i am pleased toce mayor karen weston broome of baton rouge, louisiana. >> thank you mayor sanders.e have gathered here today in washington at a key moment. last week, congress passed the first bipartisan appropriations 2024 funding levels for several important agencies and avoiding a partial government shutdown. we are thankful le parties in ce together on this, but the job is not done. national league of cities calls on to pass the second bipartisan appropriations package ahead of the march 22 deadline and avoidn. as a matter of principle, we oppose -- we oppose federal government shutdowns. at the local level, a shutdown of municipal services would be unthinkable. when there is a shutdown at the federal level, local governments keep going, picking up the slack and often takingn additional expenditures to maintain federal function such as health and safety operations and national monuments. while not every act of the funding package is what we wantt services from the federal government. we are now more than five months time to get this done. without knowing the federal governmentl