September 19, 2012 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H6073 

Security Act, which was built in by the 

Senate with the bill that they passed. 

Again, the Senate has acted; the Senate passed a bill. They have a bill 

which extends crop insurance for 5 

years. So for all those farmers out in 

the Midwest who have seen their corn 

crops literally burn up in a historic 

drought, the fact of the matter is they 

have absolutely no idea about what the 

future holds because this Chamber will 

not take up a farm bill and do its constitutional duty and get its work done. 

Again, the post office, which fell into 

not just technical but actual real bankruptcy a month ago because of the 

structure of its pension costs, the Senate has passed a postal reform bill 

which adjusts the finances of that system, again, with bipartisan support 

and will allow the postal service to 

have some confidence that its operations and its post offices around the 

country can have some modicum of a 

future. This Chamber will not take up 

a postal reform bill between now and 

this Friday or for the following 7 

weeks. 

These are just two basic, sort of fundamental, programs which, in the past, 

Congress has done on a bipartisan basis 

without any of the drama and stress 

that the Speaker’s decision to quit, to 

use Coach Lombardi’s phraseology, is 

now creating. There are much larger 

issues, of course, which everyone is 

waiting for this Congress to act on. 

Sequestration: I have shipyard workers in Groton, Connecticut, who get up 

every morning to build nuclear submarines. They don’t know whether or 

not on January 1, whether the chain 

saw set up in the sequestration mechanism is going to go through the defense 

budget. 

We have a fiscal cliff whereby middle 

class families don’t know what their 

tax rates are going to be after January. 

We have physician fees under the Medicare program which, again, fall off a 

cliff on January 1. 

With all of these issues hanging out 

there, we still, though, have a Republican leadership in the House which has 

made the decision to go home on Friday for the next 7 weeks. 

Again, Coach Lombardi had it right: 

winners never quit and quitters never 

win. This leadership is quitting, not 

only on the Members that are prepared 

to roll up their sleeves and compromise 

and do hard work to get measures like 

the farm bill and the postal bill and 

budget policy settled once and for all. 

They are quitting on the American 

people. That is unacceptable leadership 

for the trust, the public trust with 

which they have been given. 

This morning’s New York Times has 

a story: ‘‘Congress Nearing the End of 

a Session Where Partisan Input Impeded Output,’’ and they show the 

numbers that this is the least productive Congress in a century. 

Back when Harry Truman was President, he campaigned against the donothing Congress. That Congress enacted 906 bills in the 2 years during 

which it was convened. As of this week, 

this Congress has enacted 173, a quarter of the do-nothing Congress which 

Harry Truman made infamous and famous in American history. 

We can do better as a Nation. We can 

get a farm bill passed. We can pass a 

postal reform bill which will keep that 

system alive. We can do budget policy. 

We can create a horizon for this country, which the American people sent us 

here to do, not go home and campaign. 

f 

RECESS 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 12(a) of rule I, the Chair 

declares the House in recess until 2 

p.m. today. 

Accordingly (at 12 o’clock and 20 

minutes p.m.), the House stood in recess. 

f 

b 1400 

AFTER RECESS 

The recess having expired, the House 

was called to order by the Speaker at 2 

p.m. 

f 

PRAYER 

The Chaplain, the Reverend Patrick 

J. Conroy, offered the following prayer: 

Loving God, we give You thanks for 

giving us another day. 

We pray this day, O Lord, for peace 

in our world, that freedom will flourish 

and righteousness will be done. 

The attention of our Nation is drawn 

toward an impending election, but 

there is work yet to be done. 

Send Your spirit upon the Members 

of this people’s House that they might 

judiciously balance seemingly irreconcilable interests. Help them to execute 

their consciences and judgments with 

clarity and purity of heart so that all 

might stand before You honestly and 

trust that You can bring forth righteous fruits from their labors. 

Bless this day and every day, and 

may all that is done be for Your greater honor and glory. 

Amen. 

f 

THE JOURNAL 

The SPEAKER. The Chair has examined the Journal of the last day’s proceedings and announces to the House 

his approval thereof. 

Pursuant to clause 1, rule I, the Journal stands approved. 

f 

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE 

The SPEAKER. Will the gentleman 

from Ohio (Mr. KUCINICH) come forward 

and lead the House in the Pledge of Allegiance. 

Mr. KUCINICH led the Pledge of Allegiance as follows: 

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the 

United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, 

indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER 

The SPEAKER. The Chair will entertain up to 15 requests for 1-minute 

speeches on each side. 

f 

BRING OUR TROOPS HOME IN 2013 

(Mr. JONES asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 

minute.) 

Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, today I had 

the privilege and honor to visit Walter 

Reed Hospital to say thank you to our 

wounded from Afghanistan and Iraq, 

and I saw those who have lost both 

arms and legs. It’s just so sad to go 

there. 

That brings me today to the floor to 

thank the chairman of the Armed Services Appropriations Committee, C.W. 

‘‘Bill’’ Young, who has come out and 

said it’s time to bring our troops home 

from Afghanistan, and I quote: 

I think we should remove ourselves from 

Afghanistan as quickly as we can. 

Mr. Speaker, that brings me to a couple of comments. I called a former 

commandant of the Marine Corps 3 

years ago and asked him to advise me 

on Afghanistan, and he has, and he has 

been very loyal. I want to read his 

comments: 

I am more convinced than ever that we 

need to get out of Afghanistan. When our 

‘‘friends’’ turn out to be our ‘‘enemy,’’ it is 

time to pull the plug. We are now nothing 

more than a recruiting poster for every malcontent in the Middle East. We need to wake 

up. 

I would say to the Speaker, I would 

say to the leadership of the Republican 

Party, join us in bringing our troops 

home in the year 2013. No more should 

die for a lost cause like Afghanistan. 

f 

GENETICALLY MODIFIED 

ORGANISMS 

(Mr. KUCINICH asked and was given 

permission to address the House for 1 

minute.) 

Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, in 1992, 

the Food and Drug Administration decided that genetically modified organisms were the functional equivalent of 

conventional foods. 

They arrived at this decision without 

testing GMOs for allergenicity, toxicity, antibiotic resistance, and functional characteristics. As a result, hundreds of millions of acres of GMO crops 

were planted in America without the 

knowledge or consent of the American 

people, no safety testing, no long-term 

health studies. 

The FDA has received over a million 

comments from citizens demanding labeling of GMOs. Ninety percent of 

Americans agree. 

Why no labeling? I’ll give you one 

reason. The influence and the corruption of the political process by Monsanto. Monsanto has been a prime 

mover in GMO technology, a multimillion dollar GMO lobby here and a 

major political contributor. There is a 

chance that Monsanto’s grip will be 


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