Rep. Jason Chaffetz says there won’t be another government shutdown in January.
Appearing on CNN’s “Crossfire,”Chaffetz said to not expect another budget impasse next month when a temporary government funding measure runs out.
“We’re not doing a government shutdown,” Chaffetz said in response to questions from CNN’s Crossfire co-host Stephanie Cutter about the priorities of Republicans in the House, pointing to the last partial government shutdown.
In October, with the White House and Congress unable to settle their budgetary differences, the federal government was partially shut down for more than two weeks and came very close to running out of money to pay its bills.
The bill funding the government now runs out in mid-January at nearly the same time as another round of forced budget cuts is due to hit.
“We’ve passed more than 150 bills that the United States Senate has never taken up,” the tea party-backed congressman said of House Republicans. “As a conservative, taking the metric of how many bills you’ve passed is not exactly how you make sure you grow the economy.”
Chaffetz and California Rep. Barbara Lee also sparred over whether it would be a good idea to raise the federal minimum wage. Here’s the video:
