House Appropriations staff director: No one ‘feels great’ when the government shuts down

The House Appropriations Committee’s majority staff director said that no member or worker on the panel “feels great” when the government shuts down.

Democrat Shalanda Young said in a new interview with The Hill’s “The Remedy” that the members and staffers of the Appropriations Committee go into “full panic mode” over keeping the government funded. 

“No appropriations member or staffer feels great when we have a lapse in appropriations,” she said.  

Young, who is the first African American woman to be staff director of the House Appropriations Committee, said the “stability” of the government and of the country is at risk when the committee is attempting to avoid a shut down. 

“We don’t like the way it makes us look,” she said.

Appropriators are currently negotiating funding bills for fiscal year 2020. Congress has until Dec. 20 to reach an agreement on the 12 fiscal 2020 government funding bills. 

Last year’s shutdown, which was largely over a disagreement on funding for President Trump’s border wall, “will scar me for a long time to come,” Young said.

“Policy issues have really been the drivers of shutdowns and disagreements rather than actual funding issues,” she added.