Womack hopes funding approved by January, unsure on health insurance

U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, R-Rogers, hopes to not experience deja vu again. But there isn’t as much time as one might think for the recently reopened federal government to get its financial house in order.

“Here we are in the middle part of November and we’ve got this government shut down behind us,” said Womack. “I will remind everybody each week that we’re still on the clock, we’ll go to January and I sure hope we don’t revisit what we just came through, but for now things are beginning to settle back down and maybe Congress can get back to work.”

“Between now and the 31st of January, we have a couple of major holidays and that will complicate matters. So it’s not like saying we have 78 days or 79 days to finish this work because we all know that there are going to be a couple of weeks in this timeframe that are going to be out of play because of Thanksgiving and because of Christmas and New Year’s. But the short answer to your question is yes, there is time.

Womack said the Continuing Resolutions (CRs) that are extending government spending aren’t just one year old, they’re coming up on two years old, and that has him concerned.

“We’re running the government on priorities from over two years ago and at funding levels that are two years old. And that cannot be good in an ever-changing environment, particularly as it concerns national security when the modern battlefield is changing doggone near weekly,” he said.

“When you do CRs, as you know, you can’t start new programs and you’re basically handcuffed at levels that are inconsistent with what today’s emerging needs are. So we really need to finish the FY 26 packages and I think we can do it if we have the will to do it, but it’s going to require cooperation between House and Senate, between Republicans and Democrats. We’re going to need to get support from the president who will ultimately be asked to sign the legislation. And with margins so thin, they cannot be hyper-partisan bills because we just don’t have the numbers to overcome a 60-vote Senate filibuster, which was the problem in the last government shutdown and will raise its ugly head again if we don’t at least attempt to get buy-in from the other side,” he added.

Democrats were holding out during the 47-day shutdown seeking action on health care premium subsidies tied to the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges. Womack said the subject is difficult.

“I don’t know what the answers are, but it does need to have a debate and hearings and it does deserve because it’s so important and so personal to so many people and so expensive that we need to give this our best effort and not just say, ‘Let’s just throw a lot of money at it.’ We’re $38 trillion in debt, throwing a bunch more money at something like that is not going to get us out of the financial hole that we find ourselves in. But what that solution is only a good across the table, bipartisan bicameral discussion about what to do about healthcare, I think that is the answer right now,” said Womack.

You can listen to Cong. Womack’s full interview at this link.