Statement by NOW President Christian F. Nunes
Washington D.C. — National Organization of Women (NOW) National President Christian F. Nunes issued the following statement in response to the impending federal government shutdown:
“Congress has failed in its most basic function. The extremists who control the House of Representatives have shut down the government–out of incompetence, ignorance, and cruelty.
This is not just about politics—far from it. When you’re living day to day, paycheck to paycheck, wondering how you’ll cope with a shutdown is chilling to the core.
Real people will be harmed because of this inexcusable partisan gamesmanship. For weeks, they’ve been dreading this day—not knowing if they’ll be able to pay the rent, afford childcare, or feed their families.
Those who are responsible for today’s shutdown are causing fear and uncertainty to be felt not only by government workers and their families, but by millions more who are impacted by this crisis—starting with the 7 million women and children who rely on vital nutrition assistance, but will be turned away when the funds dry up just days from now.
It couldn’t be clearer—these extremists are willing to cause such disruption, pain, and uncertainty because they’d rather tear down the government than make it work.
And now they’re holding every function of government hostage until their extremist demands are met—including more restrictions on abortion, cutting access to Social Security and Medicare, allowing discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people, and slashing funding for cancer research, safe and clean drinking water and making our elections less safe, and making it harder to vote.
NOW members are calling on their Representatives to shut off the shutdown. Not in months or weeks, but days or hours. They may not feel the pain they cause, but we know people who do.”
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