.”