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WASHINGTON— U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), released the following statement after Washington Democrats finally stopped blocking funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and agreed to end their government shutdown:
“The shutdown never made sense. I’m glad after two days enough Senate Democrats agreed to end it. I think they realized taking health insurance away from nine million kids nationwide—122,000 of whom live in Louisiana—depriving the military of their funding, just because they weren’t getting their way on DACA, was not defensible. The bill we passed today reopens the government through February the 8th, it maintains the National Flood Insurance Program, it funds the Children’s Health Insurance Program for six years. So, now we focus on passing a long term budget, securing our border. If Democrats are willing to support a more merit-based immigration system and real, permanent border security, I think we can come to an agreement that’s good for the DACA kids and good for the American people.”
On Thursday in the House of Representatives, 224 Republicans voted to keep the government open, and 186 Democrats voted to shut down the government. On Friday in the Senate, 45 Republicans and 5 Democrats voted to keep the government open, and 44 Democrats voted to shut down the government.
In 2013, 54 Senate Democrats voted to build the wall, end the diversity visa lottery, double the number of border agents, and move toward a merit-based immigration system.
In 2006, then-Senators Chuck Schumer, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden voted to increase the length of the border wall.
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