Congressperson Celeste Maloy Advocates For Spending Bills Over Continuing Resolutions

Congressperson Celeste Maloy was on the Big Picture Morning Show today, and wanted to visit about a vote that took place recently on a continuing resolution (CR) to avoid a government shutdown. Out of the gate, Maloy knew that her vote was going to raise some eyebrows. 

“Now I know this is a controversial vote, and I know a lot of people have questions, so I'm trying to get out and explain it to as many people as I can. I voted against the continuing resolution. And about half of the Republicans in Congress did,” Maloy said. Explaining why she voted against the CR, the congressperson continued, “I was really hopeful that we would get to spending bills and not do another continuing resolution. And it just didn't quite get there. And I think a lot of people misunderstand what our continuing resolution does,” Maloy said.  

So what is it a CR does that Maloy doesn’t like?  

“It means that we're continuing last Congress's spending priorities and it's not just the dollars in a budget, it's also there's a lot of policy in there. We're telling agencies how much money they can spend and where they can spend it. And the longer we do continuing resolutions, the longer those policies are, the ones set by the last Congress, which was controlled by Nancy Pelosi,” the congressperson said.

Maloy went on to say that the job of Congress is to get the spending bills out. “Yeah, that is our job,” according to Maloy. As to why the CR passed, Maloy explained, “one of the reasons we're continuing on this path is because Speaker Johnson just didn't have the vote(s) to get a spending bill done. There's still debate happening within the Republican Conference about what that should look like. So the speaker went to negotiate with the White House and the Senate and came back with a top line spending number, a deal, and a lot of the House Republicans didn't like the deal, and they said we're going to vote against it. And we are basically at a 1 vote majority right now.” 

Maloy further emphasized that if decreases in spending were going to happen, it would only be through the House of Representatives. “The house is the only line being held right now against spending increases. Democrats control the White House and the Senate, and we went into that negotiation, with them asking for spending increases. And only the house (was) asking for any cut(s). So the Speaker worked out what he thought was a good deal. Members of our conference disagreed and with basically a 1 vote majority, we can't have any disagreement and get anything across the finish line, Maloy stated. 

The CR was able to pass because half the Republicans and all of the House Democrats voted in favor of it. We asked Maloy if we were going to see yet another CR in the near future. 

“Oh, I hope not. We're continuing to work on spending bills, the appropriations chairs, so there's the chair of the Appropriations Committee, and each of the 12 subcommittees has a chair. They're working on their spending bills and you know when they talked about the top line number for the Senate, the House and the White House negotiate with the top line number is.” 

Maloy indicated that Congress will stay at work to get spending bills crafted and passed. “For as of right now, House leadership is canceling some of the recess days in February, which means instead of being in our districts, working with our constituents, we’ll be in Washington, DC voting,” she said. 

Maloy believe the committees that she will be serving on during the budget process will have a big impact on Utah.  

“I'm on the small business committee, which is great,” Maloy said. “It fits with Utah very well. And I'm on the transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which is also a high priority for most Utahns, so I'm really excited about the work that I'm going to get to do through committees to represent their needs and the priorities of Utah.”

You can hear our entire segment with Congressperson Maloy below.