As the threat of a federal government shutdown looms just over the horizon, members of Congress are tackling a continuing budget resolution as well as other major issues this week in the legislature according to U.S. Rep. Phil Roe, R-1st.
Speaking from Washington D.C. in a telephone call on Tuesday, Roe said he does not expect a government shutdown will actually take place.
“I’ll be shocked if it happens,” he said. “There will not be a government shutdown.”
Budget debate this year has surrounded efforts to de-fund portions of the Affordable Care Act and, more recently, Planned Parenthood. However, Roe said, Congress can pass a continuing budget resolution which would allow the government to continue operating under last year’s appropriations until a budget for the coming fiscal year is set.
In order to avoid a government shutdown, Roe said Congress must pass both houses before Thursday, which he said should not be a problem.
“Democrats are going to vote for a continuing resolution because it’s the best deal they’re going to get,” Roe said.
However, Roe said he has his own concerns with voting for a continuing budget resolution.
“I might vote against it myself on account of the funding for Planned Parenthood,” Roe said, referencing allegations the agency has profited from the sale of fetal tissues. “I have a real problem with continuing to support these people who dismember babies and sell the parts.”
Congress is still debating a bill that would withhold federal funding from Planned Parenthood for a period of one year while an investigation is completed into allegations the agency is breaking federal law in the sale of fetal tissues from aborted babies, Roe said.
On Tuesday, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards testified during a hearing on the agency’s federal funding held by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Roe said he was not able to attend that hearing because he was serving as chairman of hearing held by the Committee on Education and the Workforce regarding a bill currently up for debate called the “Protecting Local Business Opportunity Act.”
In addition to the debate surrounding Planned Parenthood, Roe said Congress has also been debating other abortion related issues and expressed his disappointment for support of a bill that would have required medical personnel to provide life-saving treatment to any baby which is born surviving the abortion process.
“We had people here to testified that had been aborted and survived,” Roe said of congressional hearings on the bill.
When the bill came to a vote, Roe said only a few Democrats voted for it. “I was honestly shocked at how few supported it,” he said. “Abortion for the Democrats is like the Holy Grail.”
Roe also briefly discussed the recent resignation of House Speaker John Boehner, which he said was a surprise in some ways but not in others.
“He had planned to resign at the end of the last term,” Roe said, adding it would have left a void in Republican leadership at that time so Boehner agreed to remain.
House Republicans were set to have a conference Tuesday afternoon, Roe said, and one of the topics would be Boehner’s replacement. Roe, however, would not give an opinion as to who he thinks should step into the Speaker’s role. “I’m going to play that pretty close to the vest right now,” he said.