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Some members of New Jersey's Congressional delegation are angry over the shutdown — and some are just bracing for the effects of some 800,000 federal workers being furloughed. The delegation is pictured here last year during a meeting with Gov. Chris Christie.
(Governor's Office/Tim Larsen)
As the U.S. government shuts down for the first time in nearly two decades, one of New Jersey's Republican Congressmen said he requested his pay be suspended and prepared to furlough staff at both his offices.
One of New Jersey's Democratic Congressmen had a more visceral response. U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D-12th Dist.) angrily blasted the tea party for holding the federal government “hostage.”
New Jersey’s Congressional delegation is bracing for the worst — after Congressional leaders Monday night failed to reach a budget agreement, bringing normal U.S. government operations to a screeching halt.
The stand-off has come over Obamacare, which is just beginning to take shape. Congressional Republicans stubbornly demanded changes in the health-care reform law in exchange for votes for essential federal funding — a demand that President Obama and Democrats are refusing.
U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-2nd Dist.) sent a one-sentence letter to the Capitol’s Chief Administration Officer before the close of business on Monday, asking that his pay be withheld “until normal operations are restored.” He also is furloughing roughly half his staff at his offices in Mays Landing and in Washington.
Much of the blame should be placed at the White House's doorstep, LoBiondo said in a phone interview this morning.
"From my perspective, there's plenty of blame to go around," the Congressman said. "I don't quite understand this president. He should have just made a phone call. He did call Boehner twice - but he said he wasn't negotiating."
An angry Holt took the opposite view.
“The tea party doesn’t control the Senate, the president or even a majority of the House,” the Congressman fumed in a statement just minutes after midnight. “But it has discovered that it wields just enough power to threaten, through inaction on the budget or the debt ceiling, to cause economic catastrophe.”
"We've already compromised," said Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-9th Dist.). "They want to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, and it's not going to happen.
"Let's see if they have any adults on their side," the Congressman added.
Rep. Leonard Lance (R-7th Dist.) said both parties are to blame.
"I am deeply disappointed Congress could not come to agreement on an emergency short-term budget to keep our government open and fully operational,” Lance said in a statement. “It is an abject failure of both parties to govern responsibly and symptomatic of the budget dysfunction that has enveloped the Congress for many years.”
In all, an estimated 800,000 federal workers are expected to be furloughed.
Gov. Chris Christie has called the shutdown "a failure of everyone responsible for the system," noting that officials have been talking about these issues for months and still couldn't come to a solution.
“I think everybody’s handled it poorly,” Christie has said.