U.S. Representative Charlie Crist (D-St. Petersburg) released the following statement on the vote today to fund the government through February 8th after bipartisan agreement was reached to bring up legislation in the Senate to protect DREAMers.

"It’s unfortunate it took a shutdown to get an agreement for a Senate vote to protect our DREAMers. Ultimately, the President must lead on this issue in order to get a fix signed into law. We are in this position because, after requesting and receiving a bipartisan compromise, he rejected it, using derogatory language to describe a number of countries in the process.

"The fact remains that in a Republican-controlled Washington, we still don’t have a budget four months into the new fiscal year, and action on critical issues like flood insurance and disaster relief remains elusive. This is no way to run a country – much less the most powerful one in the world. And we will lose that status if we can’t start solving problems;  reaching compromise that’s focused on our nation’s future, rather than the next election.

"Given today's bipartisan deal, I remain hopeful that a path forward exists for our DREAMers and the major issues we must address in the coming weeks."