Figures discusses government shutdown at town hall meeting
U.S. Rep Shomari Figures said there were three reasons he voted against a continuing resolution to fund the federal government.
Figures held a town hall meeting in Troy at the new Academy Street Career Innovation Academy on Wednesday night. Figures was in town to discuss the ongoing government shutdown with constituents. Figures said he wanted to explain to people why he voted against the continuing resolution to fund the federal government. But, first he wanted to explain how the country’s leaders arrived at this point.
“I know the shutdown is top of mind for everybody,” Figures said “So, we’ll talk through some of that, what that looks like, what it means for you to possibly see what the services are that will be impacted [and] my position on everything. The government-made shutdown basically is a very direct way of saying that the government … has run out of its authority to spend money.”
Figures said Congress had to appropriate money for the nation’s budget and then Congress passes the money to the government which then has the legal authority to spend the money. Figures said the last time Congress passed a full budget was when Barack Obama was president. He said Congress has been operating under what are called continuing resolutions, which are bills that give the government temporary spending authority. He said the continuing resolutions are usually passed for three or six months. When Congress can’t agree on passage of one of the continuing resolutions, there’s a government shutdown.
“So, that’s how we got to where we are,” Figures said. “Now we run into Sept. 30. Congress again is debating extending the spending agreement. For me, it boiled down to three big things. … “I really try to focus on this district and try to put resources back in this district. But as I assess whether or not to support extending the spending authority after Sept. 30, for me it boiled down to three things.”
Figures said his decision was based on health care, President Donald Trump not spending money that had been authorized by Congress and tariffs. He said those three issues had a direct impact on everyday citizens. According to Figures, said one of the changes made in Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” got rid of the Affordable Care Act health care premium subsidy assistance.
“One of the changes it made was to get rid of the Affordable Care Act health care premium subsidy assistance, which that is singularly responsible for keeping health care premiums in check and affordable for everybody that, well, not everybody, but for most people that purchase health care through the Affordable Care Act,” Figures said. “In this district alone, from the 13 counties that I represent, that’s around 50,000 people. About 50,000 people, 50,000 people who purchased health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. And in the big bill, they let those expire. If we don’t extend it, the premiums for those 50,000 plus people will, on average, more than go up.”
Figures said he confirmed the cost increase projections with Blue Cross and Blue Shield, which is the largest health insurance provider in Alabama. He said the price increase would vary from person-to-person because the Affordable Care Act subsidies are based on a sliding income scale. But, he said a married couple 61-years-old making $82,000 combined income could see an increase in premiums of up to $20,000.
The Affordable Care Act subsidies expire on Dec. 31, 2025. According to a statement from House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., the Sept. 30 continuing resolution is the same CR that Democrats voted for 13 times during the Biden Administration. According to Johnson’s statement, Democrats are holding the Sept. 30 CR hostage and shutting down the government over a policy fight that will take place in December when the actual subsidies expire.
“I cannot sell out 50,000 people and support a spending board that’s going to allow health care in this district to be more than dealt with by the people that need it the most,” Figures said. “So, I voted against extending the funding without protections of health care subsidies to the people in this district. In this district, health care outcomes are crazy. Alabama has the third lowest life expectancy in America. I’m going to say it a different way this time. If you are born or live in this district, you are expected to die before people in every other state with the exception of Mississippi and West Virginia.”
Figures said he also believed that if Congress appropriated money, the money should be spent the way Congress intended.
“We’re seeing a lot of action right now we’ve never seen before in the history of this country as it relates to spending, as it relates to the president exercising a unilateral authority to decide what to spend money on, what to [hold] money back on,” Figures said. “We’ve literally never seen before in the history of this country, not either a Democratic or a Republican administration, the president saying, ‘I am not spending the money that Congress told us we had to spend.’ We’ve never seen that. And if we continue to go down that slope, that means that tomorrow morning when they wake up, they can say, we’re not going to spend money to go to Troy University. We’re not going to spend money to fund the infrastructure projects that we committed to Pike County, or whatever. That’s not the way our system of government was designed to work.”
He said the lack of spending affected everyday people in not only Congressional District 2, but the whole State of Alabama. He said Troy University had lost research funding and the University of Alabama at Birmingham had lost major research funding. He said farmers in Alabama also lost a $2 million contract for providing produce for the state’s reduced lunch program, among other cuts.
He said the final reason he voted against the CR was because tariffs affected the everyday consumer.
“We have a global interconnected economy,” Figures said. “You raised tariffs on the price of goods that are coming from other countries. The companies that are buying them, they’re not just gonna eat those tariffs. Nobody’s going to say, yep, you know what? In the interest of making America great, I’m just going to pay these tariffs. That’s not how it works. Nobody expects you to do that. It’s not fair to a business owner to do that.
“So, a business owner has to do what? Pass on the cost to the consumer. It’s only right. Nobody expects a business owner to just wake up one day and say, wow, my import cost isn’t enough. I’m just going to swallow it. I’m just going to eat it. So you pass it on to a consumer, which means you raise the price on the goods that you’re selling. Which means when you go to Walmart or you buy something on Amazon or you buy a new car or you’re building a new house, anything that has been imported for the most part has not been exempted. And your receipt doesn’t have a tax line that says tariffs. The increase in that is built into what you’re paying. And we are all paying every single day. That, again, is not a political topic. That is the mathematical realities of what these tariffs are doing.”