Attorney General Alan Wilson has joined a group of 26 state attorneys general in calling on the United States Senate to approve a short-term continuing resolution that would prevent a government shutdown. The coalition, led by Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, sent a letter urging immediate action from Senate leaders.
“The U.S. House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution to keep the government operating, but Senate Democratic leaders are playing a political game that threatens vital services that the people of South Carolina and the nation rely on,” said Attorney General Wilson. “We urge Senate Democrats to do the responsible thing and pass the commonsense funding extension today.”
The letter emphasizes the importance of passing a clean, short-term funding measure to maintain government operations while negotiations continue. “A clean, short-term continuing resolution keeps the government functioning at current levels to give the parties time to negotiate. CRs may not be the ideal way for governments to operate, but they are the responsible thing to do under the circumstances. This commonsense option keeps the servicemen and women, border agents, and TSA screeners who keep us safe paid. It keeps grant funding for state and local law enforcement and first responders going. And while Social Security checks would still be mailed out in a shutdown, benefit verification and card issuance would pause, affecting seniors in potentially dire ways. A government shutdown would disrupt our economy, threaten public safety, and further erode the people’s confidence in public institutions, but all of that is entirely avoidable.”
The attorneys general also criticized what they described as shifting positions by congressional leadership: “The irony is that under the Biden Administration with Democrat leadership, Congress passed 13 clean funding extensions. In fact, only weeks ago, Democrats were pressing for just this yet again – a clean, short-term continuing resolution to keep government working while Congress negotiated the budget. But now, at the eleventh hour, that is apparently not enough, and Democrats are holding all of government hostage, seeking a $1.5-trillion ransom, laden with poison-pill riders and partisan policy initiatives.”
Attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia also signed onto the letter.
