Congressman Steven Palazzo has joined Republican House Appropriators in expressing his concerns that the impeachment inquiry is stealing the focus of Congress and hurting the fiscal year 2020 appropriations process.
This letter comes after Palazzo voted against the continuing resolution in the House because no spending caps have been agreed to and short term resolutions severely impact our military readiness.
The text of the letter is below. A pdf version of the letter can be found here.
The Honorable Nita M. Lowey
Chairwoman
House Committee on Appropriations
H-307, the Capitol
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Chairwoman Lowey,
The Federal Government is currently funded through a continuing resolution because final appropriations bills have not been enacted for fiscal year 2020. This is damaging to our military, federal law enforcement, and other critical programs.
As Republican Members of the Appropriations Committee, we write to you today with concern that the House is focused on the purely political exercise of impeaching the President during this critical time for our Committee. We cannot afford to let this political matter slow down this year’s appropriations process even further.
We know you share our interest in completing the appropriations process, and we appreciate the work you and Senator Shelby are doing to develop subcommittee funding allocations. We hope that you will reach agreement very soon so that all parties can engage in the necessary task of negotiating final bills.
We hope both parties in the House and the Senate can work together, putting politics aside, to pass full-year appropriations measures that the President can sign into law as quickly as possible. We stand ready to work with you to bring the fiscal year 2020 appropriations process to a close.
