WASHINGTON — Sen. Lisa Murkowski is calling for her fellow senators to shelve the partisan rhetoric and negotiate an end to the government shutdown.
“And it can’t be about Republicans winning and Democrats losing. Or Democrats winning and Republicans losing,” she said on the Senate floor Monday. “Because right now, those that are losing are the American people.”
Murkowski cited the strain on federal workers who aren’t being paid. She also spoke of Alaskans waiting on federal permits and loans they need to get on with their business, and of more dire cases of delay.
“A couple in Anchorage said they’ve been waiting on an approval from the FDA on a compassion-use exception for a medication to treat Stage IV Ovarian Cancer,” she said. “And now, they’re told, ‘Just hold on, the government’s not operational right now.’”
Murkowski is living up to her reputation of going against the grain of her party and remains one of the only Republican senators willing to sometimes criticize President Trump. Her plea for compromise on funding the government is just one of the ways Murkowski is finding common cause with Democrats these days.
She was the only Republican among 207 members of Congress who filed a brief last week with the U.S. Supreme Court. It challenges President Trump’s use of emergency powers to impose tariffs, on his own, without congressional action.
She also took a stand against a Trump initiative this month by voting with Democrats on a resolution to block the bombing of Venezuelan boats without congressional approval.
“I am focusing on the Constitution,” she said in a hallway interview after a Senate vote Monday.
She cited Article 1 of the Constitution, which delineates congressional powers. She said it clearly puts declarations of war and tariffs in Congress’s domain.
“I can't be fearful of political consequences if I think it has violated my obligation under Article 1 of the Constitution,” she said. “So call it ‘going rogue,’ but I think I'm being faithful to my responsibility.”
Sen. Dan Sullivan voted, as did most Republicans, against the Venezuela resolution.
He declined to discuss his position when a reporter approached him and a group of aides in a Senate corridor.
“We’ll talk later. I’m in a meeting,” he said.
A Sullivan spokesman later emailed a statement defending the attacks on Venezuelan boats.
“President Trump’s lawful strikes against these cartels are saving lives and, importantly, establishing deterrence,” it reads.
Sullivan’s statement also says Trump is authorized by the Constitution to protect the homeland.
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the only Republican besides Murkowski to vote for the war powers resolution, has been demanding evidence to show those killed in boat strikes were drug traffickers.
