Ciscomani vs Grijalva

Dueling votes on re-opening government … Hobbs wants Trump to handle it … And the force is strong with this one.

On Wednesday, Congress finally ended two record-breaking shutdowns.

First, Arizona Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva was sworn in to office after a record-breaking amount of time in limbo as a “congresswoman-elect.”

Then, largely along party lines, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass a Republican-backed continuing resolution (CR) to fund the federal government until January 30.

The CR does not contain the health insurance provisions Democrats have demanded while the government was shut down for a record-breaking 42 days.

Instead, Republican members of Congress made a vague promise to take up in the next few weeks whether to extend the federal healthcare tax credits that could decide if tens of millions of Americans see a spike in insurance premiums next year.

The GOP is already taking a victory lap on ending the shutdown largely on their terms, while Democrats continue to spar amongst themselves.

The entire Southern Arizona congressional delegation at last.

So why are the votes taken by Grijalva and Republican Congressman Juan Ciscomani — which largely cancel each other out — so important?

It’s a microcosm of the on-the-ground politics here in Southern Arizona and across the nation.

As expected, the two-term Republican voted with his party to pass the modified continuing resolution to re-open the government until next January.

Ciscomani didn’t release a statement after the vote, but he signed a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson several weeks ago calling for House Republicans to extend the tax credits tied to the Affordable Care Act.

The letter largely blames Democrats for the shutdown and for not extending the credits, although it doesn’t address why Republicans, who control the House, the Senate and the White House, haven’t made extending the credits a legislative priority sooner.

The Tucson Republican signed on to the Bipartisan Premium Tax Credit Extension Act in September that would have extended the Biden-era credits for one year, but it has been stalled in the House.

Another letter went to the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Dr. Mehmet Oz. The bipartisan letter, signed by Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, as well as Reps. Yassamin Ansari and Greg Stanton, pushed for funding for rural health care centers, which are expected to be hit hard if millions of Americans lose their health insurance next year.

The letters put Ciscomani on the record with his concerns about healthcare, but he voted with the party just as he did with the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” The passage of the OBBA this summer — again along party lines — led to the showdown between Republicans and Democrats over the continuing resolution in the first place.

Across the aisle, Grijalva was not thrilled about having to vote on a continuing resolution on her first day in Congress, and she voted against it because it doesn’t include the extension of the federal healthcare tax credits.

An estimated 300,000 Arizona residents could lose their health insurance in the coming months under new spending rules that are part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

National polling on the federal shutdown shows people have largely blamed Republicans. An NBC News poll released on Nov. 2 found 52% of voters blame Trump and congressional Republicans for the shutdown.

So the lingering question is: When will Republicans unveil their healthcare plan for the country?

Hopefully, it is not a version of Donald Trump’s “two weeks” answer — which has become a meme in political circles.¹

It’s about time: Seven weeks after winning her election, Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva was sworn in by House Speaker Mike Johnson. She gained celebrity status, at least for a first-term lawmaker, during the delay and Democrats gave her a round of applause and chants of “A-de-li-ta, A-de-li-ta” after she was sworn in, per The Hill. In her first comments as a new member of Congress, Grijalva took aim at the Trump administration.

“Basic freedoms are under attack. Healthcare premiums are skyrocketing. Babies are being ripped away from their parents by masked agents. We can and must do better,” Grijalva said. “What is most concerning is not what this administration has done, but what the majority of this body has failed to do – hold Trump accountable as a co-equal branch of government that we are.”

Sifting through the wreckage: Now that the government shutdown appears to be ending, Arizona Daily Star columnist Tim Steller looks back on the lessons learned through the ordeal, from Democrats snatching defeat from the jaws of victory to the tactics of moderate GOP Rep. Juan Ciscomani, who “found his footing as a partisan brawler.” Not to mention Arizona’s Democratic senators leaning on populism as they voted against ending the shutdown and the Trump administration deciding to use hunger as leverage.

Calling on Trump: A key deadline in the negotiations over Colorado River water passed this week and now Gov. Katie Hobbs and legislative leaders in the Arizona Legislature want the Trump administration to step in, KGUN’s Manuelita Beck reports. The three Lower Basin states, including Arizona, are deadlocked with the four Upper Basin states over how much each state will get when the current agreement expires next year.

As long as they had fun: The love life of former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is a favorite subject of the New York Post, which wrote this week that South Tucson Mayor Roxanna Valenzuela and de Blasio had a “short-lived fling,” while de Blasio was still married, and while he reportedly was in a relationship with a third woman, per anonymous sources.

Aren’t you glad we don’t spend our time on politicians’ love lives? Click this button and we’ll keep our reporting focused on (public) affairs.

Protecting the stacks: Officials at Pima County’s library system are trying to create a financial firewall specifically to protect libraries, after county officials shifted more than $10 million annually for the PEEPs program out of the library district’s budget, Yana Kunichoff reports for the Arizona Luminaria.²

Among the many well-wishers tweeting at Adelita Grijalva today was Luke Skywalker, aka Mark Hamill.

To our great disappointment, he did not make a single joke about The Force or lightsabers or anything Star Wars related.

But we’ll just say that true resistance leaders can always tell when another rebel just stepped into the arena.

1. In July 2020, Trump told Fox News he would release his healthcare plan in “two weeks.” We are still waiting.

2. County officials gave Joe hell earlier this year when he pointed out that there were concerns the PEEPs annual $10 million budget would hurt library operations.