KENTUCKY — Lawmakers in Washington, D.C. broke for their August recess with work on funding the government incomplete, fueling worries about whether Congress will avoid a partial government shutdown later this fall.

Congress has until Oct. 1, the start of the new fiscal year, to act on government funding.

Congressman Andy Barr, R-Ky. has been serving as the U.S. representative for Kentucky’s 6th congressional district since 2013, which covers 19 counties in Central Kentucky. 

During this In Focus Kentucky segment, Rep. Barr explains his position on if he believes both the House and the Senate can come to an agreement on the appropriations bills in time to avoid a government shutdown. “Well, the appropriations process has begun. It’s in full swing. The House of Representatives has passed one out of the 12 appropriations bills before the August district work period. But this year’s appropriations process is really animated by what we did in early June to raise the nation’s debt limit, but also trying to tackle our unsustainable spending trajectory and the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which I supported will produce the first year over year spending cut, actual spending cut in over a decade. It contains the largest spending rescission in American history clawing back billions of unspent COVID funds and in enact some important reforms, including the first major reform in decades of the National Environmental Policy Act, which will streamline permitting for transportation, infrastructure and energy product projects,” Rep. Andy Barr said.

Lawmakers added several controversial amendments to the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), including limiting abortion access and transgender care for service members. As members in the House and Senate work to reconcile the NDAA, Rep. Barr details in the segment, whether he believes these “must have” amendments are key to its passage.

Besides his work as senior member of the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) and the House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC), Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) is the co-chair with Rep. Morgan McGarvey (D-Louisville) of the Congressional Bourbon Caucus. 

“We were also able to work to take the EU and UK tariffs off bourbon exports to the United Kingdom into the European Union. I was actually meeting with several of my counterparts in the EU Parliament about the importance of keeping those tariffs off. They’re they’re scheduled to reset at the end of this year and we want to make sure that those tariffs don’t come back. There’s a few other issues that we’re following for the bourbon industry, including the duty drawback issue, which was a trade issue. And also a another tax issue that has expired called the rum cover over program where we’re fighting for these policies because they actually impact the capital investment that can go into our growing bourbon industry,” adds Rep. Barr.

You can watch the full In Focus Kentucky segment in the player above.