Date: 2013-10-08
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H

I thank the gentleman for his time. I am glad that the minority leader got on the floor of the House and spoke common sense and indicated two things. Right now. there are 200 Members who would be willing to vote for a clean CR that would open this House. right now. We believe a number of Republicans would make it a bipartisan vote. and wed be able to open the government. The Republicans are playing a game of Legos. They are taking that big red box and opening it up and throwing the Legos on the ground and are trying to construct a government. Well. thats a kids gameand its a good gamebut we cannot play with the lives of the American people. Just a few minutes ago. we talked about restoring Head Start. We know that that bill is going nowhere. We know that the sequester is continuing to undermine Head Start seats across America57.000 of them. In fact. its an empty chair across America. where little babies cannot go to a Head Start program. Thats what the Republicans are trying to do. Theyre trying to tell Marlen Rosa that her 3yearold son. Hector. couldnt go to Head Start. And what is their answer? Another supercommitteea committee that maybe will be playing Legos itself because the last supercommitteeof course. we respect all of our Memberswas not the solution to our problem. I tell you what the solution is. Mr. Speaker. It is to vote on the clean bill. open the government. let the FAA be in operation. let the Justice Department be in operation. In the meeting that I just came from. I learned 90 courts are vacant. Issues dealing with rape and domestic violence are not being attended to. Public defenders are not being resourced and are being laid off. Hundreds of lawyers are not in the Department of Justice. The American Bar Association says there is no justice. I tell you. Mr. Speaker. all we have to do is not get a supercommittee. but get a supercommitment to America. Vote for a clean bill. and vote for the debt ceiling. Mr. Speaker. I again rise in strong opposition to the rule and the underlying legisltion. I oppose this rule because it is not a serious effort to end the government shutdown engineered by House Republicans by cherrypicking some programs and now adding a smoke and mirrors effort to replace the negotiation of the Budget bills passed by both the House and the Senate. Both President Obama and Senate Majority Leader REID have made it crystal clear that they will not accept this gameplaying and now the American people are saying the same thing. A piecemeal strategy now being pursued by House Republicans is not an honest or serious option to reopen the government and will not end the impacts of this shutdown that extend across our country. A consequence of partial funding of the entire Federal government one piece at a time instead of through a clean CR is the denial of burial assistance to the families of four troops who were killed by an lED in southern Afghanistan. The majority leadership of the House has America facing a government at war and a government shutdown at the same time. The majority of the House has found a way to intentional inflicted wounds on the American publicnot by accident. but as a political strategy to get what they cannot do through the regular legislative process. Mr. Speaker. today the Washington Post Editorial Board said it best: What have House Republicans managed to accomplish in a week of government shutdown? Damage the livelihood of millions of Americans? Check. Government secretaries. foodtruck operators. cleaners who work in motels near national parks: Theyre all hurting. Waste billions of taxpayer dollars? Check. It costs a lot to shut agencies. Web sites and parks. and it will cost a lot to reopen them. Meanwhile. the House has voted to pay the salaries. eventually. of hundred of thousands of employees whom it has ordered not to work. Thats an odd way to manage an enterprise. Interfere with key government operations? Check. Rattle the markets. slow an economy in recovery. interrupt potentially lifesaving research at the National Institutes of Health? Check. check and check. Derail the hated Obamacare? Ch Oh. no. wait a minute. That was the GOPs ostensible purpose for this travesty of misgovernment. but the online insurance markets created by that law opened on schedule last week and continue to operate. The House Republicans continued refusal to take up and vote on the clean CR passed by the Senate over a week ago. and which the President has stated publicly on several occasions he would sign is ignoring the easy solution to this impasse. Now faced with strong public backlashmore than 70% of Americans disapproving of the government shutdown engineered by the House Republicans. the majority is trying to extricate themselves from this debacle by bringing to the floor and passing "miniCRs." The House majority should know that the American public knows and very well understands what is happening. This is legislative theater at its worstnoise and thunder signifying nothing. Mr. Speaker. these ploys are a cynical waste of time giving false hope to innocent Americans who depend on the services provided by these programs. But House Republicans know they have no chance whatsoever of becoming law. The Senate will not pass them and the President would veto these piecemeal measures if they made it to his desk. All we are doing is wasting time when we should be helping people. We need to pass the clean CR approved by the Senate so we can keep our promises to our veterans. to our elderly. to our children. parents and young people as well as the 800.000 Federal workers that our government is needed. compassionate. strong and effective. We need to pass the clean CR approved by the Senate so we can fund our engineers and technicians who maintain all of our critical military equipment to keep our troops safe and take care of national security infrastructure. We need to pass the clean CR approved by the Senate so we can fund the services needed by those who rely upon our full faith and credit as well as our word that this nation will not forget its fallen heroes. For these reasons and more. I oppose this rule and urge my Republican colleagues to rescue the American people from this situation and end the disruption in the lives of 800.000 dedicated workers who take pride in the greatest jobs in the world: serving the American people.