Aderholt, Alford, Moore: Appropriator Trio Underscore the Cost of Democrat Obstruction
Washington, D.C. – Following a week where Democrat leaders openly described the suffering of American families as “leverage,” the consequences of their irresponsible shutdown on the nation continue to grow. House Republican Appropriators Robert Aderholt, Mark Alford, and Riley Moore came together to underscore the reckless harm caused by radical Democrat obstruction, highlight progress towards regular order, and reaffirm their commitment to completing full-year appropriations. In a new episode of the Right to the Point podcast, the representatives detailed how the shutdown is devastating rural hospitals, crippling mining operations, and shuttering small businesses in their respective districts.
Highlights from the episode are below:
Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee Chairman Robert Aderholt on the need to restore regular order: “For the last several years, we've had those omnibus bills and there's been no conference that we've had. I remember the day, I've been around for several years now, and I remember the day where we went to conference, and we sat around with the Senate. Our subcommittees and the subcommittee on our counterpart on the Senate side would sit around a table in one of the rooms in the Capitol and hash out to get an appropriations bill, individual appropriations bill. And those days have long been gone. And we were on the verge of trying to work toward that. And as Riley mentioned, we had three bills that not only the motion was mentioned on, but we went to conference, and we are in conference on those three bills right now. But really nothing much can happen until we can get the government open, until we can move forward with the rest of the bills. So I guess there is a chance we could move forward on those three bills at some point.”
Looking at the current shutdown, Aderholt noted President Trump’s efforts to alleviate as much pain as possible: “I think one thing that has made this shutdown different is because of the leadership of Donald Trump. Normally, there’s no money to pay the troops, there’s no money to pay the WIC program for women and infants and children, but Donald Trump has found a way to move some money around to get the money to these programs so the troops can be paid… I’ll give credit to Donald Trump for really trying to make the best of this situation with what is going on with the shutdown with the Democrats, trying to make it easy as possible on our troops, but obviously this money is going to run out. He will not be able to move that money around forever. It’s important that we do get back to regular order at some point, to make sure we are doing the business of the people that have elected us and sent us to Washington.”
Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Subcommittee Vice Chair Mark Alford on the work Appropriators have done to on FY26 so far: “We have done our part on the Appropriations Committee. We have passed all 12 appropriations bills out of committee. It was a hard-fought battle, with Democrats offering numerous, numerous amendments during this process. We got three passed off the House floor [and] sent them over to the Senate to be in conference and [the Democrats] have done nothing with that. They’d rather shut down the government than give us seven extra weeks till November 21st to get our funding done for 2026, return to regular order, and really get back to how we should be doing things…”
Alford didn’t parse words regarding Democrats’ political incentives to keep the government shut down: “Chuck Schumer is holding the American people hostage. I think it is out of his pride, his arrogance, his ego – and most of all – his fear of being primaried by AOC… I think we've all seen the strategy of the Democrats at this point and Hakeem Jeffries is the master of this. P.T. Barnum, I think, would be very proud of the circus that he's holding on the front steps just about every day of the Capitol. They're singing songs. He's shaking his hand a lot, whatever he does with his hand, but trying to make a point. But I think what he's doing most of all is deceiving the American people. They [Democrats] are saying that we are on vacation. I don't know about you guys, but I'm not on vacation. I am working my tail off here in the 4th Congressional District of Missouri.”
Legislative Branch Subcommittee Vice Chair Riley Moore on the need to restore regular order: “We [House Republicans] worked hours and hours and hours to get all 12 appropriations bills out of committee because we heard from the people the need and the want. Our constitutional duty is to have some semblance of regular order return to the appropriations process, which is exactly what we're trying to do. And as you mentioned at the outset, we passed three bills on the floor. We also, last month, had a motion to go to conference. When's the last time someone has uttered those words on the House floor? It's probably been a little while. And so the Republicans, we are trying to bring regular order back to the appropriations process, get away from the massive omnibuses of the past, and all we were trying to do here is have this short-term stopgap CR so we could finish the work of the appropriations committee, which is actually what the American people want… So open the government back up and then we can all get back to work [and] get the appropriations process back on track…”
Moore doubled down on Democrat shutdown theatrics: “The Democrats, their intransigence on this is just inexplicable. It’s driven by the far left wing of the party, as we saw Schumer out there encouraging this ‘No Kings’ rally, asking people to fight against the Trump Administration and Republicans when it’s he himself who is the singular figure in this that has shut down the government along with his party because he is worried about a primary challenge in 2028 from AOC. One man’s blind ambition to cling onto power in the United States Senate as the minority leader has literally ground the government to a halt, and I don’t think that’s right. I think the American people don’t think it’s right either.”
He concluded the extraneous nature of Democrat demands: “It’s a nonstarter. Not to mention, it’s not germane at all to the appropriations process or the budget of the United States. That’s a whole separate issue. They’re throwing as many things as they can at the wall to try and paint the Republicans in a bad light and fight on ground that they feel confident about.”
Right to the point: House Republicans acted to keep the government open and working by passing a clean, nonpartisan funding extension more than a month ago. In contrast, Democrats voted to shut it down and have since blocked every effort to reopen it for the American people.
As long as Democrats keep the government closed, federal employees will continue working without pay, services will remain cut down to bare bones, and progress on full-year appropriations—the very work essential to ending the cycle of continuing resolutions—will stay stalled.
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