(WHTM) – The Pennsylvania budget is two weeks late and counting.

On Friday abc27 sat down with one of the main players at the budget table, House Democratic Leader, Matt Bradford.

Bradford is abc27’s guest on This Week in Pennsylvania. He reiterated that the Republican-controlled Senate needs to come back to Harrisburg and sign off on the $45.6 billion spending plan that both the House and Senate have passed.

Republicans are upset that Bradford and House Democrats forced Governor Josh Shapiro to remove $100 million for school vouchers which were meant to help kids in the poorest performing school.

They say they had a deal, that Governor Shapiro double-crossed them, and that poor kids will continue to be trapped by their zip codes.

“They are literally selling you a story, they’re selling you a bridge, those vouchers aren’t for sufficient amounts for those poor kids to get in them, what we need to do is fix those public schools,” said Bradford. “It’s the idea that we’re gonna take a small percentage of kids and say we can offer you this alternative, but 99% of kids have to fail and stay in that public school. What we need to do is lift up every child, every child of God.”

Bradford said House Democrats were clear from the outset that they wouldn’t accept school vouchers and say any suggestion to the contrary is just wrong.

Check out the full interview with Matt Bradford by watching the show in the player above.