Iowans in Congress - Except Feenstra - Find Their Acorn in Government Shutdown Vote
What his vote to let government shutdown would have meant
“Even a blind hog finds an acorn every now and then,” is an old saying most Iowans have heard. This week, Iowa’s congressional delegation - except Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-4th IA) - proved the truth in it.
As Congress raced to dodge yet another self-inflicted funding crisis - the imminent shut down of the federal government - only Feenstra voted to let the government grind to a halt. The rest of Iowa’s House and Senate delegation voted to keep the wheels turning.
Both Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Joni Ernst (R-IA), and Feenstra’s colleagues in the House Mariannette Miller Meeks (R-1st IA), Ashley Hinson (R-2nd IA) Zach Nunn (R-3rd IA) - usually all reliable votes for doing the wrong thing and doing the partisan thing - all found their acorn this time. They voted to allow the federal government to pay its bills.
Good for them. Congratulations.
I know. Radical idea, isn’t it?
Over recent years, there has been a major sea change in the way Congress handles appropriations bills. This weekend’s predictable mess is a classic example of that change.
Appropriations bills used to be routinely passed individually, annually, and on time. There were occasional exceptions, but that’s what they were - exceptions, not the standard operating practice.
Now, the Republican majority in the House routinely just wads them all up together and tries to run them across the finish line at the last minute each year with the threat of imminent government shut down powering a drive to pass them, a drive that might not stand if close examination and real debate were possible.
Considered judgement and thoughtful consideration - as well as public input - are often jettisoned in the rush to pass the last minute glob of funding bills in order to avoid a shut down emergency.
So, here we were at week’s end with yet another shut down looming and another emergency, urgent, last minute legislative package that needed to pass before the lights went out.
If this all sounds familiar, it is because it is. Sickeningly familiar. The last time Republicans in the Hosue put the country in this situation was two weeks ago. The last one before that was on January 18. Republicans actually forced government shutdowns several times during the Clinton and Obama presidencies.
House Democrats generated a government shutdown, too, during the Trump administration. But only the Republicans have made it part of their standard, go-to “strategy.”
They have turned what was once an orderly, thoughtful, annual process that allowed Congress to thoughtfully address the nation’s spending choices, into something very different now. It’s like a belligerent drunk in a tavern, trying to find the door at closing time to go home, lurching from bar stool to bar stool.
It is not a pretty picture and it is no way to fund the government.
Here are some key things to know about this process which is being “ballyhooed” as having “averted a government shut down:
It is not an end to the threat of a government shut down. It is a pause, not an end, to the threat of a government shut down. It merely kicks the can down the road until September - just six months away. The whole process begins again as the fiscal year comes to an end on September 30, and new appropriations bills will need to be passed by that date for the new fiscal year.
I wouldn’t bet on it. It won’t be any easier with an election just a month off.
These “Goundhog Day” like revolving emergencies are quite costly. Each threat of government shut down costs the federal government, taxpayers - ultimately that means you - billions of dollars in preparation and start up costs and lost economic activity in the economy. When furloughs are required because of government shutdowns, lost federal worker productivity is measured in the thousands of years.
Republicans - and Feenstra - claim to be fiscal conservatives. They are no such thing. The waste of money they cause with this nonsense is gargantuan. About 70 percent of the federal government would have shut down this weekend for who knows how long had not this latest measure finally passed.
You can thank House Democrats for not letting the government shut down. A majority of House Republicans - the majority in the House of Representatives - voted to let it fold, Feenstra included. Democrats provided the votes that prevented the shutdown, and did so by reaching across the aisle to responsible Republicans to help get it across the finish line while a majority of House Republicans voted to let it crash.
Feenstra’s partisan position would have had real, difficult and dangerous consequences had it prevailed. Among the federal departments that would have shut down had a shut down taken place: the Defense Department, State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Labor, the Education Department and the Department to Human Services.
Does anyone really think that, with all the danger in the world currently, that now would be a good time to shut down the Defense Department or State Department? Is there ever a good time to shut down the Labor Department which works to protect worker safety or ensure safe working conditions? The Education Department or the Department of Health and Human Services?
Feenstra’s vote exposes the hollowness of a lot of what he says he supports.
Stepped up border security? Did you notice the Department of Homeland Security on that list of departments that would have shut down? This is the department with lead responsibility for border security. Feenstra’s vote would have allowed the Department of Homeland Security to shut down. Spare us the speeches about how much we need to improve border security. There’s no way to square them with a vote that would have allowed the department responsible for border security enforcement to close down.
The bill Feenstra voted against will add millions of dollars in stepped up technology, equipment, and personnel resources for U.S. border security enforcement.
It will pay for a 5.2% pay raise or members of the military. Feenstra voted against the bill that will do that - as did most of his Republican colleagues. So much for all those “pro-military” speeches and claims.
Is it even possible that Republicans may one day reform themselves out of this utter mess they’ve created for themselves. I doubt it.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA) on Friday filed a “motion to vacate,” the first step in the process that could remove House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) from the Speakership because he accepted votes from Democrats to keep the government operating when Republicans wouldn’t produce them.
That is, apparently, a cardinal sin within the Republican Caucus. Still. Its the same offense that got ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) tossed out of his Speakership last year.
As long as Republicans have the majority in the House of Representatives, it is clear this “Groundhog Day” scenario of endless repetition of threats of imminent government shut downs will not end. They have become a one-trick pony. The one trick they know is tiresome and dangerous. They are not going to reform themselves, and are incapable of doing so.
In November, voters have the opportunity to bring this dangerous nonsense - or maybe it is incompetence - to an end. They should seize that opportunity and use it - “good and hard,” as Harry Truman used to say.
“Barry Piatt on Politics: Behind the Curtains” is a weekly political commentary, analysis, and opinion column, delivered by email to subscribers. It is also available on the Substack.com platform. It is part of The Iowa Writers Collaborative (IWC) which publishes the work of some of Iowa’s best writers and thinkers.
Please try columns by some of the other IWC writers listed below, and consider becoming a free or paid subscriber to this column or some others. IWC writers provide access to a wide variety of news, opinion, commentary, and even poetry that you simply don’t find elsewhere. That’s especially important at a time when changing market forces are reshaping journalism and legacy media as we know them and when we need more connections to each other, not less.
IWC columnists accept no paid advertising.
Sharing our columns, commenting on them, and subscribing with a paid or free subscriptions all help support the IWC effort, IWC writers, spread the word, and keep our writers writing for you, our readers.
Thanks for reading!
Here’s the list of who we are, and links to access our columns:
Thank you for calling out Feenstra’s hypocrisy.
Thank you, Barry.