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We want answers: 3 questions for Tampa Bay congressional leaders amid shutdown

10News is contacting Tampa Bay area members of Congress and asking three simple questions while the government remains closed.
Credit: Thinkstock

After 27 days of covering stories about Americans impacted by the government shutdown, 10News is holding elected officials accountable.

We are asking Tampa Bay area congressional leaders for three minutes of their time to answer three questions:

1) What steps have you specifically taken to end the government shutdown?

2) What do you believe is the solution?

3) Are you getting paid?

We have reached out to the following members of Congress and will update this story as we get responses.

House of Representatives:

Rep. Darren Soto

We received this response from Soto's office

1) I voted 10 times to re-open the federal government since the new Congress began.

2) We can double the amount of border security money from $1.3B to $2.6B and meet President Trump halfway on border security funding request. In the alternative, we could pass comprehensive immigration reform including ratifying DACA, TPS, and DAPA, as well as more border technology and additional fencing where needed.

3) Yes

Rep. Daniel Webster

Rep. Gus M. Bilirakis

Rep. Charlie Crist

Crist did not directly respond to any of our questions and instead sent the following statement in response to our request for a phone call:

“I’ve joined my fellow House Democrats in voting nine times to re-open the federal government. I hope the President will ultimately accept a solution that ends the shutdown while we continue to discuss how best to strengthen border security without shuttering the Department of Homeland Security and holding other unrelated agencies hostage. More than 800,000 federal employees are either working without pay or have been furloughed. Taxpayer assistance has stopped, people's tax refunds are at risk of significant delay, a third of our national parks are closed, red tide monitoring activities and weather forecasting are less reliable, food inspection activities have declined, and domestic violence shelters may have to reduce services. These are just a few of the negative impacts this self-inflicted crisis is having on Americans’ lives. I will continue to call on my colleagues to put people above politics to find a bipartisan compromise to re-open the government before more damage is done.”

Rep. Kathy Castor

We were told the congresswoman was unavailable to take our phone call. The following material was sent via e-mail:

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (FL14) urged GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell and President Trump to immediately reopen the U.S. government. U.S. Rep. Castor shared stories from neighbors across the Tampa area who are not receiving paychecks even though they are at work and others impacted by the shutdown. Watch her full remarks.

Rep. Ross Spano

1) "We’ve reached out to Democrats that we feel like we can begin to talk to and maybe form the basis of a reasonable kind of discussion that would work toward resolution.” Spano would not name the Democrats he reached out to.

2) "The solution is for both parties to come to the table with good faith desire to resolve this."

3) Spano said he asked that his pay be withheld. He also said he intends to file a bill that requires budgets get passed by the deadline or Congress doesn't get paid.

Rep. Vern Buchanan

We were told the congressman had meetings all day and would not take a phone call. He sent this response:

"The shutdown is yet another sad example of Washington’s dysfunction and inability to compromise and negotiate in good faith.The solution is for Speaker Pelosi to come back to the table and negotiate a compromise with the President. We need to secure the border and reopen the government. We are a nation of immigrants AND a nation of laws.

"I have made clear from the beginning that I will not be accepting a salary during the shutdown. Instead, I will be donating it to charity, and have already written a check to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Manatee County."

Rep. W. Gregory Steube

Senate

Sen. Marco Rubio

Sen. Rick Scott

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