Politics & Government

Marlborough's Member of Congress Speaks Out on End of Federal Shutdown

Congresswoman Niki Tsongas (D-Lowell) was satisfied the impasse over funding the federal government had been resolved in a statement on Wednesday, but said Washington should not be pleased with what happened, and that there is more work to be done.

By Andrew Sylvia

The U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve legislation providing funding to end the ongoing federal government shutdown, and the vote couldn’t come soon enough for Marlborough's member of Congress.

Representative Niki Tsongas (D-Lowell) voiced a tone of relief in a statement late on Wednesday night, praising the move and hoping that it will provide stability for a concerns over issues such as the looming debt ceiling crisis, which has now been raised until February 7, 2014.

“A breach in the debt ceiling would have sent the country into an economic tailspin. Thankfully, cooler heads have prevailed,” said Tsongas. “I applaud my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for coming together to get this done.”

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While Tsongas was glad the issue could finally be resolved, her statement also indicated concern over this happening again in February due to ongoing gridlock in Washington, and that Congress should not be patting itself on the back for what happened.

Although she stated that she wants to fine-tune the Affordable Care Act, which served as one of the key focal points for the Congressional impasse that shutdown the government, Tsongas believes that fine tuning should never again occur at the potential expense of the United States government paying its debts of fulfilling its obligations to its citizens.

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“The Republicans’ shamefully partisan strategy has had very real, very serious consequences for real Americans,” said Tsongas. “Congress owes it to the American people to utilize the time between now and January to put aside partisan differences, come together and find a balanced, bipartisan long-term budget plan.”


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