Eric Swalwell Admits Defeat Over House Budget Battle: ‘Not Perfect’

U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) admitted that Democrats were forced to make significant concessions in passing the latest government funding bill, stating that his goal was to avoid a government shutdown.

“Do you think it was better than the original?” CNN’s Sara Sidner asked the congressman after the House passed a much shortened version of the massive, 1,500-page initial bill. The bill was ultimately shortened after objections from President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

“No, but my prerogative was to make sure that the hard-working employee who serves our veterans or keeps our airports safe with the TSA or is monitoring air traffic as an air traffic controller, that they get paid for the work that they do. This wasn’t perfect,” Swalwell said.

Sidner then asked, “You said that you didn’t think this was better than the bipartisan bill that had been hashed out for many, many weeks, this was plan C. Was there any calculation on your part or other Democrats that you’ve been talking to that you would get blamed for a shutdown if you didn’t vote for this one?”

“Well, again, it was more about the TSA security officer that, two weeks ago, pulled me aside as he was helping me, as I was going through security, and he said, ‘hey, I saw you coming through, and my wife told me to ask you, are we going to be okay?’” the far-left lawmaker claimed. “So, just knowing that people are counting on us to get this right, and it’s not perfect by any means, but that person not getting paid and thousands others not getting paid, that’s also not right.”

House lawmakers voted 366 to 34 in favor of a stopgap funding bill after conservative lawmakers objected to the first amended bill. Senators voted to pass a new version of a stopgap spending bill early Saturday morning, causing a brief government shutdown as it heads to President Biden’s desk.