The House Rules Committee voted to advance the Senate’s funding bill on Tuesday night. The legislation will be voted on by Congress on Wednesday, in hopes of ending the government shutdown, which will be in its 44th day. However, during the procedural voting process, which lasted into early Wednesday morning, Rep. Erin Houchin (R-IN) blasted Democrats for causing the shutdown, accusing them of playing political games and using the “American people as leverage.”

“So let’s just be very clear,” Houchin said. “Republicans in the House voted to fund the government 50 days ago. Democrats in the House voted to close the government. Republicans in the Senate voted 14 times to fund the government. Democrats in the Senate voted 14 times to keep it closed. All of the suffering that the American people have been enduring, discussed here tonight, falls only on one party, the Democrats.”