Mast Statement on End of Manufactured Shutdown Crisis

U.S. Congressman Brian Mast (FL-18) today released the following statement:
“I’m relieved to say that the government is going to be back open, but this was an entirely avoidable crisis.  The bill passed today by the Senate is fundamentally the same as the one the House passed last week.  The fact that a minority of Senators were able to hold the government hostage for 3 days—and make no real changes to the bill—shows just how broken the system really is.  Sadly far too many people in Washington remain more interested in helping themselves than the people they represent.
“With this manufactured crisis behind us, we need to get back to work—fix the broken system, stop governing from crisis to crisis, get our country’s finances back on track, cut wasteful spending and do what we were sent here to do: put power back in the hands of the American people.”
BACKGROUND
On Thursday, the House of Representatives passed a bill to keep the government open through February 16, 2018 and extend the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for six years.  The only change in the bill passed by the Senate today—after 3 days of holding healthcare funding for 9 million children hostage and jeopardizing pay for our military—was to reduce the length of the funding extension to February 8, 2018.