Date: 2015-09-24
Speaker: WATSON COLEMAN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. it is truly an honor to serve here in the United States Congress. but we sully that honor when we waste the American peoples time with misplaced priorities and manufactured crises. Mr. Speaker. Congress has one fundamental responsibility: funding the Federal Government. But unfortunately. Republicans in Congress insist on undermining these responsibilities at virtually every turn. Mr. Speaker. Republicans already insist on maintaining reckless sequester funding that chokes services for working and middle class Americans. seniors. veterans. and children. Instead of passing Republican budgets that meet the everchanging needs of our Nation. Republicans choose to kick the can down the road through continuing resolutions that waste precious time and shortchange the American people. But if sequestration and continuing resolutions werent already bad enough. now we are facing a complete Federal shutdown because Republicans insist on holding Federal funds for womens health care hostage. Congress has just 4 legislative days remaining to pass a funding bill. Mr. Speaker. the American people are fed up with this brinksmanship. It is time for us to run the country like adults. Lets remember why this is happening: Republicans have pledged to shut down the entire Federal Government because of objections to abortion services by Planned Parenthood. Never mind that not a single cent of Federal money funds abortions by Planned Parenthood. Never mind that Planned Parenthood provides health care and education to more than 2.6 million Americansboth men and womeneach year. Never mind that 97 percent of Planned Parenthoods health services are unrelated to abortions. Republicans would rather ignore these truths and instead rely on a series of distorted videos secretly filmed by discredited and shady antiabortion activists. So instead of using this time to talk about creating jobs. building infrastructure. reducing college debt. and reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act. I am forced to stand here on the House floor to remind the American people about the dangers we face with yet another Republican shutdown. Here are a few ways that this shutdown would harm the American people: A shutdown would close more than 400 national parks and monuments. It would increase backlogs for veterans pensions. compensation. and disability claims. It would delay tax refunds and Federal home loan applications. prohibit the National Institutes of Health from accepting new patients. shut down EVerify screening for businesses to limit hiring undocumented workers. shutter Head Start programs for lowincome families and children. and close Federal courts. The impact of a 2015 shutdown is hard to quantify. but we dont have to look too far back to estimate the potential impact. In 2013. Republicans shut the government down for 16 days in a failed attempt to defund the Affordable Care Act. That shutdown furloughed 850.000 Federal workers for a total of 6.6 million days. The 2013 shutdown cost $2 billion in lost productivity. Standard & Poors estimated that the shutdown cost the U.S. economy $24 billion and stalled the creation of more than 100.000 private sector jobs. and $4.4 billion in tax returns were delayed. Small businesses and private lenders had to delay loans due to lack of access to Federal Social Security number and income verification tools. Knowing what we know. Mr. Speaker. it is inconceivable that we could walk into this type of catastrophe by choice. That must be why the Speaker of the House. in 2013. called that shutdown a .very predictable disaster." Mr. Speaker. I would much rather be predicting solutions than disasters. That is why I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Congressional Progressive Caucus to stave off this irresponsible and dangerous shutdown. Again. this is the one thing our constituents sent us to Washington for: to fund the government. This is our job. I implore my antiwomens health colleagues to set aside their partisan bickering and work with us to keep this government open. Mr. Speaker. I yield back the balance of my time.