OKLAHOMA CITY – House Tribal and External Affairs Leader Rep. Scott Fetgatter, R-Okmulgee, today commented on the federal shutdown.

"There's a common misconception that because the U.S. Senate has a majority of Republicans, this should be a no-brainer, but the fact of the matter is they needed additional Democrat lawmakers in order to stop the shutdown," he said.

A vote of 60 was required to keep the government open. There are 53 Republican senators in Congress. All Republicans voted in favor of the continuing resolution alongside two Democrats and one Independent. An additional four Democrats were needed to avoid the shutdown.

"Some in the minority would love to blame the president and the majority party for this shutdown, but this is not the truth. The facts are the most liberal of Senate Democrats held the others hostage for fear of losing their leadership roles. This was not a failure of our Oklahoma delegation to do the right thing. This was a failure of a broken process and leading Democrats trying to leverage the system on the backs of the citizens they supposedly represent."

Fetgatter said his office will continue to track the repercussions of what this bad decision-making will cost the citizens of Oklahoma.