Bachmann, Ellison, McCollum vote against stop-gap federal spending bill

Three Minnesota representatives voted against another short-term government funding bill in the U.S. House Tuesday.

Democratic Reps. Betty McCollum and Keith Ellison opposed the measure, as did Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann.

Ellison said the spending cuts wouldn't help the economy.

"If you want to cut the deficit, you got to increase jobs," Ellison said. "You got to increase people working, you need people out there productive and paying taxes, not increasing the lines of the unemployed."

Bachmann said she voted against the measure because it didn't defund last year's healthcare law.

The other five members of the delegation voted for it including 7th-District Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson. He said he would continue to vote with the GOP as long as the majority doesn't force votes on ideological issues.

"A bunch of us Democrats ... [will] work with them as long it's reasonable," he said.

The bill keeps the federal government open for three more weeks while Republicans in the House, Democrats in the Senate and President Barack Obama try to reach a deal on a longer-term package of spending cuts through the end of the current fiscal year.

Tuesday's bill cuts $6 billion in spending — much of it from unspent earmarks and unused funds for last year's Census.