All he has to do is allow a vote of the House of Representatives. He doesn't have to approve of the continuing resolution; he doesn't have to vote aye; all he has to do is let the majority decide... or this girl and others in similar situations may well die.
Maddie Major has leukemia. She's 8 years old, and she's had it recur four times. The clinical trial she now needs, having exhausted all other options for treatment, cannot be approved by the FDA because the FDA has been shut down, along with the rest of the federal government.
Maddie's cancer, pre-B cell ALL, is curable in 90 percent of the cases. Her daughter is in that 10 percent category. Six months ago, she went through a clinical trial that worked. Because of her relapse, she's scheduled to have it again. Now, it's up in the air.
It turns out that
Maddie is a lot braver and her family a lot smarter than most Congresspeople.
"You would never know she has cancer. Even on her worst day shes still smiling," said Kelsey Major, 22, Maddie's step sister.
...two weeks ago, Maddie and her parents visited Capital Hill asking lawmakers to provide more funding for pediatric cancer research. Robyn Major doesn't understand how Congress can approve salaries for military service members, and not life-saving treatments for children.
Robyn, I can't figure out either how the people who take an oath to the Constitution and thereby to "promote the General Welfare" can be such morons. But then, I don't claim membership in what Mark Twain once refered to as "America's only distinctly native criminal class."