Tennessee U.S. Representatives Tim Burchett (R-TN-02), Andy Ogles (R-TN-05), and John Rose (R-TN-06) were the only Republicans in the state congressional delegation to vote against a continuing resolution which did not include the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act on Wednesday.
The continuing resolution, H.R. 9747, passed the U.S. House by a 341-82 vote.
Every Democratic representative voted for the passage of the continuing resolution.
Wednesday’s passage of the temporary funding bill comes one week after the House failed to pass a continuing resolution tied to the SAVE Act, which “prohibits states from accepting and processing an application to register to vote in a federal election unless the applicant presents documentary proof of U.S. citizenship.”
Following that continuing resolution’s failure to pass, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA-04) announced that the House would be moving forward with a continuing resolution not attached to the SAVE Act to fund the government until December 20, saying that a government shutdown just before the presidential election would be “political malpractice.”
Tennessee U.S. Representatives Diana Harshbarger (R-TN-01), Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN-03), Mark Green (R-TN-07, David Kustoff (R-TN-08), and Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) all voted in favor of Wednesday’s continuing resolution.
U.S. Representative Scott DesJarlais (R-TN-04) did not vote.
Congressman Rose, who voted against the funding package, defended his decision in a statement, saying, “Tennesseans sent me to Washington to make difficult decisions on how to spend their hard-earned taxpayer dollars and not take the easy route by voting for a CR that extends inflationary spending into the lame duck session of Congress.”
“With the national debt well over $35 trillion and government deficits topping $1.7 trillion a year, I could not in good conscience support a continuation of the status quo. Washington must take after Tennessee and restore fiscal constraint or risk driving the future prosperity of our country off an insurmountable fiscal ledge,” Rose added.
Congressman Ogles also defended his decision to vote on Wednesday, warning that the vote to pass the temporary spending package was a “mistake” for House Republicans.
“Presumably we’re going to have to come back in December, there’s going to be a huge budget fight at the end of the year. Typically, we as Americans always get screwed when we have a December spending fight with some sort of massive spending bill,” Ogles said.
Meanwhile, Burchett, who also did not vote in favor of the continuing resolution tied to the SAVE Act, has consistently voted against continuing resolutions and supporting short-term funding plans, instead urging his colleagues to pass a full budget.
Congress has until Monday, September 30 to negotiate and pass a budget to avert a government shutdown.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Image “Rep Tim Burchett” by Rep. Tim Burchett, “Rep. John Rose” by Rep. John Rose, and “Rep Andy Ogles” by Rep. Andy Ogles.
