{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://welch.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/st-albans-messenger-welch-its-dangerous-situation", "St. Albans Messenger: Welch: 'It's a Dangerous Situation'", "2017-12-11", "2017", "2017-12", "Democrat", "House", "VT", "Peter Welch", "W000800", "welch.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "As the threat of another government shutdown loomed on Thursday, Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., was busy dealing with an array of fast-changing events that will have varying degrees of impact in Vermont.\n\u201cIt\u2019s wild,\u201d Welch said in a conversation with the St. Albans Messenger. As he was waiting for the Republicans to offer a plan to fund the government, he refelected on Jerusalem, impeachment and the House firearms vote, all of which had taken place the day before.\nOn Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. would consider Jerusalem the capital of Israel, drawing rebukes from around the world. Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, brought articles of impeachment to the House floor, and the House voted to override local gun laws and allow concealed carry of firearms in places that currently bar it.\nThen there was the government shutdown. \u201cMy guess is it will be averted,\u201d Welch on Thursday. He was correct. The Republicans in both the House and Senate later that day passed a continuing resolution to keep the government operating until Dec. 22, with few Democratic votes.\nThe resolution, he said, was entirely in Republican hands, and they didn\u2019t want a distraction from their tax bill, he suggested.\n\u201cEverything they\u2019re doing is trying to get their tax bill through by Christmas,\u201d Welch said.\nThe debate over a continuing resolution and whether that resolution should keep the government running for two or three weeks was among three groups of Republican representatives and senators: the so-called Freedom Caucus, moderates and conservatives, Welch said \u2014 Democrats were excluded from the conversation.\n\u201cMy view, very strongly, is that we should keep the lights on,\u201d he said.\nHowever, his position was that Democrats should oppose a continuing resolution unless it contains funding for fighting the opiate epidemic, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Children\u2019s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) as well as an agreement that any cuts to non-military programs will be matched by cuts to the Pentagon budget.\nThe resolution as passed did not include funding for CHIP, which provides health insurance on a sliding scale to children whose parents make too much money to qualify for Medicaid, but who do not have access to health insurance through their employer. In Vermont, the program is known as Dr. Dynasaur.\nCongress allowed the program to expire in the fall, and across the country, states are starting to run out of money to pay for health care for children.\nREPUBLICANS ONLY\nUnlike his immediate predecessor, House Speaker Paul Ryan is not willing to build a coalition of Democrats and more moderate Republicans on issues such as the debt ceiling and the budget, explained Welch.\n\u201cWhat Ryan has done so far is make a commitment to his conference that he won\u2019t work with Democrats,\u201d said Welch. \u201cAnd his conference is divided.\n\u201cIt\u2019s a dangerous situation, quite frankly,\u201d Welch added.\nThe Republicans negotiated both their health care repeal bills and the current tax proposals behind closed doors and without input from Democrats. The bills were, Welch said, \u201cwritten in secret.\u201d\nHe expressed concern the budget may take a similar path.\n\u201cIn any budget, there\u2019s negotiations,\u201d said Welch, who once led the Vermont Senate. \u201cWe simply have to get back to some compromise.\u201d\nAs things stand, Welch said Ryan has \u201chandcuffed himself and he\u2019d given the keys to the handcuffs to the Freedom Caucus, the most extreme elements of his caucus.\u201d\nIMPEACHMENT\nWelch voted to table Green\u2019s impeachment resolution, along with 363 other members of the House. Just 58 Democrats voted in favor of proceeding with the articles, with four voting present.\n\u201cI think President Trump has been divisive and destructive,\u201d said Welch. \u201cIt\u2019s dismaying to me how much chaos he\u2019s created.\u201d\nWelch cited specifically Trump\u2019s efforts at deregulation, his decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accords, and his efforts to end the Affordable Care Act health insurance programs without a replacement.\n\u201cHe\u2019s been very divisive,\u201d Welch repeated.\nIt was that divisiveness which Green made the focus of his articles of impeachment. Previous impeachment articles have accused the president of violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution by profiting from his role as president, and alleged collusion with Russia. Green\u2019s accused the President of dividing the country by promoting and expressing bigotry against a number of groups including blacks, Muslims, Puerto Ricans and people who are transgender.\n\u201cWe\u2019ve got to hold the President accountable,\u201d said Welch, but he argued that the investigation being led by special counsel Robert Mueller into the connections between Trump\u2019s campaign and administration and Russia are the best means of doing that.\n\u201cThe Mueller investigation is aggressive and it\u2019s making progress,\u201d Welch said.\n\u201cWe\u2019ve really got to support Mueller (and) continue to let him pursue all the facts,\u201d he said.\n\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of smoke there,\u201d said Welch, noting that the President initially denied any contacts with Russia, but now evidence has shown considerable contact during both the campaign and the transition between members of Trump\u2019s team and Russians. Some of those Russians have been members of the government while others reportedly had close ties to it.\n\u201cIn reality, the impeachment process is political,\u201d said Welch. While the Constitution states a president and other federal officials may be impeached for \u201chigh crimes and misdemeanors\u201d that term has never been defined.\nBefore an impeachment can take place, \u201cyou\u2019ve got to establish a foundation that has credibility with the American people and that requires investigation,\u201d Welch said.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://welch.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/st-albans-messenger-welch-its-dangerous-situation"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8334950543940067, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}