Maine U.S. House Rep. Chellie Pingree says she find's the president's use of federal workers as a bargaining chip during border wall and budget negotiations "unthinkable.""As we know, most people couldn't live beyond one paycheck missing, much less two," she said, "And we're asking them to do difficult jobs. Our lives depend on them and we're treating them in a really unthinkable manner."
Pingree spoke to reporters at the 38th annual Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration in Portland Monday night. She said Democrats do support border security and comprehensive immigration reform, but not President Trump's proposed border wall plan.
Pingree was responding to the plan Trump floated Saturday as a "compromise" to end the partial federal government shutdown.
Democrats rejected Trump's plan, calling it a "non-starter," and called for Trump to re-open the government first. In a statement released Saturday, Maine U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, also took issue with the shutdown, but saw some hope in the president's proposal.
“Shutdowns represent the ultimate failure to govern and should never be used as a weapon to achieve an outcome," Collins wrote. " I am encouraged that the proposal put forth today would allow the Senate to consider next week a proposal to reopen government, provide immigration reforms, strengthen border security, and fund disaster relief in one legislative package."
Collins called for an end to the impasse "before 800,000 federal workers and their families miss yet another paycheck, and our economy is further damaged.”
The shutdown, now extending for more than a month, is the longest in U.S. history.
This story was updated Jan. 22, 2019 at 9:32 a.m. ET.
