Hampton Roads lawmakers split on deal to end shutdown

At a Hampton Roads forum Monday, the region’s U.S. House members all agreed the government shutdown has gone on far too long but split along party lines on how to end the Senate’s proposal to end it.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott and Republican U.S. Reps. Jen Kiggans and Rob Wittman spoke during a forum hosted by the Hampton Roads Chamber on Monday, less than 24 hours after the U.S. Senate voted 60-40 to advance a compromise plan to reopen the government. Virginia’s junior senator, Democrat Tim Kaine, joined Republicans in passing the legislation, which now heads to the House of Representatives.

The deal would restore back pay for federal workers and proposes a vote in December on extending Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, the sticking point for Democrats in passing what Republicans called a “clean bill” to reopen the government. House Speaker Mike Johnson called lawmakers to return to Washington, D.C., on Monday.

The vote was divisive among Democrats, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the vast majority of Senate Democrats voting no, arguing that it did not guarantee continued health care subsidies. Kaine joined four other Democrats in switching their earlier votes and reaching the 60-vote threshold required to pass the bill.

“This deal guarantees a vote to extend Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, which Republicans weren’t willing to do,” Kaine said in a statement. “Lawmakers know their constituents expect them to vote for it, and if they don’t, they could very well be replaced at the ballot box by someone who will.

At Monday’s forum, Scott, Wittman and Kiggans all condemned Washington’s budget stalemate, which has resulted in a 40-day shutdown of the federal government, delaying paychecks and disrupting some federal operations. The three lawmakers acknowledged its local toll on the military, shipyards and small businesses in Hampton Roads.

But while Wittman and Kiggans, both Republicans, said they would support the U.S. Senate’s resolution to end the government shutdown, Scott, a Democrat, said he wouldn’t vote for it, voicing concerns that the proposed deal was, in his view, a “blank check” to President Donald Trump that failed to fix underlying problems — including Affordable Care Act funding.

Kiggans said the past few weeks have been “eye-opening” for her, and that “the game has got to stop.” She said she has met with shipyard union workers struggling to pay their mortgages and bills on time because of the shutdown.

Wittman called the shutdown “avoidable” and blamed the cycle of continuing resolutions that keep the government running in short bursts.

“It’s ridiculous to me that when there is a shutdown, that we categorize the federal workforce into essential and non-essential employees,” he said. “Tell me how many businesses have non-essential employees? Why would you do that? It doesn’t make any sense to me. And then here’s the next part. So you send the essential workers into work. Then you tell them, ‘By the way, go to work, and we’re not going to pay you.’ How many businesses get to do that and expect that their business is going to run?”

He was critical that congressmembers who caused the shutdown still get paid while many federal employees are furloughed without pay, and others, including air traffic controllers, are working unpaid. Wittman said there should be reform, dubbing it the “Inaction Has Consequences” bill, that would prevent members of Congress from being paid until the shutdown is resolved.

In late October, though, the White House announced active-duty and reserve members of the military would receive their paychecks, as it planned to use about $8 billion in Pentagon funds to cover the Oct. 15 payroll.

Wittman also renewed his push for requiring Congress to adopt budgets on time and eliminating what he called the “antiquated tradition” of the August recess.

“Our members need to stay in Washington until all 12 appropriations bills are done,” he said. “That way, we don’t find ourselves in a continuing resolution situation.”

Challenges growing

Nationwide, the effects of the shutdown have compounded. According to the Associated Press, Airlines canceled more than 2,000 flights on Sunday, food aid was delayed for tens of millions of Americans, and Washington-area food banks are reporting record demand from unpaid federal workers.

Kiggans said she understood concerns about rising health insurance premiums and noted that she had put forward a bill at the beginning of September to extend Affordable Care Act premium tax credits by one year. However, she said the issues can’t be properly debated and voted on until that happens. She added that too many people are being harmed by the shutdown’s effects.

“I’m happy to sit down and have every single health care discussion or any other policy discussion, but we have to get back to regular order, and I can’t do that with the government shutdown,” she said.

But Scott said in an interview after the forum that Republicans have repeatedly tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and counting on them to improve it “seems a little optimistic.”

“They got no commitment for the vote to pass,” Scott said of a vote to extend expiring ACA subsidies.

While Kaine broke from the majority of Democrats on the vote to reopen the government, Virginia’s senior Democratic senator, Mark Warner, stuck with the no voters. In a statement, Warner said he appreciated that the compromise proposal included language preventing further mass layoffs of federal employees.

“But I cannot support a deal that still leaves millions of Americans wondering how they are going to pay for their health care or whether they will be able to afford to get sick,” said Warner, who faces a 2026 election, while Kaine last won his seat in 2024. “We owe the American people more than a short-term fix that leaves working families staring down a health care crisis, and simply kicking the can down the road is not good enough.”