WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge (OH-11) issued the following statement after voting no on both the continuing resolution and supplemental disaster relief package that passed the House today:

“Today I voted no on yet another short-term, stop-gap funding measure.  This Continuing Resolution provides only temporary relief for the nearly nine million children depending on the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and health care providers working tirelessly at our Community Health Centers.

“House Republicans wasted another opportunity to work with Democrats in a bipartisan way on behalf of millions of children and their families.  I would have supported a bill that addressed the needs of the hardworking Americans that sent us to Congress; a bill that provided stable reauthorization and funding for CHIP and Community Health Centers, funding to combat the opioid epidemic, stabilized the health insurance marketplace, protected DREAMers, and addressed the pension crisis.

“Today, House Republicans also put forth a supplemental disaster relief funding package that does nothing to guarantee help for our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  This is a bill the Senate is not expected to consider until 2018.  People without homes or electricity in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Texas, Florida, and California cannot wait.  Rather than spending valuable time passing a tax cut that predominately benefits the wealthiest Americans, we should have been working to protect sick children and disaster victims.  We should be voting on things that will affect people’s lives now.”

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