Both of Ohio’s U.S. Senators are speaking out against the federal government shutdown, but U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) are taking different stances to bringing it back open.
Brown says it’s time for Senate Republicans to draw a line in the sand and approve a bipartisan budget despite President Donald Trump’s objections.
“There are beginning to be cracks in this ‘whatever the president wants, we do’ view of Senate Republicans and I’m hopeful that continues and it helps us open the government in the next couple of days,” said Brown.
But Portman believes Democrats have the ability to reach a solution with Trump.
“The reasons we’re in this shutdown is because both sides are unwilling to talk, that’s what makes this so stupid,” Portman said on the U.S. Senator floor.
Portman called for approval of the $5.7 billion plan for physical barriers along the border. But Portman noted that Trump has switched from building a wall to making a steel barrier, a fence, instead. He added that Democratic senators have approved these types of barriers in the past.
Copyright 2019 The Statehouse News Bureau
