House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries challenged House Speaker Mike Johnson to debate “any day this week on prime time,” as the country enters its first full week of a government shutdown.
The Democratic House of Representatives leader from New York sent a letter to the Republican leader on Monday as Democrats dig their heels in during the shutdown, hoping to win an extension of tax credits for the Affordable Care Act’s health care marketplace.
“I write to challenge you to a debate on the floor of the House of Representatives any day of this week in primetime, broadcast live to the American people,” Jeffries said.
Last month, the House passed a “clean” stopgap spending bill called a continuing resolution, before leaving for the Jewish high holidays. A “clean CR” is a continuing resolution that allows the government to stay open if Congress fails to finish passing the requisite 12 spending bills for fiscal year beginning on October 1 with no additional riders or policy changes.
The House not returned and on Friday, Johnson declared this week a district work week, which means the House will not return for votes.
But Jeffries urged his colleague on the other side to make the case to the public and said that the country needed bipartisan negotiations between the White House and congressional leadership.
“Unfortunately, Donald Trump and your party decided to shut down the government because the GOP refuses to provide health care to everyday Americans,” Jeffries said. “Further, you have kept House Republicans on vacation instead of working with Democrats to reopen the government.”
President Donald Trump has resorted to mocking Jeffries, posting numerous racist cartoons of Jeffries dressed in a Mexican sombrero, accusing Democrats of wanting to give health care benefits to undocumented immigrants, despite the fact that immigrants who came to the United States illegally are ineligible for federal benefits.
“Given the urgency of the moment and the Republican refusal to negotiate a bipartisan agreement, a debate on the floor will provide the American people with the transparency they deserve,” he said.
But Johnson rebuffed Jeffries’s overture as performance, saying that polling showed that most people do not approve of Democrats’ messaging around the shutdown.
“Look, my friend, Hakeem had his shot,” Johnson said. “We debated all this on the House floor, as you know, before he passed our bill, he spoke for seven or eight minutes, he had all of his colleagues lined up. They gave it their best shot, and they argued and they stomped their feet and screamed at us and all that. And still, we passed the bill in bipartisan fashion and sent it over to the Senate.”
Johnson accused Jeffries of playing politics.
“I'm not going to let Hakeem try to pretend for these theatrics,” he said. I mean, this is a Chuck Schumer decision, the ball is in the Senate's court now.”
Many Democrats and Republicans agree that they have to find an agreement to keep the premiums on the insurance marketplace from increasing by November 1. But Johnson said in a press conference that the first priority is to reopen the government.
“The last time I checked, it's October 6, we have the entire month of October,” he said. “We'll stay here around the clock to work through all these things, but we have to get government opened again to do it.”
But even if the Senate somehow comes to an agreement, Johnson would still need to put the agreement on the House floor, which is not guaranteed.
“When the simple truth is on your side, you have nothing to hide from,” Johnson said. “I’m just presenting this to the American people.”
