from Brian Schatz of Hawaii, in response to a constituent letter:

[elleng]

'Trump and the Republicans presented us with a bad choice and a worse choice: a flawed continuing resolution or a shutdown. Both options would produce terrible outcomes, but a shutdown would be more devastating for everyone, especially people in Hawaii. If we entered a shutdown, the Executive Branch would continue to function under the Anti-Deficiency Act, a 19th century law that prohibits federal agencies from spending or obligating funds without funding from Congress. However, the law also would have provided the administration with authority to determine which federal agencies and workers were essential, which agencies would be shuttered, and which workers would be furloughed. This could have provided an excuse for President Trump, Elon Musk, and Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought to fire all of those furloughed federal workers, and never restart many important federal services that we rely on.

In addition, a shutdown would have significantly hurt our ability to push back against the illegal actions by Trump and Musk. The flexibility they would have under the Anti-Deficiency Act would make it more difficult for Congress to stop their efforts to dismantle the federal government during the course of the shutdown. Importantly, in a government shutdown, action through the courts would significantly slow as courts deplete their funding and are forced to make difficult staffing decisions. And after a time, the courts would have to close. Without the checks from the judicial and legislative branches, this administration would increasingly run wild throughout the government, all with no guarantee of a better congressional spending bill in the end. Given the number of federal workers in Hawaii, mass furloughs and potential firings would be deeply painful for people across the state.
We're in a fight for democracy itself. We can't let disagreements about strategy and tactics divide us.'