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

Mr. Speaker. the gentlelady just expressed the dynamics of a pending default. and I could not agree more with the horrors of her description. It baffles me. literally baffles me. that in actuality we are sitting idly by. the Republican leadership. watching Rome burn. Let me read for you a note that I got from my district. Mr. Speaker. "I have no idea if any of you still are in office. but until further." this is asking whether my staff is still in office. "but until further notice we have been furloughed effective at 9 a.m. today. I will send you an email when back in the office. which I hope is soon. especially since the Senate has not yet passed a bill to pay us even if furloughed. So we just all hope this is a short time off." Who is this? The Houston VA regional office. Isnt it interesting my friends rise to the floor of the House with such indignation about the VA. the VA centers. and. yes. tragically the devastation of families not receiving their memorial benefits. yet here we are today. another day of the government shutdown. and an email into our district offices indicating that the VA office is closed. Another emergency call came into my office as a fire ravaged a home of 40 or so veterans. In ordinary circumstances. they would have the VA office to help resettle them. but we are rolling up our sleeves in Houston and my message is to those veterans that we are going to work to find you a place to stay. But. Mr. Speaker. the problem is that the VA services are shut down while the home of those veterans burned. Who are we in this country if we cannot think of those who are lesser than we or who need to be helped with a helping hand? Mr. Speaker. let me also say to you that while we are in the midst of this shutdown. this Republican obsession with the Affordable Care Act. poor people are suffering. There are millions of dollars impacted with the supplemental nutrition program. the school lunch program. Poor people need us to open the doors of this Congress to raise the minimum wage. Today is the day that I will celebrate and encourage America that the people of this country need to have a minimum wage of $10.10-$10.10. But we cant get any action in this place for the poor people of America. The families. the young families. the young mothers and fathers. the millions of children impacted by Head Start. some 57.000 seats lost and growing across the Nation. poor people who need access to early education. poor people. both rural and urban. who need to have a minimum wageMr. Speaker. we cant do that because the government is shut down. Why is it shut down? Has there been a hurricane or has there been an earthquake? Is there a volcanic eruption? Is there some other natural disaster? Are we under siege by a foreign territory? No. There is an extreme faction in the Republican Party that dominates the dialogue and the action. What the American people want us to do is to vote now to open the government. They want what the Democrats want: to pay the bills. They want us to talk. We have been willing to talk. They want us to cooperate. We have been cooperating. We have agreed to the Republican number. We agreed to their tax issue. and yet they want to be obsessed with the Affordable Care Act. They want to take away health benefits from Americans. And then the votes that they put on the floor of the House. Mr. Speaker. these are political votes. We will vote again today. political votes. while people are suffering with cancer. And the Friends of Cancer Research will tell them a thing or two. Their letter says: The Friends of Cancer Research. a cancer research thinktank and advocacy organization that brings together people and stakeholders who have overcome the barriers standing between patient and treatment. urges Congress to take a comprehensive approach to fiscal policy. They dont need a piecemeal bill on the floor of the House. We need to stop the extreme attitude. We need to recognize that the poor people of America. the people of America. need this shutdown to stop. and the extreme element of the Republican Party needs to stand down while Republicans. 20 of them. and Democrats. 200plus. vote to open the government now.