National Urban League's Morial Assails House Extremists Steering Federal Government to a Shutdown

By National Urban League
Published03 PM EDT, Mon Sep 16, 2024
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NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE'S MORIAL ASSAILS HOUSE EXTREMISTS STEERING FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO A SHUTDOWN

NEW YORK (September 25, 2023) -- National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial today sharply condemned the reckless extremists in the House of Representatives who are determined to throw the country into chaos by steering the federal government toward a shutdown.

“The nation is being held hostage by political performance artists who have no interest in public service,” Morial said. “House extremists are not only willing, but eager to disrupt vital services, endanger national security, crater the economy, and inflict needless hardship on the most vulnerable Americans – all to feed their own egos and raise their public profiles.

“Absent a coherent public policy agenda, their overriding concern is antagonizing their political adversaries and whipping up partisan hostility,” he said.

Morial further chided Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy for placing his own political fortunes above the fate of the nation.

“It is a simple enough matter for Speaker McCarthy to advance a clean continuing resolution that keeps the government functioning at the current level,” Morial said. “Sadly, he is unwilling to stand up to the most extreme members of his caucus and risk losing his position as Speaker – a position that he has thus far squandered by pandering to conspiracy theorists and cynical opportunists.”

In addition to the hardships and risks inflicted on all Americans, Morial noted that a government shutdown would disproportionately harm the communities that the National Urban League and its affiliates serve:

  • At least 10,000 preschool children will be denied the education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services of Head Start and risk falling even further behind in school readiness. 
  • Small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs will lose a vital source of funding as the Small Business Administration is blocked from accepting, reviewing, or approving new business loans. 
  • Infrastructure projects that provide employment, stimulate local economies, and rectify historical and structural inequities would grind to a halt. 
  • With the Occupational Safety and Health Administration forced to limit workplace inspections, workers will be increasingly vulnerable to career-ending injuries or worse. 
  • Hard-working Americans will continue to wait for the back pay they earned and were denied as Department of Labor investigations are suspended. 
  • Low-income and underserved communities who suffer the health effects of hazardous waste and industrial pollution, and lax oversight will lose the protections of the Environmental Protection Agency as inspections halt and cleanup of Superfund sites is further delayed. 

 “This dismal vison of the future may be exactly what the extremist saboteurs in the House of Representatives want to see,” Morial said. “It’s not what the American people want, and it’s not what any member of the House was elected to pursue. We urge Speaker McCarthy to summon the sense of duty that befits the office he’s so desperate to keep and pull the breaks on this imminent trainwreck.”