Following is a statement by U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, D-NJ 12, released after his vote to end the government shutdown:
“This bill ends an unnecessary, self-induced crisis. It fails to end sequestration’s painful cuts in government services. It fails to invest in creating new jobs. It follows costly weeks of government shutdown and unnerving the financial world. It sets up the near-certain prospect of additional confrontations over the budget and the debt ceiling early next year.
“Ever since this phony crisis began, a majority of the Congress – Democrats and Republicans alike – have sought to reopen the government. Yet Republican leaders, out of misguided deference to the reckless ideologues in their ranks, refused to allow a vote on clean legislation to reopen the government.
“Today that finally changed. The Speaker allowed the majority of House members to work their will, and as a result, our government has reopened and the U.S. can continue paying her debts, as we have for centuries. My hope is that, in the months ahead, Speaker Boehner will follow today’s precedent and allow votes on other pressing issues, such as job creation and immigration reform, that Democrats and Republicans can agree on.
“The alternative would be to continue to follow the extreme minority who shut down the government for no apparent reason, with no clear idea of what they hoped to win.”