New Jersey politicians are speaking out as the federal government shutdown got underway Oct. 1, with Republicans and Democrats echoing the national conversation by blaming the other side for the situation.
Congress failed to reach a funding agreement by the start of the government’s fiscal year. The parties proposed separate continuing resolutions, or CRs, that would have provided temporary funding, but both were rejected after they failed to receive the required number of votes.
The dueling measures meant each side had an opening to blame the other for refusing to accept their funding bill. In New Jersey, politicians took that opportunity to accuse their counterparts of prioritizing themselves over their constituents.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill, congresswoman for New Jersey’s 11th District and the Democratic nominee for governor, criticized Republicans for catering to the wishes of President Donald Trump in leading to the shutdown. She said party officials are “willing to turn their backs on the American people in order to blindly follow Donald Trump’s demands.”
“New Jersey families and the American people deserve far better,” Sherrill said in a statement. “Washington Republicans must come to the table immediately to find a bipartisan consensus on a plan that reopens the government, keeps costs from rising even higher, and extends critical healthcare tax credits that working families rely on.”
Congressman Jeff Van Drew, a Republican representing New Jersey’s 2nd District, said in a Sept. 30 post on X that his party already approved a “clean CR” that would have kept the government open. He said Democrats are to blame for the shutdown by seeking $1.5 trillion in “partisan demands” for their proposed funding bill.
“They are holding our veterans, our seniors, and our families hostage in the name of their woke politics,” Van Drew said.
New Jersey’s two senators, Democrats Cory Booker and Andy Kim, cited health care as a key factor in coming to a funding agreement. Both alluded to hearing from citizens concerned about rising costs of medicine, for which the lawmakers faulted the opposition party.
“We just went into a shutdown because Republicans refuse to work with us to deal with a healthcare crisis that they created,” Booker said in a video posted to X shortly after midnight Oct. 1. “Donald Trump and Republicans control the House of Representatives, the Senate and the White House. They need to do their job and put forward a budget that will help Americans.”
Kim, in a speech on the Senate floor hours before the start of the shutdown, doubted Republicans’ commitment to keeping the government open after many failed to show up to Capitol Hill for last-minute negotiations. The move, the senator said, is evidence of party leaders “showing they are not up to the task.”
“We need leaders who understand what is going on,” Kim said. “We need leaders who care about the people they are supposed to be leading. We need leaders who will actually be the adults in the room.”
Rep. Tom Kean Jr., the congressman for New Jersey’s 7th District, said on X that Booker and Kim “chose partisanship” in voting to shut down the government.
“That’s disappointing. A shutdown has real consequences for families and communities in New Jersey, and they will have to answer for this decision,” Kean said. “It’s time to come together and pass the House’s short-term funding bill.”
Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat representing the 5th District, said in a statement that “far-right extremists in Congress” have refused to work toward a bipartisan funding solution to avoid the shutdown. If Congress does not act by the end of the year, he said, more than 450,000 New Jerseyans will see higher health insurance premiums as tax credits from the Affordable Care Act expire.
“To be clear: children who rely on life-saving medications, seniors on fixed incomes, and families who are already struggling will be forced off their insurance because of these unaffordable costs,” Gottheimer said. “These aren’t red issues or blue issues — these are pocketbook issues.”
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Government shutdown 2025 draws strong reactions from NJ politicians