Congressman Aderholt blames government shutdown on the Democrats: Sewell blames the Republicans

October 1, 2025 – WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Office of Management and Budget has put in government shutdown protocols in place at 10:59 p.m. CDT after the Senate failed to approve a stopgap continuing resolution to keep the government funded. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers in Alabama and around the country are at home today wondering when they can go back to work. They and hundreds of thousands more deemed essential who are still at work are wondering if and when they are going to get paid again.

Congressman Robert Aderholt (R-AL04) released a statement blaming Senate Democrats for the shutdown.

"It is now just past midnight October 1st on the east coast of the United States and the United States Government is shut down," said Rep. Aderholt. "Let's be completely clear, this has happened because Democrats rejected a clean continuing resolution (CR) that would have kept the government running for another two months. All summer, Democrats said they would support a CR if it was clean and had no "poison pills." House leadership took this input from Democrats and delivered just that, a clean CR. In what has become typical fashion, Democrats moved the goalposts and demanded a trillion dollars in government spending in order to keep the government open."

"Some have claimed that because Republicans control the House, Senate, and the White House, this is a so-called 'Republican shutdown.' What that ignores is the fact that Senate Democrats are refusing to allow a vote," Aderholt explained. "If they would simply allow the measure to come to the floor, the continuing resolution would pass and the government would remain open."

Democrats controlled the Senate for six straight years and during that time government spending ballooned to record highs. Now that they are out of power and Joe Biden is no longer in the White House they still want to further grow federal spending and the national debt.

"I do not support holding the government of the United States, and therefore the people of the United States, hostage in order to force more reckless spending that we do not have the money to pay for," said Aderholt. "Democrats say they want to negotiate and that's fine. I support that. But why do they think government services must be stopped? A two-month CR would serve both purposes - giving us time to work out spending for next year, while still allowing government services to stay up and running while also continuing to ensure that government employees like our military members get paid on time."

Congresswoman Terri Sewell (D-AL07) disagrees.

Rep. Sewell Statement on Republican Shutdown. Sewell blames the Trump administration and efforts by Republicans to rein in federal spending for the shutdown.

"Trump and Republicans are responsible for this government shutdown," said Rep. Sewell. "They are so hellbent on kicking Americans off their health care that they are willing to shut down the government in order to achieve it. Now, not only will Americans face skyrocketing health care premiums, but they will also have to pay for this reckless Republican shutdown. It is outrageous."

"As Democrats, our position has not changed," continued Sewell. "We are willing to work with Republicans on a bill to end this shutdown and protect the health care of the American people. However, we will not vote to rubber-stamp the Republican assault on our health care system. It's time for Republicans to come to their senses and meet us at the negotiating table."

Medicare and Medicaid (especially President Barack Obama's unfunded Medicaid expansion) are the largest drivers of the federal budget deficit. The federal government spends more money on these two Great Society programs than they do defense, foreign affairs (including foreign aid), border defense, law enforcement, national parks, and the core constitutional functions of the federal government combined. Democrats are still upset about the cuts made in the Big Beautiful Bill back in July. They claim that this amounted to the largest cut to health care in American history.

Critics blame Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) and his own personal fears of possible Democratic primary challenge from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-New York). They argue that those intraparty concerns are driving Schumer to appear to be fighting the Trump administration by staging this government shutdown. The House of Representatives passed a stopgap nonpartisan extension of the current Biden era budget to give Congress more time to prepare the first Trump budget. A similar continuing resolution passed weeks ago with little debate or significant opposition. Instead Schumer used the arcane rules of the Senate to filibuster the bill which would easily pass by majority vote. These are rules that Schumer vociferously opposed and tried to overturn when he had the majority. It takes 60 votes to end the filibuster and allow a vote on the CR to avoid the shutdown. All the Republicans were joined by three Democrats in putting government continuity over partisan politics but it was not enough.

President Donald J. Trump (R) expressed hope that in the coming days more members of the Democratic Senate Caucus will elect to end the political grandstanding and allow federal agencies like NASA, the Park Service, IRS, EPA, OSHA, etc. to go back to work.

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