WASHINGTON, D.C. — As federal lawmakers wrestle with the latest specter of a government shutdown, Maine’s congressional delegation appears to be mostly unified in their stance against closing the government’s doors — again.
A 17-day federal government shutdown in 2013 resulted in millions of dollars lost to Maine’s economy and billions being lost to the national economy. The shutdown also resulted in the temporary closing of federally funded Head Start programs and national parks around the country among other impacts.
Lawmakers have until Sept. 30 to reach a deal.
Maine’s U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, a Republican, and Angus King, an independent, along with the state’s 1st District U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat, have been unequivocal in their stance that Congress pass a continuing budget resolution that is not pegged to cutting off funds to Planned Parenthood.
Maine’s 2nd District Rep. Bruce Poliquin, a Republican, likewise issued a statement Wednesday urging his colleagues to find a solution to keep government open.
“Allowing the government to shut down would be a failure in leadership,” Poliquin said in a prepared statement. “As Maine’s 2nd District Congressman, I will continue to urge my colleagues to fund the federal government so we can continue to promote legislation that will rein in wasteful government spending and lower our national debt.”
Earlier this month Poliquin voted for a measure that would have redirected, for one year, the funding going to Planned Parenthood, sending the funds instead to other clinics that provide health care services, but not abortions, to women. In Maine the only Planned Parenthood clinic that performs abortions is in Pingree’s district. There are no Planned Parenthood supported clinics in Poliquin’s 2nd District.
Michael Byerly, a spokesman for Poliquin, also said Wednesday that Poliquin’s goal was to keep government open. But both he and Poliquin stopped short of saying whether Poliquin would support a budget resolution if it includes funding for Planned Parenthood, as is expected to be the case when the resolution arrives from the U.S. Senate.
“Congressman Bruce Poliquin has taken a leadership role in urging his colleagues to move forward with measures to keep the government open and to oppose a shutdown,” Byerley wrote in an email message to the Sun Journal when asked if Poliquin would support a budget resolution that includes funding for Planned Parenthood. “Congressman Poliquin is also on the record voting to freeze Planned Parenthood government funding, which has no facilities in the 2nd Congressional District, for one year and to move those funds to facilities which actually do exist in the 2nd Congressional District providing women’s health care.”
The embattled nonprofit women’s health care organization has been targeted by anti-abortion conservatives who are claiming some Planned Parenthood clinics may be profiting from selling fetal tissue collected during abortions.
Planned Parenthood has denied the allegations and others including leading lawmakers have questioned the integrity and credibility of an undercover video investigation that conservatives say proves their claims.
Abortions are only a small sliver of the services provided to largely low-income women by Planned Parenthood around the nation. In all, the organization receives about $528 million in federal funding, but under federal law none of that money is used to cover the costs of providing abortions, which account for only 3 percent of the services Planned Parenthood provides. The federal funding for the organization makes up about 40 percent of its total $1.3 billion in revenue.
The bulk of Planned Parenthood’s services are related to the treatment of sexually transmitted disease, contraception, cancer screenings and other women’s health services.
Pingree said Tuesday that if Congress fails to pass a spending bill by the end of the month and instead forces a shutdown, some 45 million people, including 230,000 in Maine, could lose their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, benefits on Oct. 1.
“A politically motivated government shutdown would be a real hardship for thousands of Maine families, veterans and seniors who depend on food stamps to help make ends meet each month,” Pingree said in a prepared statement. “It’s shameful that some congressional Republicans are trying to use their opposition to Planned Parenthood to force a government shutdown at the expense of families struggling to put food on the table.”
King, the state’s junior senator, also spoke against a shutdown last week during a speech on the Senate floor.
Lamenting the lack of action in Congress on key legislation, including the budget, King said playing politics was taking priority over good governance.
“Here we are and we are not governing when it comes to a budget,” King said on Sept. 17. He said he was equally concerned about no solid negotiations taking place on the federal highway fund budget or federal tax policy, all of which lead to a massive amount of uncertainty for the economy. King went on to say the failure of Congress to reauthorize the federal Import-Export Bank was also going to lead to the loss of jobs in Maine — specifically 84 General Electric jobs in Bangor — part of 500 General Electric is eliminating nationwide.
King said one U.S. House staffer made note that 500 jobs were “a drop in the bucket for GE.” But a furious King said, “Eighty-four jobs is not a drop in the bucket for Bangor, Maine. Those are families, those are real people. It makes a difference in our community and it’s ridiculous.”
King said it appeared the Senate was poised to take up another series of amendments on the Iran treaty that appeared to him to be only so political opponents could create 30-second television campaign spots against one another next November.
“That’s not governing,” King told the acting the Senate president during the speech. “That’s pure unadulterated politics and it’s not dealing with the problems of this nation.”
Meanwhile, Collins has warned her colleagues in the U.S. House to not amend any continuing budget resolution passed by the Senate to defund Planned Parenthood.
She said efforts to defund Planned Parenthood did not have enough support in the Senate and trying to bounce the bill between the bodies with amendments would simply run down the already short clock that’s ticking on the federal budget.
“It would be cutting it too close,” Collins told reporters Tuesday, according to the Roll Call blog. She also took a shot at Democrats, saying they were blocking a defense appropriations bill that should be passed as well.
Collins told reporters her “top priority is to prevent another disastrous government shutdown” and that she supports a proposal by the Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, that would allow separate votes on the budget and funding for Planned Parenthood.
Collins has previously proposed an amendment that would temporarily cut off funding for the Planned Parenthood clinics in question while Congress investigates whether there was any wrongdoing.