Rep. Blake Moore says shutdown could be more 'prolonged' than he hoped

SALT LAKE CITY — As the federal government shutdown stretches into its third week, Utah Rep. Blake Moore said the shutdown could drag on longer than he initially expected and blamed congressional Democrats for "holding the government hostage" over spending.

Democrats have pushed to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of this year, but Moore said debate over those subsidies shouldn't prevent Democrats from backing another continuing resolution to keep funding flowing while lawmakers hash out the details of next year's federal budget.

"These are significant asks that they know that they're not going to get and they're holding the government hostage right now to be able to try to get some of those things," Moore, a Republican, told reporters on a call Tuesday. "But those talks aren't going that well and I'm afraid that we're in more of a prolonged shutdown than I was hoping for."

"I was hoping this was going to be a week or two," he added. "It appears, in my view, that it could go for longer."

The most recent government shutdown was the longest on record, spanning 35 days from December 2018 to January 2019.

The enhanced tax credits for Americans who purchase health care plans through an Affordable Care Act marketplace were passed through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, and later extended in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, both of which passed while Democrats controlled the White House and both chambers of Congress.

While Democrats have pushed to extend the credits, saying millions of Americans could face higher premiums when they expire at the end of the year, Moore pointed out that Democrats set the expiration date when they were initially passed.

"The only reason they were able to do those enhanced premium tax credits ... is because they had the White House, House and Senate. They have the opposite now, and so they want a unified Republican House, White House and Senate to do exactly what they did when they had the triple majority," Moore said. "It's just wild and it's nonsensical as to what they're ultimately asking for."

Wednesday is also expected to be the first day many federal workers will miss paychecks due to the government shutdown, but Moore said he expects active-duty military service members to get paid "on a relatively normal timeline" after the Pentagon said it would use unspent research and development funding to cover wages for the 1.3 million active-duty troops.

"I don't know if it's tomorrow or if it's in the next couple days," Moore said, noting that logistical challenges with transferring the funds may slow the process. "Contrary to a lot of belief, most of the funding that goes out has a place, has a purpose and it's not ... just wasteful. ... We would have to replenish what we're going to ultimately do, but it would be the right thing to do and I support it and I'm grateful for the administration for focusing on those active-duty payments."

Those payments won't go out to reserve troops, civilian employees or military contractors, which make up a significant part of the ecosystem surrounding Hill Air Force Base in Moore's district. Nor will the payments help air traffic controllers, who Moore said "do some of the most heroic daily things in our entire society" and already faced long, intense working hours before the shutdown.

"There's a lot that ... could be potentially very dangerous and you put this burden on an already over-worked air traffic controllers that do a high, high intense job," Moore said. "We've got to make sure they're right by them as well. So, like I said, hopefully we just solve this in the next couple weeks as opposed to this being very prolonged, because that could become a big problem."

Even with a "temporary fix" in place for active-duty troops, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said Wednesday the unspent funds may not be enough to cover a second round of paychecks if the government isn't open by Oct. 31.

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