By Sentinel Staff
Alaska’s Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan spoke out Sunday about President Trump’s partial shutdown of the government,
Calling Trump’s action disruptive, harmful and wasteful, and Sullivan stating his “disappointment,” saying the congressional disagreement over funding a border wall “shouldn’t have led to a partial shutdown of the federal government.
“Shutting down the government, even partially, is no way to govern,” Murkowski said in a statement from her office. “It is disruptive, harmful, wasteful, and could leave hundreds of thousands of federal employees and contractors without paychecks over Christmas.
“The Appropriations Committee did its work, but the votes are clearly not present in the Senate to provide $5 billion for the border wall and changing filibuster rules would only come back to haunt us in the future. We have to accept those realities and reopen the government as soon as possible. I remain committed to working with my colleagues on a solution to end this partial shutdown and fund the government.”
Sullivan issued the following statement from his office:
“This partial government shutdown is disappointing, given the fact that we had made significant progress in passing a majority of the annual appropriations bills — including those that fund our military and the department of Health and Human Services — on time. This kind of progress on regular order appropriations measures hasn’t happened in many years.
“As to the disagreement over border security — $5 billion for securing our border is a reasonable request, especially given the fact that the Democratic Leader of the Senate offered $25 billion for border security funding during negotiations with President Trump earlier this year.
Nevertheless, this disagreement shouldn’t have led to a partial shutdown of the federal government. I hope that negotiations currently ongoing between the Majority and Minority leaders of the Senate, their counterparts in the House, and the President bear fruit in short order.”
Murkowski said programs that have been funded for the remainder of fiscal year 2019, such as Veterans Affairs and Defense, will continue to operate, but listed the following as some of the impacts of the partial shutdown:
– Employees whose agency or program has not yet been funded for the remainder of fiscal year 2019 will be designated by their agency as “essential” or “non-essential”.
– Only essential employees—generally those who do work related to life safety, property protection, health, emergency response, and other work as determined by their agencies—will be allowed to report for work.
– Those deemed non-essential are legally required to stay home and are put on unpaid furlough.
– The Department of Homeland Security will be deemed essential, which means employees will work, but without pay.
– Airports will remain open and air traffic controllers and TSA officials will remain on the job.
– National Parks that require staff will be closed except for essential personnel.
Additional details on the effects of the government shutdown and on frequently asked questions can be found on Senator Murkowski’s website http://murkowski.senate.gov.
