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Local Congressmen discuss what Congress needs to do better

Our local Congressmen, one Republican and one Democrat, discuss the government shutdown and what Congress needs to do better.

WASHINGTON — Day two of the government shutdown has come and gone, and lawmakers in Washington still have no compromise and no spending bill.

The House passed its stopgap spending bill, though, and it hit the stalemate in the Senate.

That bill would have kept the government funded through mid-February and keep the Children's Health Insurance Program funded, but the largely Republican bill didn't resolve the ongoing immigrant protection debate, and the current program DACA, which authorizes permits to stay in America, ends March 5.

Channel 2 talked to Congressman Tom Reed, a Republican, and Congressman Brian Higgins, a Democrat, about all this.

Reporter Erica Brecher asked Reed where he stands on finding an immigration compromise as the end of DACA nears.

“That's why the continuing resolution, even out of the House, was only designed to go to February 16, recognizing that this issue still needs to be addressed, and that's why we've been part of efforts on a long-term spending type of agreement that brings multi-year stability to our government funding …so we don't have this government shutdown, and that temporary mechanism that was deployed would then force us to address these bigger problems,” Reed said.

Essentially, Reed felt the three week extension was a good way to keep policy conversations going about the socially sensitive programs that do run on government funding, but Higgins felt and continues to feel both the House's extension plan and Senate's inability to pass anything is a failure to do Congress's job of passing budgets.

"The Majority Leader in the Senate, and the Speaker of the House have to get a backbone and stand up to this President. That's what the institution of Congress was established for, to be a co-equal branch of the federal government. And when the President convenes a meeting in his office a week ago, and says ‘Congress should do its work,’ that's about the only thing I agree with when the President speaks, and in that regard he's right. And I say let's roll the President and pass a full year budget and give him or challenge him to sign the bill or veto,” Higgins said.

Channel 2 was unable to reach Congressman Chris Collins Sunday night.

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