Buttigieg says GOP needs to ‘come to their senses’ on shutdown

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on Sunday that House Republicans need to “come to their senses” in order to avoid a government shutdown.

“The American people don’t want a shutdown. From what I can tell, the Senate is ready to go. The administration is ready to go. House Republicans need to come to their senses and keep the government running,” Buttigieg said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Buttigieg referened the deal made between President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and said the spending levels agreed upon then were already a concession for Democrats, who agreed to the deal to avoid the government defaulting on its debt. 

“Look, Speaker McCarthy and the President made a deal. They made a deal earlier this summer. And by the way, it wasn’t an easy deal. I mean, just from the transportation side alone, it meant us accepting cuts that Republicans were demanding to programs that we wanted to use to fund more roads and bridges and airports,” Buttigieg said. 

“But we made that deal, and all we’re asking is that they live up to that deal,” he added.

Buttigieg’s comments come as time is running out for Congress to pass legislation to keep the government funded before the end of the fiscal year at the end of this month.

While the McCarthy-Biden deal struck earlier this summer set spending caps that were meant to avoid a shutdown, many members of the House GOP conference insisted on setting levels below the caps set in the deal. Members have also been unable to agree and move on the bills in a timely manner.

“This is something that can and should be prevented,” Buttigieg said about a shutdown. “So the administration, as always, we’ll be ready for anything.”