Dedicated federal workers have now been furloughed or forced to work without pay for 40 days. I hoped this shutdown wouldn’t last more than a week. I expected more from my Democratic colleagues and couldn’t imagine they could justify holding the American people hostage for this long.
The first missed paychecks are beginning to hit home for civil servants. At this time, I think it’s important to step back and understand how we got here and why the American people are paying the price for Washington’s dysfunction.
This shutdown didn’t happen by accident. It is the direct result of partisan games in Washington’s budget process. Games that I am becoming all too familiar with as a new member of Congress. But they are also games I intend to spend my time here working to end so we can focus on real solutions that actually serve the American people.
Back in March, Congress passed a clean continuing resolution that extended spending levels set during the Biden administration through Sept. 30, 2025. At that time, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and 10 Democratic senators joined with Republicans to rightly keep the government open. Sen. Schumer said at the time, “If the government shuts down, it will be average Americans who suffer the most.” He was right.
So what changed?
When Sen. Schumer voted with Republicans to keep the government open in March, he was attacked by far-left members of his party and threatened with a primary challenge. Fast forward to September and House Republicans once again passed a clean continuing resolution that continued Biden funding levels through November to give the two chambers time to negotiate our more complex full-year spending plans.
You might ask why Democrat votes are needed when Republicans control Congress and the White House. The answer is the Senate filibuster rule, which requires 60 votes to pass most legislation. Republicans only control 53 seats, so unless seven Democrats vote with Senate Republicans, no government funding bills can be passed.
Rather than responsibly funding the government, Democrats made a calculated move designed to create a leverage point. This shutdown is no coincidence. Democratic leaders deliberately timed the expiration of certain COVID-era health care subsidies to coincide with the funding deadline. By manufacturing this crisis, they hope to push through $1.5 trillion in new spending that our nation simply cannot afford.
That is not principled leadership, and certainly not how our budget process should work. It is fiscal irresponsibility and disrespectful to the American people and the essential services they rely on. This is not the proper process for funding our government, and it is not how responsible leaders should govern when our nation’s finances are already at a breaking point.
Last week, the Treasury announced that the United States has surpassed $38 trillion in gross national debt. Debt held by the public is now as large as our entire economy. We are spending $1 trillion every year on interest payments alone. Every dollar wasted on interest is a dollar we can’t use to strengthen our defense, support families or invest in America’s future.
This moment exposes what has gone wrong in Washington. We’ve traded responsibility for political theater. Year after year, Congress fails to pass budgets on time, blows past deadlines and bickers over fractions of a budget while ignoring the true drivers of our debt. Yet instead of working together to fix the issues of the day and issues of the future, too many leaders have chosen to exploit crises rather than solve them.
House Republicans passed a responsible continuing resolution to keep the government open. But Democrats blocked and continue to block that funding bill. Senate Democrats should act immediately to reopen the government without tying it to massive new spending demands. These health care debates are necessary, but they should never come at the expense of the American people’s livelihood.
As a practicing family physician, I’ve spent my career diagnosing problems. My goal is to bring that same discipline to public service. We should never have a system that allows elected officials to use deadlines as weapons for policy wins. The budget process should be grounded in accountability, transparency and sustainability. It is irresponsible for us to accept and play into a system in which Democrats manufacture crises to score political points. We must reopen the government to begin having the difficult policy conversations through the mediums that are intended.
I call upon my Democratic colleagues in Congress to end the shutdown, get workers back on the job, get families paid and restore the services families depend on. Then we can finally get back to debating the policy issues on their merits. We can and should have serious conversations about health care affordability and the real challenges facing our system.
Rewarding dysfunction and partisan games while sidelining responsibility is a pattern our nation can no longer afford to accept. As Utah’s representative, I’ll keep working to end the dysfunction that traps us in these cycles. My commitment is simple: make Washington smaller and more accountable, and make Utah bigger.