Today, Representative Jerrold Nadler (NY-12) released the following statement after voting NO on Republicans’ funding bill, which fails to address the Republican health care crisis or stop Donald Trump from illegally impounding congressionally approved funds: 

“With this funding bill, Donald Trump and House Republicans have abandoned their promise to lower costs for working families. From the first day of this shutdown, they refused to negotiate in good faith and instead spent seven weeks on a taxpayer-funded vacation while Americans faced a deepening Republican health care crisis. Let me be clear: I want this shutdown to end, but I cannot support a bill that harms American families, allows Donald Trump to keep illegally withholding congressionally approved funds, and enriches Republican Senators with a secret taxpayer-funded payout worth half a million dollars or more per person. 

“This bill does nothing to protect the more than 22 million Americans who are now facing an average 114% increase in their health care premiums. Trump’s Big Ugly Law gutted Medicaid by $1 trillion and left 15 million Americans at risk of losing their coverage. Now Republicans will hit millions of families, including thousands in New York, with devastating premium spikes next year. As a result of Republican inaction on ACA subsidies, a 60-year-old couple in Manhattan earning $90,000 a year would see their annual marketplace premium jump from roughly $11,000 with the enhanced tax credits to more than $33,000 without them. That is a nearly 200% increase for the very same plan. New Yorkers already shoulder some of the highest housing, grocery, and childcare costs in the country, and Republicans are telling these families that they are on their own. 

“Trump’s vendetta against New York is not limited to health care. The President and OMB Director Russell Vought have abused their power during this shutdown to punish our state and the city of New York, freezing funding Congress approved for the Gateway Tunnel, the Second Avenue Subway, Army Corps coastal protection projects, winter heating assistance, and other essential investments that keep our city safe and functioning. These cuts and freezes were not based on program need or oversight. They were political retaliation aimed squarely at New York because we refused to bow to Trump. 

“The President’s abuse of power against New York is part of a broader pattern of contempt for the law. He violated the Impoundment Control Act through illegal impoundments and attempted pocket rescissions that blocked congressionally approved funding across the government. He even weaponized hunger by withholding SNAP benefits that Congress enacted, using food assistance as leverage against millions of families, including tens of thousands in New York. He treated the power of the purse as optional and ignored the law whenever it suited him, and this spending bill does nothing to stop him from doing it again. 

“As if abandoning millions of families were not enough, Republicans also loaded this bill with one of the most corrupt and self-serving provisions I have seen in my 33 years in Congress. Senate Republicans inserted a taxpayer-funded kickback for eight GOP Senators whose phone records were subpoenaed in the January 6 investigations. Their scheme would let those Senators sue the federal government and collect $500,000 each. While Americans struggle with rent, groceries, and medical bills, Republicans have chosen to funnel public money into the pockets of their colleagues. 

“This terrible bill does nothing to stop Donald Trump’s attacks on our health care system and nothing to protect families from devastating ACA premium spikes. It offers no help to people who are fighting every day to keep up with groceries, rent, and medical care. New Yorkers deserve better, and therefore I proudly voted NO.” 

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