WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (CO-1) issued the following statement following the defeat of the Continuing Resolution in the House of Representatives.  The Resolution would have set the dangerous precedent of requiring offsets for emergency disaster relief funding.    

“With families across the country enduring the brutal aftermath of hurricanes, tornados, floods, and wildfires, we must ensure the thousands of Americans relying on their government receive the desperate help they need.  This is not the time for political gamesmanship, but instead to once again remember that in the face of natural disasters, we are all Americans. That is why funding should be delivered immediately and without offsets, as it has for decades under both Republican and Democratic control of the House. 

“Also troubling was the decision by the Republican leadership to include a provision that could put more Americans out of work in order to offset the cost of disaster relief.  Americans deserve a government that focuses on their number one priority: jobs; I encourage the Republican leadership to bring forward the Senate’s bipartisan disaster relief legislation separate from the Continuing Resolution so that we can stop playing politics with emergency relief and avoid a crippling government shutdown.”     

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