How did Alabama House members vote on shutdown impasse?
An eleventh-hour Congressional vote to avert a shutdown of the federal government passed with rare bipartisan support Saturday afternoon. The vote among Alabama’s seven-member congressional delegation also reflected the national bipartisan consensus to keep the government open.
Four of Alabama’s members of the House of Representatives voted yes to the resolution while three others voted no. Voting yes were Reps. Jerry Carl, R-Mobile, Mike Rogers, R- Saks, Dale Strong, R-Huntsville, and Terri A. Sewell D-Birmingham.
On the no side were Reps. Robert Aderholt, R-Haleyville, Barry Moore, R-Enterprise, and Gary Palmer, R-Hoover.
Today’s vote continues government operation for another for 45 days.
Aderholt, considered the dean of the Alabama delegation, said on social media that he did not favor a shutdown, but voted against the proposal because it did not address another pressing issue.
“While I do not want the government to shutdown, I had to vote against this Continuing Resolution Saturday,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “It does not provide the overall cuts I feel we need and does not address the crisis at our southern border.”
Sewell, of Birmingham is the sole Democrat in the delegation. In statement this afternoon, she reluctantly offered praise for Republican House leadership for shepherding the vote to preserve government functions and salaries for the federal employees that conduct them.
“While I remain frustrated that my Republican colleagues have brought us to the brink of a costly and devastating government shutdown, I am grateful that Speaker McCarthy has finally chosen to work with Democrats at the last minute to extend government funding,” she said. “While this measure is not perfect, it avoids deep cuts that House Republicans attempted to push through earlier this week and provides critical disaster relief funding that communities in Alabama depend on.”
On the other side of the aisle, Carl, a Mobile Republican, said his yes vote was an effort to continue operations while work continued to press for Republican priorities.
“Today, I voted to keep our service members paid, fund our border patrol, and keep our country moving forward,” Carl posted on X. “@HouseGOP is continuing the work to cut back on wasteful spending, stop the woke agenda, and secure our border.”
As a compromise deadline loomed, Carl on Friday said he had requested that his paycheck be withheld during a shutdown.
“Members of Congress should not receive a paycheck when our men and women in uniform, our border patrol agents, and other federal employees do not get paid,” he said then.
Moore, who also had requested that his paycheck be withheld during a shutdown, said he voted no today because Democrats on the other side of the Capital in the Senate were not earnest in their negotiations. The Senate is expected to approve a resolution today prevent a shutdown.
“House Republicans already passed four appropriations bills that would fund 70 percent of the government, but Majority Leader Schumer refuses to bring them to a vote,” he wrote on X referring to the Democratic Senate majority leader. “I am prepared to stay in Washington and work with my colleagues across the conference as long as it takes to advance all 12 bills and protect the American people from the status quo of out-of-control spending.”