Congresswoman Karen Bass (D-Culver City) announces that she signed a petition to reopen the government.
This special congressional procedure, known as a discharge petition, allows a majority of members to bypass Speaker Boehner and force an up or down vote on a bill to reopen the government.
The federal government has been closed since October 1 and Republican leaders have repeatedly refused requests from the Democratic minority to pass a funding resolution without controversial items and reopen the federal government.
“With no end in sight to this damaging shutdown of the federal government, I joined with my colleagues to sign onto the discharge petition that will allow a vote on a bill to reopen the government,” said Rep. Bass.
“This shutdown is hurting Los Angeles residents and threatens our national economy. I urge my Republican colleagues to come together in the spirit of bipartisanship to end this crisis by signing onto the discharge petition.”
Bass claims the government shutdown has hurt the middle class and our economy, and will get worse as it continues. Her office went on to say the shutdown was “costing taxpayers up to $300 million a day, it has stopped critical loans to small businesses and slowed the processing of veterans disability claims.
The shutdown has prevented NIH from taking new patients and halted life-saving medical research and stalled much-needed housing loans for American families.”
The discharge petition for H. Res. 372 would allow an up or down vote on a clean continuing resolution, providing funding through November 15 at a compromise level requested by Speaker Boehner. This discharge petition only needs a majority of House members to sign on and does not require any action by the Republican leadership.
Discharge petitions have been proven successful in the past in bringing up legislation for consideration.
According to a Congressional Research Service study, seven discharge petitions have received 218 signatures over the last 30 years. And in all seven cases, the majority party agreed to bring the measure to the House floor.
Twelve measures were allowed to be brought to the House floor even before the discharge petition reached the full 218 signatures.
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