Montana lawmakers speak on stopping government shutdown

Montana's three-member congressional delegation Wednesday voted for a short term budget resolution that will keep the government open for 10 weeks, without stripping the budget of funding for Planned Parenthood.

The short term resolution passed 78-20 in the Senate and later in the House by a vote of 277-151, hours before the government was scheduled to run out of money and would have shut down many services.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a 2016 presidential aspirant, along with some other conservative lawmakers have called for blocking any government funding bill that did not stop federal funds from going to Planned Parenthood.

The woman's health organization has become a target

of Republican ire since videos surfaced in recent months that purportedly showed personnel with Planned Parenthood discussing the harvesting and sale of fetal tissue for medical research. The organization says

the video in question was selectively edited and denies any wrongdoing.

Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester lauded passage of the resolution but said a short term resolution was the least Congress could do.

"Preventing a government shutdown should be the easiest part of Congress's job, yet we avoided it by the skin of or teeth," said Tester.

The senator invoked the shutdown led by a faction of Republican stwo years ago who spearheaded a government shutdown in a failed attempt to repeal the president's Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

"Congress cannot keep governing by crisis and expecting the American people to pick up the slack," Tester said.. "For the sake of our economy, we must do better."

While voting to pass the short-term spending bill, Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines said he was disappointed the resolution did not redirect

funds allocated for Planned Parenthood.

"Like all Montanans, I know how important it is to keep our government running," Daines said.

He said while he was glad that the

government would not shut down, he expressed disappointment that the bill would not redirect funding allocated to Planned Parenthood to other community health centers that he said could better meet the health needs of women.

A bill backed by Daines that would have done just that was defeated in the Senate.

"While this budget bill is far from perfect, it keeps the federal government open for the people of Montana, and that's my main responsibility, to make government work for Montana," said Zinke, who added that in the coming months he will push for a permanent budget that cuts government spending and lowers the national debt.

"These short-term continuing resolutions are no way to run the government," said Zinke. "So I urge Harry Reid and Senate Democrats to quit playing games, stop the manufactured crisis and take up the funding bills the House has already sent to the Senate so we don't get in this situation over and over again."

Lawmakers have until Dec. 11 to hash out a long-term federal budget or risk another government shutdown.