11 13 25 FOX News reporter Ryan Schmelz on end of record setting government shutdown

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now on Colorado's Morning News. The longest government shutdown in history.
Now over, This was a no brainer. This was an
easy extension, but they didn't want to do it the
easy way.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
They had to do it the hard way.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Just hours after it passed, President Trump signed the funding
bill to reopen the government last night. The bill will
fund the government through January, but Democrats proposal to increase
Medicaid spending and extend Obamacare tax credits were not in
the final bill. Joining us on the ka Common Spirit
Health Hotline, He's been covering the shutdown from the start.
Fox News Radios, Ryan Schmells, Ryan, appreciate your time, as always,

(00:34):
brief overview.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
What do we see now? What's in and not in
this bill?

Speaker 3 (00:39):
All right, So you got three of the twelve appropriations
bills in the bill, so that'll get most of the
governor of lest some of the government funded until the
next fiscal year. The rest is punted until the end
of January, like you just mentioned. And then yes, the
Affordable Care Act premium tax credits are not included in this,
so that might be a battle that Democrats wage between.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Now and the end of Do we have any ideas
when it comes to when these will be brought back
to the table and what those debates or discussions could
look like.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
Well, Leader fun has promised to vote in the Senate
on this sometime before the second week of December. And
then you also have some conversations going on about, you know,
possible compromise. Democrats actually put out a discharge petition yesterday
that would you know, extend the program for three years.

(01:29):
Now whether of course, enough Republicans sign on, and that
is a question because the problem that Republicans have is
that you know, most of them, even if they support
extending them, are not going to support a clean extension
without some type of changes, whether it's income cats or
some other things like that. So that that that's still
up in the air, and it looks like these conversations
are gonna have to happen if anything that was going
to stand a chance of making it through Congress.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Looks like two House Republicans voted against the measure. Did
they give their reasonings?

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Why?

Speaker 3 (01:58):
Well, that's where things get interesting. So in this bill,
there was a provision that would allow the eight senators
Republicans who were who allegedly had their phone records looked
at as part of Operation Arctic Frost into the January
sixth investigation. It would allow them to sue the government

(02:21):
for you know, around five hundred thousand dollars, maybe even
more in some cases. And there were some Republicans who
did not like that, and they were not happy about that.
Some of them, including Speaker Johnson, went ahead and voted
for the bill, but it said they want to put
legislation together that would strip that provision. But you had
Congressman Greg Stuby from Florida yesterday pretty much bashed Speaker

(02:44):
Johnson and then he told me that he didn't think
it was appropriate and he said, I'm not going to
give Lindsey Graham five hundred thousand dollars. So this provision
did potentially put this bill at risk at one point,
and there are a lot of Republicans in Democrats pretty furious.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Lawsuit possible because of it.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
Well not, I mean, some of these senators might sue
the federal government, yes, because it's going to give them
the power to do so. But Speaker Johnson has pretty
much said that they're gonna they're going to do whatever.
They kind of strip it out of there because they
do not think those members should be allowed to do that, Ryan.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
And wrapping up with you, I want to end on
a personal note, just from a reporter standpoint, what were
your thoughts on just covering this and having the same.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Story for over a month now.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Was it something that you enjoyed kind of following and
at least keeping an eye on throughout the time or
did it get a little tiring after a while.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
I do have a you know, one of my favorite
things to cover is is government spending, So there was
at least to the joy in that. You know, it
got a little repetitive obviously, but you know I was
I was actually sharing the clip of the final scene
of Brave Heart after William Wallace dies and all the
scotsmen are running in the battle without him, And you know,
Chad Pergram was not work with us this week, so

(03:56):
that's kind of what it felt like as the Fox
News Hill team us going into battle with that chat.
So everyone here is pretty exhausted by this, and uh,
and we'll see see what happens next, but we're going
right back into the Epstein files next week. Yeah, the
house is very much back in session.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Fox News Radios, Ryan Smells, we appreciate your coverage throughout
these days.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
Of course, thank you