Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) on Tuesday said the government will shut down in January if lawmakers do not pass any appropriations bills to keep the government funded.
"I see the government shutting down," Crockett said in her live stream "Crockett's Quarterly Update" on Facebook.
"One of the reasons that I am going to be a little bit more absent than I would like to be in my district, especially in January, is because we are going to have to stay in D.C. and if the government shuts down, I won't be able to get out," she said.
Crockett, who earlier this month announced her campaign to take Sen. John Cornyn's (R-Texas) seat, said she does not view the likelihood of a shutdown happening as "partisan."
"There is just one group of people that [couldn't] care less about doing what their supposed to do, which is to govern," she said on the stream in a criticism of Republicans.
After the government reopened, Crockett said that lawmakers had 12 appropriations bills to pass to keep the government open during the fall. The most recent shutdown began Oct. 1 and lasted 43 days, becoming the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
Congress has not passed any appropriations bills since the government reopened with the passage of a continuing resolution. That CR was a spending package to keep the government funded and running until 30.
"We went out basically [on] Oct. 1 and after we went out, we couldn't get anything done," Crockett said. "It's now technically two months later, still nothing's been done. So I don't see how we are going to get to the point that we end up in a space in which the government does not shut down."
Senate Democrats could continue the health care fight from the recent shutdown, where they pushed Republicans to negotiate on extending the expiring Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies. Eight Democratic senators ultimately struck a deal to reopen the government, with no conditions on extending the subsidies.
Monthly payments are now projected to skyrocket for millions of Americans. This could give Democrats leverage to force Republicans to make concessions on federal health care spending.
Democrats in the Senate could also raise the threat of a shutdown to confront several recent maneuvers from the White House, including Trump's threat to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.
Trump suggested while at a rally with supporters in North Carolina last week that Democrats will shut down the government.
"The problem is that Democrats will shut down the government because they are beholden ... to the insurance companies," Trump said. "So I don't know what they can do about it, but they'll probably close down the government. It's so simple."