By Nancy Madsen

Mankato Free Press

MANKATO — The only way Congress is going to avoid a government shutdown in September is by lumping all of the fiscal issues — including spending bills, a highway funding bill, raising the debt ceiling and Export-Import Bank reauthorization — together, Congressman Tim Walz said.

Republican leadership, especially in the House, has a tricky road, but “I don’t believe (Senate Majority Leader) Mitch McConnell or (House Speaker) John Boehner want to do business that way,” he said.

The 1st District representative from Mankato said he and other Democratic representatives should be willing to vote for bills when the most conservative Republicans won’t.

“I know it’s not going to be a Democratic budget,” he said. “The Republicans control Congress.”

The most likely outcome will be a short-term continuing resolution that keeps government spending at levels set for this fiscal year, Walz predicted. The federal government’s fiscal year ends Sept. 30.

Walz visited The Free Press recently at the end of a day full of events to talk about congressional issues for the fall.

Two issues had stalled appropriations bills before the recess began and have brewed throughout the August summer recess: Planned Parenthood funding and Confederate flag at national cemeteries.

Videos have been regularly released showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of aborted baby organs for research. Last week an analysis by Washington, D.C., research group Fusion GPS commissioned by Planned Parenthood said that the videos were cut to the point that they could not be used in a legal context. Congressional committees are investigating the matter, but some Republican members of Congress say they will not vote on any continuing resolution that includes any funding forPlanned Parenthood.

“If the law was violated, then do what you need to do,” Walz said. He said Planned Parenthood in Minnesota “does not participate in fetal research” and, across the country, provides health care services to millions of women.

On the Confederate flag, an amendment added on the House floor to the appropriations bill that covers environmental and interior spending would codify rules allowing those flags at cemeteries by tombstones on Confederate Memorial Day. That caused an uproar and forced leaders to delay a vote on the bill. Some Democrats want to force a vote on Confederate flag displays before voting on other issues.

“I don’t believe the Confederate flag has any place in the budget debate,” Walz said.

Both topics stir strong feelings, he said, and do need to be considered by Congress.

“They should be discussed in the right context. They should not be an excuse for why the basic functions of government aren’t getting done.”

Besides appropriations, the debt ceiling and the Export-Import Bank, Walz has one other priority issue. He wants reauthorization of the Agent Orange Act, which required the Department of Veterans Affairs to cover all diseases and disabilities caused by exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides used by the military, primarily during the Vietnam War. Walz, who sits on the Armed Forces and Veterans’ Affairs committees, said a final report from the National Institutes of Health will be released in March, but the 25-year period covered by the original act ends at the end of the year.