The House has gone along with the Senate in approving a bill to fund the government through early December, raise the debt ceiling and provide $15 billion in emergency funding for hurricane relief. But U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine’s 1st District says it’s only a temporary fix.
The emergency bill puts off some major funding decisions that Pingree hopes will be resolved by December.
“This is no way to run a government, kicking the can down the road until December where there will also be a lot of pressure, and by then we need to have dealt with the ‘Dreamers,’ reassure them they are not going to be thrown out of the country. We have a lot of things coming up,” she says.
Pingree is most concerned with the continuing resolution that keeps the federal government operating, but at current spending levels with current spending priorities. She hopes the House and Senate can complete work on the dozen appropriations bills that make up the federal budget by the end of the year, and she says there is no doubt that more hurricane relief funding will be needed, and that the debt ceiling will have to be increased again.
