With Congress voting to approve a stopgap measure this week, the U.S. government avoided a partial shutdown. Funding would have run out Saturday.
But lawmakers will have to come together again in January to approve a new spending plan.
WAMC’s Lucas Willard spoke with New York Congressman Pat Ryan, a Democrat from the 18th District, on Wednesday, just before the U.S. Senate gave its approval to send the bill to President Biden.
It was absolutely critical that we prevented a shutdown, which would have been catastrophic. This is the second time now that we're the Republicans in charge, we've been teetering on the cliff of a shutdown. And I was proud to vote again to avert it to make sure our troops get paid and law enforcement gets paid, people can travel through the holidays, folks who are working in critical jobs are paid our kids and seniors that are hungry are taken care of, Social Security and Medicare and everything else. That's so critical. So, we were proud to do that. And I think you saw again, frankly, the large preponderance of votes carrying this come from Democrats, and we continue to be the adults in the room at a really critical moment for the country.
Do you think after the most recent speaker battle in the house, that there's a sense of coming together, at least on the part of your Republican colleagues, to get these spending measures passed without these delays and this uncertainty over a shutdown? That your colleagues seem motivated to get this one over the finish line?
I wish that there were and unfortunately, we've seen even more division and dysfunction. There were supposed to be several critical appropriations funding bills that were supposed to be considered and ultimately passed this week in the House. And they were pulled back because the Republicans couldn't even get their own folks to agree to bring them to the floor. So, we actually were dismissed early [Wednesday], because one of the critical funding bills, the Republicans couldn't muster enough votes among themselves. So, they are still dealing with all their internal division. And that has not been good for the American people, certainly.
One of the things that was not included in this was aid to Ukraine. How do you feel about the divisions over support for Ukraine and Israel, as well, and how that will play out in the future when Congress has to come back together for another budget extension or another spending plan in a few months?
Well, I've been clear that I felt that these bills should include funding to support our critical allies in Ukraine, in Israel, as well as additional funding to bolster border security and support Taiwan against Chinese aggression. That's what the President called for and I agree that those needs to be funded and also done together because all of these national security challenges are intimately interwoven. Unfortunately, we've seen support erode for particularly our allies in Ukraine who are still in an existential fight against Putin and his authoritarianism and are making headway so we cannot allow them to be less hanging out at such a critical moment. So right when we get back, I will continue with my colleagues to push to get that funding and there is still bipartisan support, if we could get a bill to the House floor. But you've seen the new speaker blocking that, you've seen the really extreme far right members aligned with former President Trump blocking that. We just want the bill to come to the House floor where it would have more than 300 votes for sure.
So now, I want to bring it back to a reversal that your office announced from the U.S. Coast Guard over its plan, the change in definition about the Port of New York. How do you feel about this decision that was announced this week?
Well, some very good and encouraging news this week after the community rallied all together and said, ‘We fought this fight before a few years ago, we stopped attempts to turn the Hudson River into a parking lot for these dangerous barges with oil and asphalt and other toxic materials.’ And now again, to see the Coast Guard tried to do it, was very concerning. And we raised a strong and broad opposition to it. What happened in the most recent decision is that the Coast Guard is essentially pausing their efforts. But they have also made clear, they do want to push forward, ultimately, down this path. They're just now recognizing they have to have public input before doing so. So, we are going to need and ask people to raise their voices again over the coming months or even a year or two as this plays out, but it is a big victory in that we stop them from trying to do sort of an end around administrative procedure. Now they have to go through a full public input process where I'm confident we can stop this from happening but it won't be stopped unless everyone continues to be involved.
Were you given any indication from officials within the Coast Guard about any public input gathering or any outreach that would begin on behalf of the Coast Guard soon?
Well, they've committed to do that public input and outreach. They haven't given us a timeline yet. That's one of the things we're going to be pushing them on. In the meantime, my office, we've set up on our website, a place where folks can register their input, and we've only heard so far concern, I've not heard one person supporting this idea. But certainly, if there are those that do welcome that as well. So at our on my actual campaign or our, our website, patryan.house.gov, we have a form up there for folks to give their input now. And then, once the postcard actually announces their official process, we can make sure all those folks are directed to that.
Before serving in Congress, you served as a county executive. I just want to maybe get a sense from you the amount of concern that really this was a process, concern of our anchorages, is something that went on for years in the Hudson Valley. But for someone who's hearing about it just for the first time now, what can you tell me about how people were united behind this cause just a few years ago, before Congress ultimately banned new anchorage in the Hudson River in 2021?
This is one of those battles. Yeah, it's been long, long standing, you think you've won, and they try another trick or backdoor to get around the public's viewpoint. And this is very tangible and real, by the way, there's over 100,000 people that get their drinking water in seven different towns, the Hudson 7, from the river, not to mention wildlife, not to mention people that swim and fish and so on. So, this has been a long-standing fight. And we thought we had won this battle, as you said, a few years ago, but now it's, it's rearing its head again. And I think the lesson is, if we take our eye off the ball, those folks that are really seeking to put corporate profits, in this case from really the oil industry, ahead of our health, our safety, they always continue to try to do this and so we have to be vigilant about that.
