Press Releases

Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA) released the following statement:

“Today, regrettably, I voted against the debt limit agreement.

“President Biden secured the best possible deal under extremely adverse circumstances. It raises the debt ceiling for two years without many of the draconian cuts Republicans demanded. However, I refuse to enable hostage-taking and in the process establish a dangerous precedent. I cannot sign my name to a deal done under duress, and I will not engage in anything that further enables such reckless behavior from my Republican colleagues.

“Last week, I called on President Biden to invoke the 14th Amendment and unilaterally take default off the table. It’s an opinion shared by respected legal and constitutional scholars, and it’s the path President Biden should have taken. 

“On the substance of the deal, as a matter of conviction, I am vehemently opposed to three major provisions: The inclusion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, additional work requirements for SNAP and TANF, and the rescission of billions of dollars in funding already appropriated for the IRS.

“This agreement virtually assures approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline without meaningful public input and without being subject to judicial review. This is a frightening and unacceptable precedent to set, particularly on a project that will directly affect so many Virginia communities. Those Virginians, and the lawmakers who represent them, deserve more of a say in this decision than this deal affords them. To unilaterally approve an oil project by fiat with no due process denies the people we serve any voice in their own communities’ future. 

“While President Biden fought valiantly to exclude the cruelest changes to SNAP and TANF sought by Republicans, this deal will still result in lost nutritional assistance for at least 500,000 Americans who currently receive it. These are real human beings who rely on these programs to feed themselves and their families. They are not pawns in Republicans’ cruel political game, and they deserve better than this. I did not run for public office to add to the ranks of the hungry and malnourished.

“In the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats appropriated $80 billion to restore the IRS, improve its customer service, and go after wealthy tax cheats. This deal strips away tens of billions of those dollars, leaving the IRS in a weaker position than it should be to achieve those goals. Ironically, by cutting this funding, Republicans are going after the one agency that has the ability to shrink the deficit and reduce our debt – the very aspirations they claim to hold sacred – by ensuring the federal government is actually collecting the revenue it is owed.

“I want to be clear: I will never vote to default on our debt. If, in some alternate universe, my vote was the difference between passing this deal and catastrophic default, I would have begrudgingly held my nose and voted for it. The full faith and credit of the United States is too important to do otherwise. However, when it became apparent this deal would pass with or without me, the choice was clear. I could not in good faith support it.”