WAIVING A REQUIREMENT OF CLAUSE 6(a) OF RULE XIII WITH RESPECT TO CONSIDERATION OF CERTAIN RESOLUTIONS REPORTED FROM THE COMMITTEE ON RULES, AND PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF MOTIONS TO SUSPEND...
Mac Thornberry (Republican, TX) \u2014 2018-1-20

I thank the chairman for yielding. prgtoken , I rise in support of this rule, which will help give the House the flexibility it needs to respond appropriately to whatever the Senate may be able to pass. prgtoken I think it is important to remind everyone that the House has done its work. We passed every one of the appropriations bills before the fiscal year began in October. And, on Thursday, we passed a bill to continue government funding until February 16. Now we are waiting to see what the Senate may be able to pass, and this rule enables us to respond to that. prgtoken But I want to focus my comments on the effects that this budget drama is having on the United States military. prgtoken , the first job of the Federal Government is to defend the country. We have to do that before we do prgtoken anything else. There are more than 2 million men and women who have volunteered to risk their lives to help keep us safe. Some of them are stationed, this very minute, all around the world. Every single one of them and their families depend upon us for the support they need to do the job that the country has asked them to do. prgtoken As a matter of fact, , the Constitution is very explicit, saying it is Congress' responsibility to raise and support, provide and maintain, the military forces of this Nation. prgtoken But at this moment, those men and women, wherever they are around the world, doing their job, are not getting paid. They will still do their job, but now they have an additional concern to worry them. prgtoken There are other consequences. prgtoken All of the civilians who work at the Department of Defense are also not getting paid. On Monday, about half of them will be told not to come to work. The work on weapons maintenance activities, largely, will be stopped. New contracts for support and other activities will not be allowed to proceed. Many medical procedures at military treatment facilities will not take place. And the Pentagon will not be able to pay any of its bills, whether that is money that is owed to a family who has lost a loved one in the line of duty, or whether it is paying a doctor to take care of a servicemember. prgtoken , it is absolutely true that every day that we force the military to live under a continuing resolution, it does damage to the military. The damage that is being done now under this shutdown is far worse. prgtoken Truthfully, we have not fulfilled our responsibility to the troops or to the Constitution for some time. As the world grew more dangerous over the last 8 years, we cut the military budget about 20 percent. No other portion of the Federal budget--no other significant portion, at least, of the Federal budget has undergone those kinds of cuts, and now we do this. prgtoken , there is an even more disturbing problem here. Too many people want to use our constitutional duty to the troops as leverage for some other issue. prgtoken Mostly everyone on both sides of th