Representative Kevin Hern released the following statement after voting against the House Amendment to S. 610, a bill changing the rules of the Senate to allow the Democrats to circumvent the 60-vote threshold for cloture, which they can already do using the reconciliation process.

“Earlier this year, I led over 100 of my colleagues in the House in the commitment against voting for a debt limit increase,” said Rep. Hern. “Our Republican colleagues in the Senate signed a similar commitment, giving the Democrats several months’ notice that they would need to do this on their own. Instead of working ahead to avoid a default on our debts, Democrats waited until the last minute and are trying to rewrite the rules of the Senate instead of using the tools already at their disposal, like the reconciliation process. The American people don’t trust these swampy maneuvers; they see through the false statements from Democrats who control the White House and both chambers of Congress yet blame their gridlock on Republicans.

“All this could have been avoided had Speaker Pelosi written a budget this spring. Not only did she fail to draft a budget, she instructed her Budget Committee Chairman not to even attempt it. Every crisis in our nation’s capital can be traced back to the budget.”

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