After more than 40 days of chaos caused by the Democrats’ unnecessary, harmful, and utterly foolish shutdown, the federal government is finally reopening.

From day one, House Republicans did our job. We passed clean, responsible funding bills to keep the government open. We voted 15 times to fund the government and keep vital programs running. Fifteen times.

Meanwhile, Chuck Schumer and the Democrats refused to cooperate. They chose political theater over public service. They voted 15 times to hold the American people hostage, 15 times against mothers and children relying on WIC and SNAP, 15 times against air traffic controllers keeping our skies safe, and 15 times against federal workers just trying to do their jobs.

All of it, every bit of it, was to protect their bloated wish list of partisan pet projects and reckless spending. Democrats see power, we see people.

This kind of behavior is shameful. Using the American people as bargaining chips to score political points is beneath the office they hold, and the American people won’t forget it.