Date: 2013-10-04
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. good morning. and good morning to my colleagues. I think that a greeting always sets the tone for conciliatory and direct and honest interest in bringing people together. There are many of us that come from different segments of this Nation and therefore have to respond to our constituency. and I respect it and if I might use a term that we use sometimes. I get that. But I rise today to call upon our higher angels and the recognition that this is Americas country. and to disabuse my colleagues and my friends on the other side of the aisle on some of the misinterpretation that they have represented in the dialogue and debate on this floor. Numbers are showing that 60 percent of Americans dont want to have a government shutdown just to defund ObamaCare. I dont know how often that polling number has to be repeated and how often that number has to be noted as reflecting the sentiment of this country. But even more importantly than that. were always told as we pledge allegiance to the flag that it is to this great Nation and it is because we are in fact united under one sense of commitment to our country. And so yes. the President is acting like a leader of the Nation. Maybe hes even acting like a parent. Id ask the question. Mr. Speaker. whether or not you had two children or five children. whether or not you would say to two of them: Youre my favorites. youre going to get everything. youre going to eat every day. and the rest of you. you can fend for yourself. That is the very nature of the piecemeal debacle that the Republicans are putting on the floor. I would have asked them. they could have done this in regular order 68 months ago in this House. They are in charge. They did not do that. They have not finished all of the appropriations process. But we have in fact compromised. Democrats. the President. by putting a continuing resolution on the floor of the House that is the exact number that the Republicans in the House and the Senate wanted. And so in 31 minutes on this floor. they would have the opportunity to introduce that legislation. have it pass by a majority of this House and have the President of the United States sign it. But instead of that. they want headlines like in the Houston Chronicle that has a mother. Talisha. asking: How am I going to feed my children? Because theyre going to be cut off in the month of November for the funding for food stamps. even though it has suffered a horrible blow by this House of Representatives with a cut of $40 billion. but with the House not ceding to the will of America. a government shutdown. they wont be able to get that minimum support. so a mother says: How am I going to feed my children? And then. of course. someone else indicates what is going to happen to mothers with newborn babies and others. That is the problem that we face today. Let me talk about the NIH. I am a cancer survivor. and I am very concerned about those who are dependent upon research. Just a few weeks ago. I was engaged with a number of children who are impacted by the disease. I represent the Texas Medical Center and MD Anderson and the Texas Childrens Hospital. Why would I want to vote against the NIH? But this own body has already cut $1.55 billion because we have already been under sequester which is a devastatingly odious process. and it already accounts for the loss of 1 million jobs and already some $2 trillionplus being cut from this budget. Already. the economic pundits say thats the absolute wrong way to go because it does not create jobs. it takes away jobs. But I will tell you that Mary Woolley. president of Research!America. says: On a micro level. this particular approach of allegedly funding parts of the NIH does not work. We are concerned that an incremental approach to the shutdown disrupts lifesaving research by other Federal agencies. Benjamin Carr. the director of public affairs for the American Society of Biochemistry. also disagrees with this piecemeal funding. and Chris Hanson as well. Now the leader in the other body has been charged by doctors. people showing up in a doctors uniform at a press conference. saying he said something negative about children with pediatric cancer. He did not. What he said is he responded to Senator SCHUMERS comment that we shouldnt do a piecemeal type of approach. and he agreed with that. "Why should we do that?" And so we should not be going against each other. we should be going toward each other. NASA is concerned about monitoring of the space station. and the Affordable Care Act is working. So. Mr. Speaker. I offer an olive branch as well. That olive branch is lets stop calling each other names. and lets start working on behalf of the American people and vote on a clean CR.