Lawmakers sound off on federal government shutdown

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — The 2025 federal government shutdown continued into its second week, with little indication from Capitol Hill that any progress has been made. Lawmakers remained divided, largely along party lines.

This week on Empire State Weekly, republican representative Mike Lawler and democrat representative Paul Tonko both shared their takes on the shutdown. Both expressed frustration at the challenges in finding common ground.

“I have signed on to legislation to extend tax subsidies by a year,” Lawler said. “There are 14 republicans and 11 democrats that are signed on to the bill, and that’s what I tried to impress upon Leader Jeffries earlier this week. Sign on to the bill, let’s get it done. You say this is an issue you want to address, then lets do it.”

“They want to introduce a bill and say, ‘Well we want to extend this piece of the healthcare equation for a year,'” Tonko stated. “We cant do the piecemeal negotiations on the outside. We need to be at that common table and deal with it holistically.”

To see more from these interviews, here is a list of where and when you can watch Empire State Weekly in your area of New York: