Sen. Tina Smith: I'll Vote Against Continuing Budget Resolution From House

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- With a federal government shutdown looming over a budget dispute in Congress, a Minnesota senator Thursday said a resolution currently moving through the house isn't acceptable.

In a Facebook post, Sen. Tina Smith said the continuing resolution currently moving through the House would not get her vote in the Senate.

"The short term budget the House is voting on later today is both bad on substance and bad from a budgeting perspective," she said in the post.

The House stopgap spending measure would avoid a government shutdown, but only provides funding until mid-February, at which point Congress would have to revisit immigration issues that stalled negotiations in the first place. If neither the continuing resolution or a long-term budget deal are passed by Friday, dozens of government agencies would have to close until funding is secured.

"People in Minnesota and across the country deserve the certainty that comes with a long-term federal budget," Smith said in the post.

Smith also said she hopes any budget program would include long-term funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a fix for "Dreamers" left in immigration limbo when the president ended the Obama-era DACA program, funding disaster relief, funding for community health centers, a fix for federal workers' pensions and resources to combat the opioid epidemic.