A member of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee says he’s optimistic lawmakers can come together to reopen the government.
About 750,000 federal workers have been furloughed with the shutdown, and Michigan Republican John Molenaar tells Brownfield. “For what period of time we don’t yet know.”
He says the shutdown could have been avoided if the U.S. Senate had passed a continuing resolution to fund the government until November 21.
“We basically said, hey, let’s just continue it, spending on the current trajectory while we resolve things so that we can have a budget in place,” he says. “They’ve decided that this is how they can exercise their leverage through a shutdown to get some of these policy objectives that they have.”
The Republican measure and one proposed by Democrats both failed to pass in the Senate Tuesday night. The Speaker of the House adjourned the session at noon Tuesday with plans to reconvene on Friday afternoon.
Molenaar says President Trump has more authority during the shutdown.
“It gives the administration wide discretion on, you know, how best to facilitate the spending that goes on with the federal government,” he says.
House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Angie Craig says shutting down the government doesn’t improve the situation for farmers, and Republicans have been unwilling to agree on a bipartisan bill that ensures access to health care for millions of rural Americans.
The last government shutdown happened during President Trump’s first term and was the longest in history. In 2019, Brownfield reported the USDA missed more than 60 reports, and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated it cost the economy $11 billion over those 35 days.
The Speaker of the House adjourned the session at noon on Tuesday with plans to reconvene on Friday afternoon.
Molenaar says in the meantime, the President has more authority during the shutdown.
“It gives the administration wide discretion on, you know, how best to facilitate the spending that goes on with the federal government,” he says.
The USDA has released its plan for a government shutdown. It says about half of its workers will be furloughed, while work that involves the safety of human life, protection of property, or other work as USDA’s legal counsel advises, is exempt.
The last government shutdown happened during President Trump’s first term and was the longest in U.S. history. The USDA missed more than 60 reports, and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated it cost the economy $11 billion over those 35 days.
Moolenaar has been assigned as the conferee to the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, and Legislative Branch Appropriations Act for 2026 for the House.
