Ahead of a Sept. 30 shutdown deadline, the party is pressing messages on cost-of-living and health care access.
As Democrats returned to Washington this week after an August recess, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats used the time to organize across the country and will seek a bipartisan spending bill as Congress returns with a Sept. 30 deadline.
“House Democrats had a very active August District Work Period. We held more than 1,000 different events all across the country, interacting with everyday Americans who we are privileged to represent,” Jeffries said at a Sept. 2 press conference.
He said members focused on the economy and health care, adding that “America is too expensive.”
Jeffries presented his party’s fall agenda as centering on lowering costs, protecting health coverage, and negotiating government funding.
“We are willing to find bipartisan common ground in order to pass a spending bill, avoid a reckless Republican government shutdown, and meet the needs of the American people,” he said. Any bill, he added, must be the result of negotiation and serve “health, safety, national security, and economic well-being.”
Republicans rebutted Democrats’ warnings, saying they want to keep the government open and that Democrats are “threatening chaos.”
“Jeffries admitted his radical party is plotting another government shutdown because they’d rather play politics than govern,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Mike Marinella said in a statement.
Democrats also used the recess to campaign against the Republican spending bill passed and signed this summer, which they say increases costs and cuts health programs. Jeffries said the law “rips healthcare away from millions of families.” At his press conference, he said Republicans “were unable to defend their signature so-called legislative accomplishment” at town halls.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump in July, made the president’s 2017 tax cuts permanent. It also provided tax breaks on tips, overtime pay, and Social Security income while directing new funding to defense and border security.
By Chase Smith
