Temporary funding resolution passes House, Senate to avoid weekend shutdown

The bill increases funding for FEMA and the Ukraine crisis. Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, opposed the bill and said it would give handouts to undocumented immigrants.

U.S.+Rep+Ashley+Hinson%2C+R-Iowa%2C+speaks+during+Ashley+Hinson%E2%80%99s+BBQ+Bash+at+the+Linn+County+Fairgrounds+Sunday%2C+August+28%2C+2022.

Matt Sindt

U.S. Rep Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, speaks during Ashley Hinson’s BBQ Bash at the Linn County Fairgrounds Sunday, August 28, 2022.

Liam Halawith, Politics Reporter


Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, voted against a stop-gap spending bill on Friday that would provide continued funding through Dec. 16 to prevent a government shutdown over the weekend. 

Hinson wrote in an email to The Daily Iowan, that the bill gives $1.8 million in handouts to immigrants living in or entering the U.S. illegally, specifically in direct cash assistance to undocumented immigrants.

She said this would incentivize illegal border crossings and make the border crisis worse. The bill includes the $1.8 billion in funding for refugee assistance but no mention of direct cash assistance to undocumented migrants as Hinson said. 

However, the bill would also aim to reduce the amount of cost-sharing for prescription insulin for private insurance and medicare, limiting the maximum cost for the patient to $35 per vial. 

Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, also voted against the bill on Friday, while Rep. Cindy Axne, D-Iowa; Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa; Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; and Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, voted for the bill in the House and Senate versions on Friday. 

The bill would give the Federal Emergency Management Agency $3 billion to aid in the cleanup of Hurricane Ian, which made landfall in Florida on Wednesday causing catastrophic damage to large parts of Florida. 

“Instead of ramping up domestic production to lower energy prices, they added $1 billion to this bill to temporarily subsidize energy costs,” Hinson wrote in the email.

Hinson also said the bill is just one of many that Democrats will attempt to pass to spend more taxpayer dollars on “radical” policies. 

“When this billion runs out, they’ll just ask for another billion, and another, as they continue with their radical and harmful policies that caused these crises. I won’t support throwing your taxpayer dollars at problems instead of actually solving them,” Hinson wrote in the email.

Axne, who voted for the bill, said in a written email statement to the press on Friday that partisanship in Congress has made it difficult to accomplish the key duties of the legislative branch. 

“Casting my vote for the 10th continuing resolution in my time representing the Third District is nothing short of disappointing. I took office in the middle of a government shutdown, and have no intention of returning to that situation, but failing to pass our appropriations bills on time again is a sad state of affairs,” Axne said in an email to the DI