FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – A strong message to his peers from California Congressman Jim Costa as he shared his disgust and disappointment surrounding a looming government shutdown.

“I think it’s irresponsible for the Republicans to continue down this path without reaching out, which is what we normally do, for a bipartisan agreement to avoid government shutdowns, it’s irresponsible, you should never, in the 19 years I’ve been here, ever vote to shut down government,” said Costa.

The federal government is just a day away from a shutdown that will disrupt many services.

Costa continued by saying that those who shut down the government are never successful.

“This is the greatest nation in the world and we are impacting all federal employees; 194,000 in California, 2.1 million American men, and women in service to our country to protect our nation’s security, air traffic controllers, women, infants, and children programs, all of these things are so critical to the National Security of our country and for those that attempt to shut down the government, they’re being irresponsible,” said Costa.

Echoing fellow California Congressman David Valadao, Costa says this is all going to come down to compromise.

“Ultimately, we have to reach a compromise. That comprise was made in May of this year when President Biden and Speaker McCarthy put a cap on spending for two years and at the same time, added work requirements. There’s some people in our Democratic caucus that didn’t like the spending caps, didn’t like the work requirements, but you know what – you make an agreement, you keep your word,” Costa emphasized.

Costa says that putting the population of America and our economy at risk is wrong.

While some government entities will be exempt, Social Security checks, for example, will still go out, but other functions will be severely impacted such as federal agencies stopping all actions deemed non-essential, and millions of federal employees, including members of the military, will not receive paychecks.

This shutdown could happen as a result of Congress failing to pass some type of funding legislation that is signed into law by the president.

Government funding expires Oct. 1, the start of the federal budget year. A shutdown will begin effective at 12:01 a.m. Sunday if Congress is unable to pass a funding plan that the president signs into law.