WASHINGTON — A government shutdown that would halt operations at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park during one of its busiest times of the year and impact millions of federal employees is looming as lawmakers struggle to pass legislation on the federal budget.
Most recently, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy rejected Senate legislation designed to keep the government running. If no legislation is passed, a shutdown will begin on Oct. 1. Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN) said he does not plan to vote for a continuing resolution.
"They're telling us we need to pass this 30-day continuing resolution so that we can not pass another continuing resolution," he said. "Right now, we're spending our great-grandchildren's money."
Burchett said he wanted to see legislation that addresses "special interests" in the budget and instead funds more efforts like wildfire recovery in Maui, or sends more funds to security at the southern U.S. border.
"You know, we recently got our credit rating marked down which has only happened, I think, one or two times in American history. And, the reason they did it — it was caused by, 'A steady deterioration in standards of governance over the last 20 years, including on fiscal and debt matters.' And here again, the Republicans are going to spend their money on missile defense systems that both sides of the aisle are invested in, which to me is pretty, pretty shady," he said.
Burchett said he has spoken with McCarthy, and said he was disappointed. He said last week, he was in party leadership's office and was planning to continue working through the weekend to pass legislation, but was instead told he could go home.
"I'll guarantee all these folks that are pushing for all this garbage, they'll go home and tell their constituents that they're, in fact, 'I'm fighting the good fight. I'm fighting, you know, for fiscal conservativism.' And they're not," he said.
Burchett said he proposed five spending cuts on the House floor Thursday afternoon, but also said they were mostly symbolic. He said he specifically wanted to see spending cuts at The Pentagon.
"I do not like what's going on at The Pentagon. They are overspending, they've never passed an audit. They lose billions of dollars. At one time — 60% of their assets were unaccounted for. Sixty percent. And then we reward them every year with more money. It goes into black projects, and it's just cost overrun. It's, frankly, a lot of stealing. And so I think we need to start looking there," Burchett said.
Burchett said there have been 20 government shutdowns since 1976, and said they go on for around eight days on average.
"It's the White House's decision, the executive branch, that will decide where the money is spent and where it's not," he said. "I predict we'll have a shutdown. I predict we'll have a shutdown, but I would hope we'd work."