Transcripts For CSPAN Politics Public Policy Today 20131005

That he wants affordable, Accessible Health care for his family and for families all across New Hampshire and all across this country and he said, do not give up on that. But you have got to open this government. People need the help that they deserve, our economy needs the strength and the vitality, we cant leave thousands of people without their jobs, without their pay, and i ask you, mr. Speaker, please, bring this vote to the floor. We can pass this with a bipartisan vote and we can move our country forward. With that, i yield back and i thank the gentleman from california for giving us the opportunity. I thank the gentlelady. You mr. Peters youre right, all we have to do to get started again is put the Senate Resolution before the house, we could put that to a vote tomorrow and the government would be immediately opened. Id now like to yield time to my friend, the gentleman from florida, mr. Murphy. Mr. Murphy thank you. First i want to thank my good friend from california, mr. Peters, for organizing this important discussion this evening and reminding all American House important it is to end this ridiculous and disgraceful shutdown were in right now. The damage this manufacturing crisis is cause this manufactured crisis is causing is unacceptable. Ive heard daily from hundreds of my constituent who was felt the pain of the shutdown the last four days. They all express the same sentiment, enough already. I share this frustration. I received a letter today from a local navy veteran and it particularly stoot out to me. I want to share a brief part of the story i read. Im a recently discharged veteran of the u. S. Navy. During the five years i served i was told continually that when i left the service behind, i would be taken care of and i believed that implicitly. Well, i couldnt have been more wrong. Since i was discharged over two months ago, aye struggled to get unemployment and find work. I am currently received v. A. Disability for Service Connected injuries. Or at least i was before the government shut down yesterday. I rely on my disability to survive. Now i dont know when the next payment will arrive. To complicate matters further, ive attempted to start school and use my g. I. Benefits only to find out that the v. A. Will run out of money by the end of this month if the shutdown continues. So no more disability or education benefits. Benefits ive earned. Benefits i got for sacrificing five of the best yores of my life for. So essentially, i paid into this program, made sacrifices too numerous to count, was deployed around the world twice in support of the global war on terrorism and now i come to find out that all of that amounts to nothing. This shutdown has negatively impact midlife more than i ever thought possible. The mere fact that Veterans Benefits were even on the table as part of the shutdown is an outrage in itself. Have we not done enough . What more do i need to sacrifice . We have a hard enough time surviving overseas ands the treatment we come home to. Our own government shutting down and unable to take care of us. I plan on applying for food stamps soon. I never dreamed my life would come to this. Especially after serving my country. But hey, i guess thats what our government has come to. Please do whatever it takes to end this shutdown. Well, joshua, i never dreamed it would come to this either. That our nation would be willing to break its promise to the brave men and women like you over partisan games. I called joshua today to let him know that i too am appalled and that i am here fighting for him alongside my colleagues, alongside our nations veterans, seniors, and all americans who have had enough, enough of the shutdown, enough of the games, enough of these manufactured crises. That is why im leading efforts urging a vote on reopening the government. Our fragile economy cannot afford one more day of this disgraceful shutdown. And neither can veterans such as joshua. I urge the house to pass a clean spending bill immediately and put an end to this nonsensical shutdown. Thank you. Mr. Peters i thank the gentleman from florida. I fwess its cold comfort to joshua to hear the house is voting on piecemeal approaches. Im not saying theyre ill mote vay motivated, many of us supported them. But its teem but theyre not working. Its time for us to learn our lesson. We can do the work we were sent here to do, that were paid to do, without stop the government. I think those comments are very well put. I thank the gentleman. The other thing we heard about in addition to we need to get something or need to talk, we have to repeal or do away with the Health Care Law. I would just say this about being a freshman. We werent here for these votes. None of us cast a vote either way on the Affordable Care act or obamacare. But we heard a lot of questions about it and we took those questions, took them very seriously and most of us said, you know, we should try to fix them. But were also realistic. Weve seen that Health Care Law was passed by congress a few years ago. Signed by the president. Its okd by the speert. Its survived a number of adegreesal repeal votes here in the house of representatives. So it appears its here to be with us, to stay, its been rolling out with mix red ports this week but i think in many places people are finding hope that they can get Affordable Health care. Clearly we have more work to do. I stand here willing to help fix the Affordable Care act to the extent we need it. I expressed my own concern about the medical device tax. Enge thats something that should be repealed. Theres other the cadillac tax. I think we should provide new incentives for wellness. I think we should get out of the way of technology and encourage technology as an approach to lower costsful and im willing to get to work on that. But thats not fwoning to be that law took a long, long time to pass, it was very contentious. The problems wont be solved to the satisfaction of the congress or to the completion of the task in the time were talking about shutting the government down. Lets not hold the government up for that. My final observation about this shutdown is that i feel im reminded of when i practiced law and tried cases and i had i liked having a case with a good lawyer on the other side because a god lawyer knew where he or she was going. And you could tell kind of what the strategy was and where youre going to end up. I feel in this case like im trying a case against a lawyer who is really inexperienced or doesnt know what hes doing in that i cant figure out where theyre going. Were hoping that if there is some resolution that can happen, wed love to be part of it. Enge it starts with passing the continuing resolution that the Senate Passed and getting this government open right now. Id like to close with a few comments on the other issue we havent got ton but that enge concerns me greatly, and thats the debt ceiling. Its one thing to argue over the continuing resolution, weve been talking about that and shutting down the government and thats a bad thing. Its something i hope well end soon. As i said before, its something that is entirely within our power to do without the help of the senate or the president. We vote for the resolution the Senate Passed and the government would be open tomorrow. I hear talk about the debt ceiling as though its the same thing and it is not. The debt ceiling is a dangerous, dangerous tactic for negotiation. Its bad business, its bad economics and its bad government. First id start by talking about what its like to do business in this way. It occurs to me that my parents one asking themselves about the people who would play with the debt ceiling, who raised these people . What were doing here with the debt ceiling, talking about not paying our debts, its like getting the credit card bill, opening it up and seeing how much you bought and deciding at that point, well, no, ive got to control spending, i dont want to pay this. Thats too late to have the discussion. I remember my parents, my father is a minister, my mother stayed home, worked part time to help us with college. I have vivid memories of them laying out the bills on the dining room table, make sure they could figure out their cash flow, how were they going to pay each bill, what diof the month each bill was due. And they made every payment. Because they always taught me about making sure you kept good credit. We know now about Credit Scores and how important it is to be on time, and families all over the country understand that kind of approach. For us to take this approach that we are not going to pay the debts we have encurred is just the wrong way to do business. But its realy terrible economics. The treasury reported this this week. With the government likely to exhaust its cash reserves around october 17, the treasury said being forced into nonpayment of any of its obligations and in particular its debt would spark turmoil in the Financial Markets and possibly send the country back into recession as deep as that of 2008 to 2009. We know weve been coming out of that, we dont want to go back there. In the event it continues, the debt limit impass were to lead to a default, it could have a catastrophic effect. Not just on Financial Market bus also job creeeags, Consumer Spending and Economic Growth. Credit markets could freeze, the value of the dollar could plummet, u. S. Interest rates could skyrocket. The negative spillovers could reverberate around the world. An there might be a financial crisis and recession that could echo the events of 2008 or worse. This is not some political statement. This is what were hearing from the wall street journal, from the banking community, from the financial sector. They are saying stay away from this. Cnn money said forget the current Government Shutdown. Economists say debt ceiling impasse that could plunge the nation into a recession. About half of the 22 economists surveyed by cnn money say a recession will be unvadeable unavoidable if Congress Fails to raise the debt ceiling before the treasury runs out of cash laider this later this month. Lets not get to that point, mr. Speaker, we cannot mess with the debt ceiling. The Government Shutdown is bad enough. Were kind of playing around the edges. I urge that we put the Senate Resolution before the house so we can vote on it, open this government tomorrow. Let us not touch, let us not play with the notion, let us not suggest to anyone that america wont pay the debts its encurred. Fonally from an article called after the shutdown posted by speaking icky, hes in partisan terms but i think it applies to then. This is why the republican approach to debt ceiling is not, like people of zeke miller of time has argued, the standard way of doning business in washington. This is an attempt to remake the legislative process itself and to do so by threatening to do something, the fault, that no one, including the people making the threat, believes to be in the best interest of the yeats. We cant be sure of exactly what would happen if the u. S. Stopped paying its bills but at the very least it would lead to havoc in the bond market and the Financial System which depends on a u. S. On u. S. Treasuries and riskfree collateral, higher Interest Rates and an immediate hit to Economic Growth. Its not a road that anyone would want to go down and in my view its not a road we should be considering going down. As bad as the continuing resolution is and the fight over the shutdown, i know that just behind us is a much more dangerous prospect. I wanted to warn of that. Finally just to suggest to folks that i have two bills that would provide an alternative and would help us deal with the National Debt and theyd work very simply leek this when debt was declining as a percentage of the economy, which means we have it under control, the debt ceiling would adjust without a vote, payments would go out. When debt started to increase as a percentage of the economy, which means were not having it under control, we all understand that longterm debt cant continue to rise as a percentage of the economy without hurting our economic future. But in that case, we need a mechanism to do something manufacturer than just yell at each other and call each other names. Which i know the freshmen that were with me tonight are still amazed that thats what happens here but thats what happens way too often. We need a mechanism to force a discussion of how to manage the debt. Our bill would provide that if we are in the condition where debt is rising as a percentage of g. D. P. , and the president and the congress and the leaders of congress didnt do anything about it which is the condition we find ourselves in today, then individual members, mr. Speaker, would be able to propose their own measures without the blessing of leadership but with the sponsorship of only 50 of their colleagues to force a discussion on how to manage the debt and get it under control. Thats just one idea. But at this point i think its the only idea on the table to avoid this in a constructive way. Mr. Speaker, i appreciate the chance to offer some thoughts on these issues with my colleagues and with that, i yield back the balance of my ime. The speaker pro tempore under the speakers announced policy the chair 3, 2013, recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. Gohmert, for 30 minutes. Mr. Gohmert thank you, mr. Speaker. There is a lot of talk about obamacares most people call it taste difficult after the hundreds of stories we are its hard to e, call it the Affordable Care act when people are saying it is unaffordable. What is interesting, so many members of the media were chopping at the bits for someone to sign up for obamacare successfully. They grabbed the young man, chad henderson, he talked thursday about his internet experience, applying for insurance through e a forwardable care act through the web silet. Nd he was a media ico nmp. This young man from georgia, signed up for obamacare. And we find the rest of the story, so many were using his story, chad henderson, he got signed up easily. Heres a story by kate heppeder 21yearold er georgia man became the subject of National Media attention, ncluding a frontpage times mr. Frelinghuysen press story who was one of the once who get , hew the web site and plold didnt complete the process. Amidst the initial publicity, he was hailed by supporters of the Affordable Care act as an example of the new system working. And was attacked by those against the law for buying into the plan and being a volunteer or organized for action, a non profit promoting president obama agenda. Reason called hendersons saying into action after he and his son have not bought a man. N an interview with the times freepress he confirmed he idnt purchased a plan but the confusion was in the wording. I never said i purchased a plan. I said i submitted an application and so i enrolled. I havent paid for a plan. I never meant to mislead anyone. When he talked with the press on a sday, he said, he picked slch blue ue cross shield. He said that the specific plan fit into his budget. Ap in his initial tweet, heppeder son said, quote, the pound sign, obamacare, just now, looking forward to having Affordable Health care for the first time, end quote. He stood by the comments, but respeeded that he never specifically said he pird a plan. En ace of spadse, apparently does a lot of unlon looking and comes up with interesting hings, he posted this today, chad henderson disclosed he was a partisan paid to post advocacy things on social media. So, whos the bad guy here. He was not coy about his passionate support of barack obama or his vol understanding tear question mark with o. F. A. And he says, you should know about me, and disclosed, unquote, and has an inset where the following is quoted from his posting, im labeled the guy who talks about politics, unquote. And normally as anythingtive effects. Im here to clear things up. You will see im not that object see ceased with politics. I post things on here and other social networking sites. Think it is good. Secondly, i work for an organization that pays me quarl to post the political stuff as add vow cast iy so its kind of my job. Kind of a way it seems things go around here. You have people with the tea party hoe seem to have one thing in common. I have met people of tea parties from countries all over the world, as i have been around the country. Tax. My pay income and as we have b each kay to the world war inch i memorial where somebody in the administration thought it would be cute to make veterans suffer and create an immeage so they knew stories would blame the republic cans, which they did, and wow, if he are blaming the republicans, even they appointed negotiators and ask us to negotiate, we wouldnt goirblet, we told them we wouldnt negotiate. We on do whatever we wanted. Create as much pain as we can, because they will help us ensure that the American People are duped that the american republicans are to plame. This was the game from the beginning. There were no paid veterans out from world war ii. Hey were out there out there hoping to roll in their wheelchairs down the granite pen sidewalks around the outdoor openair memorial that was constructed in such a way it wouldnt have to be closed, it could be open 24 . I have been down there all during the course of the day and night, 10 00 p. M. , 10e a. M. , 4. M. And no, i dont drink. Just go down there to see the memorials that were constructed for america. And most of the time i dont see any park service people, but since someone in this administration, some people in administration thought it would e really cute to show that there are barricades up at the rld war ii memorial, the openair, granite sidewalk, 24 7 without guards most of the time, that would be cute, that would play well in the media and we find out as protestors came down there as we were geting some more veterans in there this week, Pat Africa Poole had his reporter had the camera going when he saw the union protestors coming because there are federal ral workers put out of a job, demanding republicans get them when a work and when one said how muchliey are you getting paid, and he said 15 and took an implet s. U. Supervisor to put the whole thing together to explain, who employee a acknowledge he protested down where these world war inch i veterans in wheelchairs were trying to enjoy where so many were poignant and very emotional as they thought about their time in the atlantic, in the pacific, in fighting for freedom in lands so far from home. O some, its a game. We heard the leak from the administration that why would we bring this shutdown to an end in is Obama Administration when were winning, as if it were a game. People know that right here at this podium, i have cite sized Speaker John Boehner. Let me tell you, he had it right today when he said this is not a game. Ou are playing with peoples lives. But apparently its a game to some. And the organizing for america, the newfound acorn who got the support from the president s agenda and lobbying like crazy and paying people to yes ate havoc. And world war ii vets who are trying to observe their memorial. Its not a game to them. Apparently a game to some in this administration. Theyre not satisfied to close the normandy cemetery. We heard from some from tks as who had been scrapinging their money together baugh they knew they knew they may not have long, would not have another chance to go back to normandy where his friends died. Nee scraped together money and got him over there to find out who is in this administration and stops at the top, but whoever made the call decided lets inflict emotional pain and suffering, not ofrpbl on the world war inch i vets, but how about over in normandy. People will declare, that will be great, wont it, because the Mainstream Media and they will why did we shut down the administration, they think we are winning when americans travel gf the end of their lives to see where they fought for lit and their friends died for liberty and their friends are buried there. Some kind of game. This is not a game. These are peoples lives. Report, entitled Catholic Priests and military face arrest arrests. Rating suspensional banning them from celebratings weekend mass. One chaplain was told if he engaged in any activity, he would be subbletted to disciplinary action. Quote, in every practical terms, it means sunday mass wonlt be offered. He omp die osees told me, quote, if someone has a baptism scheduled, it wont be elebrated unbrote. Sins theres no fund, they cant do it, even if they volunteer. Ohn shlader, counsel for the archdiocese, said any priest volunteering their services could face big trouble. Its illegal for them to minister on beas and they risk being arrested if they attempt to do so, unquote, he said in a written statement. Look, one thing we know for re about the military, the commander in chief is in charge. And i know there are a lot of distractions but somebody needs to get word to the commander in chief that his military members are not going to be allowed to t to mass if theyre catholic, and their Catholic Priest has been told he could be arrested if he shows up on post. Because the command for the heef can give an order and thats gone. And every Catholic Priest that wishes to volunteer, thats got clearance, will be back on that post or base to provide mass. For goodness sakes, weve got more suicides in our military now than at any time in the history of the country. You might have thought that would have been at valley forge, but no, its now. In this time in this countrys history, good grief, mr. President. Et the catholic masses going again. Rescind the order that you wont even let them volunteer there. There are people that are serving this president , mr. President , that deserve to have the comfort of their spiritual ministers. My friends here, i respect. I really do. I appreciated their comments. Because as theyve indicated, theyre freshmen, theyre new, they talked about the democrats , theyve been trying to get conferees to the budget. The sthathfenally passes an unrealistic budget after the president waited longer than any time violating the law to get the budget out, put it out when it was pastime to be helpful. Were way beyond budgets at this time. The country, the federal government in this country is in a new year, fiscally, so budgets are not what does it now. Now were into appropriations. And before the shutdown, we had a bill that after three compromises were offered we said, ok, heres our negotiators. All youve got to do, harry reid, apoint negotiators and we can have this done by morning and the people in the country wont even have to know. At least send negotiators and as we have found out today, the administration does not want to end the shutdown because they believe theyre winning this game while real people are suffering. I heard my friend, my heart went out to joshua, the military member, in the military for five years, one year longer than i served, and he couldnt find a job. And now hes told his benefits are about to end at the end of the month if the government is still shut down. And he cant find a job. And he may have to apply for food stamps. Well, i would think my democratic colleagues would come and say, you know what . Obamacare clearly has done damage just as the economists have said it would and it has, and businesses have repeat think told us it was going to create havoc in the workplace and it has. And weve got ongoing reports of businesses buzz of obamacare having to lay off fulltime employees and put them to parttime so that they can continue to be competitive and stay in business and some have said even doing that because of obamacare, theyre going to be crushed. They may not make the year in business. So yes, our hearts go out to joshua. Lets at least stop obamacare for a year. It isnt working. And its got people not working. And its costing people more than they ever dreamed it would cost. Heres another from one of my constituents, i just read quote ran quotes for one of my insurance clients in marshall, family of four. I was shocked when the premiums werent lower than their current rate. President obama said insurance rates would go down 2,500 a year. In one of ms. Many speeches. I have to quote one of my your fellow congressmen. 2,200 crine ease increase in this familys cost this familys current cost is 706. E new and improved plan is 882. 76 per month. This is the lowest price for this family. He goes on, its a lengthly lengthy letter, obviously upset for clines who are not going to keep the same insurance at the same rate. Weve heard from so many who lost their doctor, lost their insurance. Heres another. This one has quotes from a letter he got. Dear paul, it has his full name. Another one of my constituents. Thank you for trusting anthem with your health plan. We recently sent you a letter explaining how you can continue your coverage with us. If youve already chose ton change your policy Effective Date and extend your coverage through december 1, 2014, wed like to thank you for your continued patronage, you can disregard the message below. However if youve not decided on your health plan for the coming year, you need to know your current plan is being discontinued. Starting january 1, 2014, were no longer able to offer or renew your plan because it doesnt meet the requirements of the new Health Care Reform laws. Your new plan, anthem core rect access, is available, 224. 25 per month. Paul says i currently have a plan that costs me 65 a month and i have a 5,000 deductible. It just covers me. The new plan with the same benefits is 3. 45 times what i am currently paying. Hes pretty upset. I wont Read Everything he says. But he says, my wife and i now have to make rather large sacrifices to raise the extra 1,90 to keep a plan thats already mediocre. I wont read the rest of that, hes pretty upset. We got another insight into the story from res a wesley prudin. The games politicians play. President obama is having a lot of fun using the Government Shutdown to squeeze the public in a number of ways. The point of the game is who can is to see who can squeeze hardest and listen for the most applause. President obama is not a bad poker player but the man with all the chips starts with the advantage and gets all the aces. Hes close washington down as tight as he dares, emphasizes the trivial and petty in making life as inconvenient as he can for the greatest number. Its all in a noble cause, of course. Access to most memorials is limited and often in cuferes you ways. The Lincoln Memorial is easy to reach with the streets around it remaning open. But the Marten Luther king jr. Is made easy to reach, relegating it, you might say, to the back of the bus. Not very nice. The parker is vess appears to be closing streets on mere whim and caprice. The rangers even closed a parking lot at mount vernon where the plant eags home of george sweash a favorite tourist destination. That was after they barred the new world war ii memorial on the mall to veterans of world war ii but the government does not own mount vernon, its privately owned by the mount vernon ladies association. The ladies bought it years ago to preserve it as a national memorial. The feds closed access to the parking lots this week even though the lots are jointly owned with the mount vernon ladies. The reaningers are from the government and theyre only here to help. Quote, its a cheap way to deal with the situation, unquote, and angry parker is an angry Park Service Ranger in washington says of the harass. Quote, weve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. Its disgusting. Unquote. So for somebody here in washington at least, who is giving park rangers orders to make life as difficult as ossible, it is a game. There was a time in america when we had a president , we had Congress Members who would encourage people in this country that there was always a way to make something happen. And the volunteer spirit across this land made us the envy of the world. Because people volunteer, we could do anything. And yet, people around washington have seen just what the park rangers said, theyve been told make things as difficult as possible. So here is a playground in washington, d. C. That never has a federal officer there supervising it, im told by people whose Children Play there constantly. But they found a need to go lock it up and somebody spent a bunch of money all over this town printing up new things to emphasize, not just closed, im sure they have plenty of closed signs they can use, oh, no, we have to print up all new signs that say because of the federal Government Shutdown, this National Parker is vess facility is closed. And theyre putting it places it isnt Even National park service facilities. Theyre following their orders. Theyre making life as difficult as they can for as many as they can. Heres another. Because of the federal Government Shutdown all National Parks are closed. And this one is at the world war ii memorial. See the wide open sidewalks, theyre made of granite. Youre not going to hurt them. I can tell you theres enough veterans, theres enough people, those of us who have served, were not going to let people deface this. Yes, its possible somebody could sneak down there in the night dooned that. And i can tell you they could sneak down there and do it at night even with the barricades. So the only people the barricades like this stop are people leek our world war ii veterans in wheelchairs because somebody is giving the order, the disgusting order, to make life as difficult as possible for as many people as possible, maybe theyll blame, theyll surely blame the republicans even though were the ones who refuse to even appoint negotiators to negotiate as called for under the constitution, the law, and the rules of the house and the rules of the senate. Didnt like the idea of appointing conferees. It was basically a capitulation. All right, all right, you didnt like our compromises. Heres our people to compromise. You dont have to worry, i wasnt one of those that Speaker Boehner appointed. They dont want to sit down and talk about it, instead rushing around, shutting places like the park, the Moore Family Farm thats been around since the George Washington days in the 1700s. Hadnt taken a federal dime since 1980. Sent park rangers over to virginia tuesday to run the mcclain chamber of commerce out of the farm, costing the farm money, costing the chamber all kinds of headaches as they tried to relocate for no reason other than what weve now learned, someone gave the order, make life as difficult as you can. O this farm that really so this farm ks this is their prime time, they lost 20,000, because they rented barricades to put up to block a park that doesnt get a dime. People are finding the same thing. And its time its stopped. This is not a game. Lets help americans for a change and with that, i yield back. The speaker pro tempore does the gentleman have a motion. Mr. Gohmmr. Gohmert i move tha house do now adjourn. The speaker pro tempore the question is on the motion to adjourn. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. The ayes have it. The motion is adopted. The house stands the phone lines are for 2025853385. Five a 5ats, 202 3887. Asking you about the Government Shutdown. Know the house coming in tomorrow, really just taking up one bill, a bill that would provide back a four for load government workers. It is one among several they have introduced this week that the administration is actually supporting, issuing a statement of Administration Support for it earlier. Here is a look at a packet of the dozen or so bills coming up in the next few days. Tomorrow, we mentioned the for load workers bill. They passed today the fema bill and the wic program bill. Term, many, short crs for fda, border security, head start, the National Intelligence program, indian affairs, nuclear security, the weather service, and federal funds for schools. The only thing we know is the house is coming in tomorrow at nine 00 eastern. We will of course have live coverage for you. We have a facebook poll asking how much the Government Shutdown is impacting you. Here is a story about the impact beyond just government workers. Their headline in the next 45 minutes or so, we will bring you comments for the day from the white house and capitol hill. We will also bring you up for a gram this evening at 9 30 p. M. Newsmakers normally, you would see that program on sunday, and you well, but you will also see it this evening at 9 30 p. M. Mike,go to pennsylvania, good evening. How are year . Host dead. 00 they need tonk leave the Government Shutdown. Even misses it. There is nothing the federal government does that we need. Just leave it shut down permanently. You get any benefits from Social Security or the v. A. . Caller no. Host democrats line, good evening. I am planning this week to go with a group of veterans to visit normandy beach. Many of us have saved for many years to go there. We have relatives that have served their or died there. We intended to go over and decorate raves and honor graves and honor the people of our community, and we are heartbroken to learn that we will not be able to access the graveyard because of the Government Shutdown. Many veterans feel they are going to lose some of their benefits. I thinks is a im it is time for this to be voted. The government needs to go back to work and all americans hope that will happen. Back to your visit to normandy, what is the story . I have seen bits and pieces. What can you tell us about that . We are hearing is that federal facilities around the world, including in italy and france, are shutdown because they are federal this elegies and we will not be able to ask facilities and we will not be able to access them when we get there. Host we will see if we can dig up a report on that this evening. Tim on the independent line. Go ahead. This country is a trillion dollars in debt. We dont need an entitlement program. I am a hardworking american. I am barely middleclass. Do not get any subsidies, nor do i ask for any. I am a veteran. I have a bowl ching disk from a parachute that did not open. Disc from a parachute that did not open. Are you out of work . Caller i am still able to work. Try to claimld Veterans Benefits, but i can still work. Would i steal from my fellow americans . Do you know people who are capable of working who are on disability . Absolutely. Absolutely. All they have to do is work underneath the limit. That is a fact. All, youn work at should not be on disability. It cost us too much to have these program. We are becoming an and title becoming an entitlement country. Lets look at some of the tweets people have sent in. Here is one. President obama is not going on his asia trip this weekend. He is staying at the white house. He led a gaggle of reporters down the street today. Here is a look. Wantfore i order, i just to say that part of the reason we are here is that we are starving and the food here is great. The other part is that right now , this establishment is providing a 10 discount to all federal workers who are for load. Plus a cookie. Plus a cookie. That, i think, is an indication of how ordinary americans look out for each other and are not a set with just try to make sure that everybody is doing their job. That we are doing what is best for the country. Right now, the house of representatives has the opportunity to do the exact same thing. Fare low for low this shutdown could be over today. If Speaker Boehner will simply allow the vote to take place, we could end this shutdown. A whole bunch of families, not just here in washington, but all will have country, the certainty that a paycheck will be coming, that they will be able to make their mortgage, pay their ask tenses, that they will pay their expenses, that they will be able to look after their families, and we can get back to what we should be focused on every single day, and t is how we have a drawn strong middle class in this country so that anyone who is willing to work hard can get comes toen it negotiation, i am happy to have negotiations with republicans and Speaker Boehner on a whole range of issues, but we cannot do it with a gun held to the head of the American People. Reopen the government. Make sure we are paying our bills. Two basic functions that congress has. Take your cues from folks like this who are more interested in ising sure that everybody being treated fairly and properly, and less interested in politics and scoring points. With that, i am going to order. There is no winning when families do not have certainty about what they are going to get paid or not. I have staff in the white house and staff around the country, working for the agricultural department, working for veterans, who are on the job despite the fact that they are not getting paid. They are looking after their fellow citizens on a whole range of services. That is the point. We should get this over with as soon as possible. I am going to order now. What did you get . I got the 9th street. I am paying for joe. I was going to pay for you. I got it. You got the what . The 9th street. Sub. Kind of like a somebody said that the rate street was good to. Lets try that out. What do you want to drink . Water. A bottle of water. I want a cookie to. You get a cookie today. Furlough. T on i am getting a cookie. Those are two cookies. Do you want both . I am not giving you my cookie. Have one of my cookies. What kind of cookies are these . Coffee. You should give one to john boehner. Take a taste. Coconut. Macadamia nut. There you go. I will get me one of those. Original or wheat bread . Wheat bread. I have to be able to tell michelle. Yeah. That is a tasty cookie right there. The president and Vice President down the street from the white house at taylor gourmet. They are offering a discount for government workers. We haveacebook age, been asking how much the Government Shutdown is impacting you. Here is our poll so far. That is facebook. Com cspan. Back to calls. Mike is in columbus, georgia, on the democrat line. , i am going to put your on hold. Make sure you meet your giveision so we do not feedback. We will go to san antonio. Joe on the independent line. Are you there you i wanted to comment on what was going on. Antonios here in san are worried about our civilian counterparts. Worried about how they are going to be able to do what needs to be done. Single but im pregnant. Im going to get married. Appointments with medical personnel on base you cannot come there, who are on furlough. Terry people did get paid. Paid,itary people to get but we do not have civilian counterparts who help us to complete the mission to protect our job country and do her job effectively. Not only medical personnel, but financial people on base, security people who do our security. All these people. Everybody does not understand. A lot of people, the republicans say it is the democrats come at this point it does not matter whose fault it really is. Everybody just needs to grow up, come to an agreement, stop pointing the finger and get the job done. On the dayto day stuff, who is telling you what is open, who is available, who is not . We get notified through a chain of command that tells us what is open. A lot of things, a lot of veterans come on base and they come and do their Grocery Shopping to get medical care and they cannot even grocery shop on base. A lot of the medical facilities they would use our minimally manned. Ultimately, it is ridiculous, because even the security of the base might eventually be compromised if these people do not come together, if the house is not come together. Because for the people basically that guard the base, they are contractors as well. Host a followup from the Associated Press. They say the military is 1. 4 million active personnel remaining on duty, but half the Defense Department posher events departments civilian employees have been furloughed. Beennal guard training has canceled. They passed a shortterm bill for the National Guard, but it has gone nowhere in the senate. In terms of what is ahead in the house, the house is coming back tomorrow and will be in at 9 00 east are in to talk about furloughed employees. They are taking up a bill tomorrow that will deal with back pay for furloughed employees. A producerweet from for nbc on capitol hill look for that vote at around 11 00 eastern. Back to mike in columbus, georgia on our democrats line. I will have to let you go. Just make sure you meet your television mute your television when you get through. Margie is on our independent line. Caller this is kind of hard for me. I am not a democrat and not a republican. I just vote for the best person who i think would be the best to run the country. , my husband is a veteran. He is not going to get his veterans check for last month and next month. My husband is 75. He had tripled by sass triple bypass openheart surgery and several strokes. I am his caregiver and i have to try to pay bills. What are we supposed to do . The people in the white house, they do not care. Are getting their thanksgiving dinner, their christmas dinner. Based the get their pay they still get their pay. They made promises to us. Do they hate us because we are old and disabled . I do not understand it or it understand it. Host thanks for calling. About the Affordable Care act, a tweet from the aca website, healthcare. Gov. They say, more improvements on the way. The call center is open. They announced earlier today some internet work that would happen, some web work throughout the country. The Associated Press says the website will remain open for General Information but that Technology Problems that overwhelms the launch of the new Insurance Markets when they opened on tuesday morning. Jessica is in maryland, on the republican line. Caller the thing im trying to understand is, with me watching what is going on with this Government Shutdown, i do not understand why president obama and senator reid could just make with this on Government Shutdown. I mean, i feel for the veterans, i feel for the fact that these monuments and the memorial sites and amusement parks sorry, not amusement parks, National Parks should not be shut down for this. Republicans and democrats would not be pointing fingers at each other. They should be pointing fingers at obama and say, sit down and talk to us. Make a negotiation with us. Lets reopen the government. Because these veterans should not be suffering. Disability, the checks should not be late. And,the Police Enforcement you know, with everybody that has a job, they should have the right to receive a paycheck. Host some of the finger pointing, here is a headline that says white house, it is all about john boehner. The speaker and other House Republicans spoke this morning, and the speaker responded to comments in the wall street journal attributed to summon up the white house. We hear from other Republican Leaders as well that the Government Shutdown. About the Government Shutdown. Good morning, everyone. We have a crisis like we are in the middle of this week the American People expect their leaders to sit down and try to resolve their differences. I was at the white house the listened to the president explained to me why he was not going to negotiate. I sat there and listened to the majority leader of the United States senate described to me that he is not going to talk until we surrender. , to get thening wall street journal out and it said, we do not care how long lasts because we are winning. This is not some damn game,. Not wantcan people do the Government Shutdown, and neither do i. All we are asking for is to sit down and have a discussion, reopen the government and bring fairness to the American People under obamacare. Simple as that, but it all has to begin with a simple discussion. Good morning. You know, this week the American People have seen once again that obamacare is not ready for prime time. A dysfunctional website is the least of that loss problems laws problems. We ask for big basic fairness to the American People. No special treatment to anyone under the law. Specialnue to ask, no treatment for us and no special treatment for special interests. The president continues to refuse to sit down with us republicans, and sadly that is a hallmark of his presidency. In divided government, americans expect us to Work Together to solve problems. This week the house passed legislation to open a parks and memorials, to reopen Clinical Trials for children with cancer, to allow the District Of Columbia to be locally funded, and to fund Veterans Services and the National Guard. Today we are going to vote to open fema and the National Weather service as we witness a growing storm in the gulf. We are also going to vote to provide Nutrition Services for women and children in poverty. We plan to also later next week open up head start. Tomorrow we are going to vote to ensure that all furloughed federal employees know that they will receive their pay once this shutdown is over. 57 democrats have joined us to make sure that some of these critical functions of government are operating while we in washington are trying to work out our differences. I want to thank them for that. I am hopeful we can see more bipartisanship and Start Talking so we can end uncertainty and restore the confidence in our economy and faith in our government. I read have the president canceled his trip to asia. It is a perfect opportunity now that he is here so we can begin negotiation. , seniorpeaker laid out White House Administration says it does not matter how long we are shutdown. I believe it does. I believe the 57 democrats who joined with us passing legislation to open government believe itack up does as well. Now is time for us to get in a room, settle our differences, and move this country forward. We continue to hear from the president that the way out of this shutdown is to basically give him everything he wants. He wants the easy way out without addressing the debt crisis, without addressing a stagnant economy, without addressing and unaffordable Health Care Law. We heard the president say the republicans are holding the u. S. Hostage. He said he has bent over backwards to work with us. Butwords may sound good, you know what, actions speak louder than words. And this is the president , this is the democrats in the senate that continue to tell us that they are not going to negotiate. They are not even willing to come to the table. The republicans in the house are committed to keeping this government open. We are working every day to get this government open. And what we need is for a dialogue to begin with the democrats, in the senate, with the president. The bills we are working on, this legislation is an area where we should be able to start finding Common Ground so we can have a dialogue over the other big issue that faces this country, that the American People want to see us address. I reminded the president the is famous fore saying, in a negotiation nobody gets 100 of what they want. We are not going to get it in this one either. , you have the debt ceiling coming up in the next couple weeks. What were hearing about in conference, you focused mainly. N the cr is that on the cr is that true, and to what extent would you be willing to look at a temporary debt ceiling increase, given there is very little time to resolve those issues . The continuing resolution to open the government, all we are asking for is to appoint conferees so we can sit down and have a conversation about bringing fairness to the American People and getting our government open. You have been quoted before saying you want the debt ceiling to be raised, you do not want the u. S. To default. Democrats are interpreting that to say that in the 11th hour when the president refused to negotiate on the debt ceiling you will run a clean debt ceiling bill. Can you be clear . You all heard me say this, going back over the last two or three years. Our goal was not to shut down the government. Our goal here was to bring fairness to the American People under obamacare. I do not believe we should default on our debt. It is not good for our country. But after 55 years of spending more than what you bring in something not to be addressed. This year we will have more revenue than any year in the history of our country, yet still and nearly 700 billion deficit. I think the American People expect if we are going to raise the amount of money we can borrow we ought to do something about our spending problem and the lack of Economic Growth in our country. Showdown shutdown, the about the formal care act . Is it about the budget deficit . Why is the Government Shutdown right now . We sent for bills to the senate. Trying to soften our position to get the Senate Interested, keeping the government open, and bringing fairness to the American People under obamacare. It is as simple as that. Last question . We have seen reports about how there is personality sniping between you and Democratic Leaders and the president. That is not true. Listen that is not true. Most of you have dealt with me for some time. Luke once sniped that or twice, but i have very Good Relationships with all my colleagues across the aisle. Listen, it is me. Maintaining these relationships is critically important. Lets sitking for is down like the American People would expect us and talk to one another about getting the government open and dealing with the significant problems we face. Host house Republican Leadership from this morning on capitol hill. Some reaction on twitter using the cspanchat. Negotiate what . What part of a past law to defund . How much the entire world should suffer due to extortion politics . Another view from diane what democrats are doing is despicable. Back to your calls. Heather in kentucky is first up, democrats line. Good evening. Caller i am a democrat but im fiscally conservative and not a big fan of obamacare. This whole debate, it seems to me those people are really missing the big picture. The big picture is not about 50 or 60 of people. It is about how democracy is supposed to run. You cannot take your countries funding or default in on debt and try to use that to move the needle on other issues. It is wrong, and it sets a does dangerous precedent. It does not matter what your views are on obamacare. This is not the right way to do it. If this is something so egregious, something we could not possibly wait, that would be different. But in this case this has been around a long time. So unpopular, people would have a chance to do something. There are a lot of changes that need to be made to make this better. I am not really a fan of obamacare myself. Havehe reality is, you been in the elections, you take the time. Me is people seem to be getting caught up so much, thereally looking at message it was sent democrats made a change. Host next up, steve on our republican line. Go ahead. Caller i want to make a point. I do not think this is about health care. I think this is about redistribution of wealth. Sot is why he is fighting hard, that is why he will not give in. He wants to take money from the citizens of the United States of america who work hard and go to work everyday and give it to people who do not even try. He is handing out cell phones, handing out food, handing out money. And the people who work for a living are paying for it. That is my feelings. Host asheville, north carolina, next up. On the democrats line. You are up. Caller hello . I just want to make a couple comments. And i havers old such high copays to go to the doctor and for my medication that half the time i have to do without. I have got some serious problems. Medicaidw people on ,hat are getting everything things they do not need and they pretend like they are so disabled and so poor and everything that they are getting doctors free, medicine free, everything they can get free they are getting it. The thing theyg can wear around their neck, security reasons for themselves. They have got people coming in to cleanix days a week a onebedroom mobile home and cook for them. They can go anywhere they want to. Medicare are paying for it with all our copays. We cannot afford nothing. Host you are on medicare, correct . Caller yes, i am. Host what is a typical high co pay for you . Pay 55 to good with specialist and 25 to go to a family doctor. 2010 wastion in 2009 three dollars to six dollars for any medication i have got. Host appreciate your call. A couple quick tweets. S one brooke says we would not be in the situation if it were not for obamacare. Sandra saying, this is really getting on my nerves. I have never seen in my lifetime such stubbornness. A look at protests on capitol ill is in georgia, on the independent line. Good evening. Caller i want to bring up something nobody has even talked about. When the democratic, the republican representative for taxes came up and he talked in front of the senate today he had wanted to open bva. Open the v. A. He had four or five other subjects. You know what he is going to do . He is going to use that when he runs for office again, saying, i supported all the stuff. But he is one of the key players that started this problem. A singlebelieve democrat in the house or senate talked about this. They are using these piecemeal pieces to use on their campaigning, saying how we supported the people, we supported the people. You put the people in this problem to start with. Host the bill the caller was talking about. Two of them came up today. The house passed the bill funding a portion of the federal Emergency Management agency and they also passed a bill today that would fund the women and infant Children Nutrition program. Coming up tomorrow, they take up a bill that will ensure retroactive pay for federal workers who have been furloughed. In the days to come, these bills for the fda, border security, head start, National Intelligence programs, indian affairs, nuclear security, the weather service, and funds for schools. We will show you some of the floor debate that preceded the vote on the women and infant children bill. 2013 agricultural appropriations bill provided sufficient funding even after sequestration totaling 6. 5 billion to ensure that all participants receive both nutritious food and Nutrition Services that are necessary for their health and wellbeing. Before the United States department of agriculture completely shut down its website , the information could be found on their website citing that shortterm funding was available for a week through the Contingency Reserve Fund and other available resources. Some states have indicated they have sufficient funds to at least work several more weeks. Other states are not so fortunate. Many of us have seen headlines for how to receive phone calls and have received phone calls from constituents who reported their appointment at their local clinic has been canceled or clinics are being closed. Numerous times we have heard our colleagues across the aisle cannoted that wic continue without appropriation for fy 2014, and this will leave millions of women, infants, and children without proper nutrition. Is a chance, madam speaker, for my colleagues to join us in keeping this Important Program fully functioning and operational. Resolution we have on the floor this afternoon, we will help 8. 7 million low income women, infants, and children who are nutritionally at risk to continue to receive nutrition they need. This resolution will keep clinics across the nation open. No more appointments will have to be canceled. I want to thank every member of the house that wants to provide let me rephrase, i believe that every member of this house of representatives believes that wic participants partisans need and should get what they need. Supporty colleagues to this resolution that we supply adequate nutrition for women, infants, and children. I reserve the balance of my time. The gentleman reserves. The chair asks that all conversations be taken off the floor. The gentleman from california is recognized. Madam speaker, i rise and request as much time as i may consume. The gentleman is recognized. I rise inhair, opposition to this piecemeal approach to funding our government. I am Ranking Member on the subcommittee on agricultural and food and Drug Administration and related agencies. And the bill dealing with all those issues is on the house floor. We did our job. The chairman so eloquently spoke about the committee fulfilled its commitments to review the whole budget. We passed it out of committee and even adopted a rule to bring it to the floor in june. But we did not move the bill because the timing with the now expired farm bill wanted to hold everything off. I am just wondering, mr. Speaker, when are they going to announce conferees on the the farm bill . The senate has done it, not once, but twice. We could be bringing you the full bill and not just this piecemeal. This what ie bit of like and that what i like, this menu of choice. Ch sort of leaves everything is out. The problem with this bill, nobody can challenge my support on wic. I am a returned peace corps volunteer. If there is anyone who got training on the need to feed them in, infants, and children, my experience living in south america. But this does nothing for the 48 Million People currently needing stampsance, what will , what we call the snap program. It does nothing for the rest of kids in families who may be hungry and cannot get access to school lunch. This does nothing to open the door for federal workers who have people in rural agriculture who produces produce the food. Remediesing to provide for rural areas of colorado and california ravaged by flood and cleanup andthe restoration to prevent floods from coming in this winter. This does nothing for the farm loannts Service Agency borrowers who need loans to put their live stocks or brains or commodities into the program that is going to help feed the women, infants, and children. So just one little piece they carved out and suggested congress do this. By the way, and i want you all since 1993 wehis, have passed a hundred and 11 crs. Not one of them had this battle, had this conditionality, had the shutdown of the government. None of them. Why now . What is different . You want to take away the president s healthcare bill. That was enacted three and a half years ago. You pass a cr the year it was adopted. You pass a cr after it was adopted. You pass a cr after that. So what is it . Lets stop being so mean and so broken about the ability to keep our government open. I reserve the balance of my time. Host the house passed that bill on funding for the Nutrition Program for women and infant children by a vote of 2442164. Including 22 democrats voting in favor of the bill. The house is back tomorrow morning at 9 00 eastern. Lets get one more call this evening on the Government Shutdown. Chula vista, california, peter on the republican line. I wanted to address the issue of, i am retired navy and get a suspension pension and and on Social Security. I think it is all automated. I do want to address the aspect of this whole situation. I am sure we will muddle through and in the end we will resolve whybut i cannot understand the people who support the democratic side, why they accept the double standard. I think that is why maybe president obama does not want to negotiate, because he would have to come up with the answer of why he is giving exemptions to all these companies and labor unions, whoever he is giving it to. He has seven exemptions. I do not think that is right. It is a double standard. He is suppose to be enforcing the law, but when he gets a call from a company that wants to be exempt, that is not enforcing. I do not think that is the right way to approach it. Host peter will get the last word tonight. Thanks for your calls. More on washington journal at 9 00 a. M. Eastern. The house will be in early at 9 00 a. M. Eastern. They will take up the bill dealing with back pay for further workers. Also a tweet late this evening from the majority leaders office, eric cantor, saying the will take of a bill tomorrow morning to affirm the right of military chaplains to conduct services during the shutdown. Weekly, we bring you our program newsmakers which normally airs sundays at 10 00 a. M. And six a clock p. M. Eastern. We will show it to you earlier this week with the chairman of the House Financial Services committee, Jeb Hensarling. Conducted earlier today. [captioning performed bynational captioning institute] [captions Copyright Nationalcable satellite corp. 2013] congressman Jeb Hensarling, republican of texas. Part of the Republican Leadership team in the house of representatives. Thank you for being with us. Good morning. Let me introduce our reporters. Today and Washington Bureau chief for the washington journal. We are all interested as the debt ceiling date moves closer, what you see as the endgame for what is going on with the standoff on the budget in washington. How do you see this all coming together and ending . Regrettably, my crystal ball is a little fuzzy. House republicans have now put one offer on the table, a second offer, a third offer, a fourth offer. We are not through negotiating, but we are through negotiating with ourselves. Regrettably, the president called congressional leaders over yesterday to tell them in person what he already told them in public, that was we refuse to negotiate. Ultimately, i do not believe that is what the American People believe in in divided government. House republicans won a few simple things. We expect to negotiate under our constitution. It is congress that has the power of the purse, not the power of the rubber stamp. House republicans will negotiate in good faith. We are not going to rubber stamp what necessarily what the president and senator harry reid want to do. Second of all, obviously obama care is a huge, divisive factor within our nation. Regrettably, for house going away it is not as long as president obama is president. But we said, if obamacare is going to be imposed upon the nation it ought to be imposed equally. Equal protection under the law. No special deals for big business, big labor unions. No special deals for washington elites while working americans are having to suffer through this program program. Alternately, this is about tens fellowions of our countrymen, underemployed and unemployed in this week, tepid recovery. And trillions and trillions of debt. We are on the road to bankruptcy. People in washington say, dont rock the boat, put this off until tomorrow. We cannot put this off until tomorrow. The opportunity on the continuing resolution and the debt ceiling is to deal with improving our economy to put us on the road to fiscal solvency today. Today is the time to seize the moment. Congressman, what as you pointed out, you had four bills. They rejected everyone. What is it you realistically hope to a combo should now . Give us a specific proposal you think might actually work were not sure anything is going to work if the president and harry reid refused to negotiate. In the press today, the administration said they really do not care how long the Government Shutdown last because we are winning. They take a political view that this is about politics if it is the republic, about citizens who are suffering, im not sure they go to the negotiating table. If obamacare is going to be imposed upon the rest of the country, employers, big businesses should not get a one year reprieve if their employees do not. If obamacare is good enough for working americans, it ought to be good enough for the president and the Vice President , the cap, the white house, and members of congress. There should not be any special carveout. Otherwise, in our budget we have a number of items. The socalled supercommittee. There are lots of ideas on the table we are willing to negotiate in order to promote Economic Growth, get our country back to work. And again, to do something about this explosion of debt. More debt in four years under president obama than our nations first 200. As one economist famously said, something that is unsustainable will one day cease. We have to deal with it today. BudgetHouse Republicans written by congressman paul ryan we have hundreds of ideas that we are willing to negotiate in good faith but cannot negotiate a loan. You say you are willing to negotiate in good faith. The house passed a budget, the senate also passed a budget. Why want the house negotiate that budget . That aree conferees appointed, happy to talk about the budget, the cr, the debt ceiling. Nobody is showing up. Afind it somewhat ironic that body that did not even bother to follow the law and ignore passing a budget for four years now all of a sudden is lecturing the house about budget matters. I find that somewhat ironic. Congressman, i take it from what you said that the goal is no longer to deFund Obamacare and no longer to delay the individual mandate. If i could interrupt, this is always the goal. Democrats have been working on their version of a government controlled health care system, i would argue, since harry truman. Certainly at least since hillary care. It is unrealistic to think that after three years the republicans are going to throw in the towel. But the law is the law. Isbably 95 of obamacare what is known as automatic spending or mandatory spending. So regrettably under the law no, we are not going to quit fighting for this, but at this point if the president turns down these other offers, all were saying is at least apply the law equally. The president has already done 1100 specialinterest carveouts. That should not be happening. There is a carveout for big business and labor unions. That should not be happening. First forrveout washington elites. Why isnt the president the first to sign up for obamacare . He is not subject to it. I understand your frustration the senate will not accept the versions of the continuing resolutions the house passed. At least they voted on those. I am wondering why the house will not vote on a clean extension of the continuing resolution the pen it senate has passed. They have voted on it. They have table a number of these measures. It is important to note that if House Republicans it is House Republicans who passed legislation to open our National Parks. The president says no, i will veto that. House republicans have passed legislation to make sure our veterans get their benefits and the white house has threatened to veto. We have legislation to ensure the National Institutes of forth that is critical work patients with cancer, including children, and now we know senator harry reid on cnn when asked why he would not open up the nih, even if you could help one child struggling with cancer, the answer is, why would i want to do that . It seems to me this is a rather cynical ploy. The white house is quoted in the papers saying they do not care how long the shutdown lasts. It is regrettable. So we have passed bills, bill after bill to keep the government open. We have disagreed. It is our fourth offer on two provisions of obamacare. If it is good enough for working americans, it ought to be good enough for the washington elites whom opposed the bill. There is a oneyear reprieve for employees employers. There ought to be a oneyear reprieve for employees. That is a position that would be overwhelmingly supported by the American People. Nowink you know we are getting 25, 30, 35 democrats in the house to say enough is enough, lets get the Government Back open and they are supporting these provisions in the house. I want to challenge you a little bit on the statement that there is a carveout for washington elites. What you are really talking about is the employer contribution that the federal government has always made to employees of congress and members of congress. You are saying now they should no longer get simply because obama is what im saying, right now members of congress would have the the only people in individual pull that were receiving an employer contribution. He only people if you want to try to convince the American People that somehow washington elites are getting the same deal, you can carry on that case. It is not the way i see it. There is a broader issue here. It is not just members of congress. Why isnt the white house involved . Why isnt the president , the Vice President , the cabinet, the white house personnel. Why arent they part of obamacare . One thing the American People are cynical about is washington elites imposing laws on others that they do not impose on themselves. I just want to be treated equally under the law. We now understand opm, i am not sure, people will have to look into it, are now putting members of congress and their staff and their staff into the Small Business exchange. Last time i looked, government and congress was not a Small Business. I do not know they have the Legal Authority to do this. Thes a simple issue, what level of their compensation ought to be. I think a clear reading of the law, it is hard to figure out how you could be having an employer contribution in the individual pull. I just do not think opm has the Legal Authority to do that. The law has so many different specialinterest provisions and sweetheart deals. So lets make it clear in the law. Want to lose my employer subsidy, but i do want to follow the law. 15 minutes left. Congressman, you do not have to look far beyond the Government Shutdown to see the next problem, that the country is close to hitting the debt ceiling. Given that deadline is approaching very quickly, do you think it is now likely that both issues, the Government Shutdown and debt ceiling increase the white house ekes, will be resolved together . I would say with time on the clock, i do not know exactly when the socalled date will take place. Treasury has the opportunity to manage that. The date is whatever secretary lew claims the date will be. Frankly, there may be a likelihood there. Aain, House Republicans have bill, hr 807, the full faith and credit act, to make sure america never defaults on its bonds. No default on sovereign debt. And the white house issued a veto threat. Why would they do that . I can only imagine yet again they want to use it for leverage for their vision of government, their vision of spending. That is not going to happen. Whatever passes for fiscal responsibility in this town, which is not much, that is attached to the debt ceiling. It is a very important vote. Act, the budget control again, whatever passes for fiscal responsibility in washington dc is attached to the debt ceiling. The president says, i refuse to negotiate. Ok, fine. Lets at least take to fall off the table. The other day i saw something i never thought i would see in my lifetime. A president of the United States appearing to spook markets. He is asked on national television. His response was, they do not take it as seriously as they have should. I have never seen that before. The problem Financial Professionals inside the administration see with the full faith and credit act is it would amount to paying off chinese bondholders but not guaranteeing other creditors of the government get paid. And it would make people in the bond market reluctant to buy bonds if they are under a legal cloud as to the provision might be disputed in court. There is a practical problem was not raising the debt ceiling. Do you not agree . I do not know what could be clearer under the law than taking sovereign debt, taking our u. S. Bonds out of the debt ceiling calculation. I am unaware of any legal cloud. I am aware of a veto threat. I am a where of a president of the United States who clearly wants to try to hold our sovereign debt hostage. , as ind rating agencies understand, moodys and one other, they get it. They understand this is about sovereign debt. The American People do not equate bonds with funding the next irs star trek video, the travel expenses for the alabama watermelon queen, pottery classes in morocco. There is something very different between a Bond Obligation and a budget priority. To bankruptcy. D everybody says, lets do it another day. Others in the Administration Just want to turn off the debt ceiling boat. Did not havereece a debt ceiling boat. Detroit did not have a debt ceiling boat. It is like turning off the smoke alarm when the fire breaks out. I want to press you on that a little more. You mentioned moodys. Moodys said that even if we prioritize the debt, november 1 when we have a payment due they will not be enough receipts in the federal treasury to pay both the bondholders and Social Security recipients, much less Veterans Health care and military salaries and all of the other things you have exempted from the shutdown. Than this be even worse the shutdown . The full faith and credit act , in accordance with the constitution, exquisitely exams explicitly exempts Social Security. It would not be a part of the calculation. At some point we have to deal with this debt crisis. There are those who always want to put it off to the next day. Inm sure there were voices greece, in detroit, saying put it off for another day. But no, we have to do this today. I am saying this not just as a congressman, but as the father of a 10yearold son and 11 yearold daughter. On the verge of being the first generation in americas history to leave the next generation with less freedom, fewer opportunities, and a lower standard of living. There is no economist in the land who believes her current spending trajectory is sustainable. Nobody. Congressional budget office, general accountability office, even theonomists president of the United States has said the drivers of our debt are medicare, medicaid, and health care. Nothing comes close. I give him and a for candor but f for effort. What im hearing, lets just turn off the smoke alarm. Lets cut the wire. Lets take it down. No, lets begin to deal with the problem. That raises the question. There is a chance that way what might emerge here is a return to a conversation about a big budget deal. Maybe now the grand bargain people talked about a couple years ago, but something meaningful that would at least it the issues back on the table at once. Is that a likely prospect . We cannot even get harry reid and the president of the United States to open negotiations. My motherinlaw famously said the least you can do in life to show up. Now, we cannot get the president and harry reid to even show up. That is an impasse. I do not think that is a position that is acceptable, alternately, to the American People. I would hope people can come together in good faith and negotiate without compromising their principles, copper mines in their policies compromising their policies. Be any we hope there can element of fundamental tax reform to this. I served on the supercommittee that unfortunately did not succeed, but i will tell you this we came closer on a bipartisan basis to coming together on fundamental tax reform probably than any other item. Has put atnt himself least a handful of very small, minimal entitlement reforms on the table. So they would at least show up to negotiate. I think there would be something to negotiate over. Republicans, we are not going to sit idly by, not going to rubberstamp their plans. We are going to do something to get people back to work and we are going to deuce something do something to get us off this road to national bankruptcy. I wonder if maybe your party has not had more success in this arena than you are giving yourself credit. Discretionary spending has declined each of the last two years for the First Time Since the korean war. There has been some progress on the spending front. I am wondering if that is an argument for continuing the conversation. Because you are enjoying something of a victory and may be declaring a victory for yourself. I am happy to declare a little bit of a victory. Relative to history, i am very proud of the fact that for the first time in my lifetime the federal spending is actually decreased two years in a row. That has never happened before. That is a great thing, and i celebrated. The challenges relative to the size of the problem, it still qualifies as something close to a rounding error. The bottom line is, we need Economic Growth. The lesson affordable Affordable Care act, we are getting mired in 1. 5 to 2. 5 gdp when the norm is three percent to 3. 5 . I think we are capable of 4. 5 four percent to five percent. On the spending side, you cannot have entitlement programs that grow at five percent, six percent, seven percent per annum with Economic Growth at 1. 5 , two percent. At some point the math does not work. I would hope the president and his people would come to the negotiating table and negotiate in good faith. Gives congressn the power of the purse. This is what we are supposed to do. Lawmakers make laws. We are debating spending bills and borrowing money to pay for spending bills. So far all we hear from the president and senator reid as we are not negotiating. Let me ask you about the politics of this. Speaker boehner has floated the idea that the debt limit voters so serious that if he had to he would cross the aisle and get democratic votes to pass a debt limit increase. Youre the former chairman of the gop conference. Would you support that . Is this a test of Speaker Boehner . I think that story is inaccurate because i spoke to this eager about what he said. About what he said. House republicans have passed a bill that says they will never be default on the bonds, there will never be a default on sovereign debt. We encouraged senator reid and the president to take it up. It is a fact that the president has issued a veto threat. The speaker has said before, we are not going to sit here and continue to press on the accelerator on the National Road the bankruptcy. Again, default on sovereign debt is totally unacceptable. But we are not going to borrow more money to pay for poverty classes pottery classes in morocco and the travel expenses of the alabama watermelon queen and thousands of items you can find in the budget that are not going to pass the smell test or the laugh test or the fiscal responsibility test of the American People. So again, i hope the president and senator harry reid will be reasonable about this. But that is why we have a debt ceiling vote, to correct where we are. Questionow, the real here, as you suggested yourself, is not spending on things like the alabama watermelon queen, but entitlements. You have suggested that the president put a few things on the table in his own budget this year that start dealing with these entitlements. Is there a reasonable chance that conversation will get underway in the next few weeks . Is there a tradeoff to be made here where you give the democrats a little bit on spending items they care about, and in return they give you some of the things the president himself has already offered on an tiedemann spending . I suppose, having been a member of congress i continue to have high hopes. I have lower expectations. There is something to negotiate here. When i was on the supercommittee, tax increases are anathema to me as a republican and conservative. I believe they are harmful to the economy. I would be willing to give up something if there would be fundamental entitlement return because that is really the great challenge. How do we get Quality Health care, quality retirement security, at a price that is not tank the economy and bankrupt children . The president at least acknowledges the problem. Are notident proposals any type of structural reform. Baby steps. Ll i hope there is something to negotiate over there. The president and other to works, have voted with us on a fairer, flatter, simpler, more competitive tax road code. We cannot negotiate with a president and a Senate Majority leader who refused to negotiate. We are not going to negotiate with ourselves anymore. Final short questions. Last time you were asked about this on television you quickly change the subject. But i want to read you something. The Federal Reserve president of the dallas Federal Reserve bank, richard fisher. You may know him. I know him well. He says the white house has mishandled this terribly in the sizing this process. You agree with his assessment janet yellen would be a fine choice for Federal Reserve chairman . I do not see a great benefit for me to comment on somebody who is yet to be formally nominated by the president. I think very highly of richard fisher. He is a great public servant. I would be happy to talk about the texas a m football game. Will you comment on the process . Decline and will wait until whoever they choose to nominate is nominated. I will say it appears to be a unique process the white house has chosen. Last question, the simplest question. Why not go ahead and fund the government for six or eight weeks while these broader conversations we are discussing can commence . I would ask them the very same question since we are offering bills that fund 98 to 99 of what they have asked for. Now we are passing bills on an individual basis that would open National Parks, ensure veterans give benefits, ensure the nih continues cancer research. We have to ask them why they are voting against them. I do not think ultimately that will be a tenable position with the American People. Again, we want to negotiate. If obamacare is the law of the land, let it be imposed fairly on all americans. Otherwise we have to get america back to work and offbeat road to national bankruptcy. Thank you very much for being with us. Seeds of anany accord . Frankly, not many. Has been aweek typical example of congress not being able to agree on the things they agree on because of the things they disagree on. What we heard today was the same pingponging of the argument back and forth. The the ball is on the other side scored. He several times criticized the white house for not negotiating. What has been your view, watching how the president has been approaching this . It is interesting. The positions are almost reversed. The white house view is we can negotiate once you reopen the government. Your public and position is we will not reopen the government into we have negotiations about the conditions on which we reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. Between these two positions, and they are polar opposites, and he needs there needs to be something. The view in the white house is essentially the republicans got themselves into this mess by tying obamacare into funding the government. They will have to figure out how to get themselves out of it. In that sense, congas and handsome in his right. Selling n and congressman henserling is right. They acknowledged they would not gain much ground . President as long as obama is president , it is his signature icon was meant as president , they will not get a repeal. Was a repeal, than 80 funding. Now they are chipping on the edges and obama has held the line on each one. There does not appear to be anything on obamacare that obama is willing to it reflects what republicans will acknowledge privately as political reality. We will not be able to deFund Obamacare. We will not be able to delay the individual mandate. We are now down to the fallback positions. Lets make sure congressmen have to pay as much for their health care. Secondly, maybe the democrats would agree to repeal a tax being imposed on medical devices to help pay for obamacare. Which would add to the deficit. Those are the only two things that are realistic on the republican wish list. I am not sure they are very realistic. An opportunity to put obamacare on trial. The irony is we have had this rollout in the past week that has had a lot of glitches and, frankly, the shutdown has overshadowed what would have been a lot more stories about the legitimate problems with obamacare. There are a lot of legitimate problems with obamacare. Just not the ones the republicans are talking about. Lets talk politics. He accused the democrats are taking the political view in their approach of this. What are the politics of the republicans about what is happening . A lot of smart republicans warned their own party that this its a gotl into a position where they try to achieve an unrealistic goal, defunding obamacare, by shutting down the government, that was going to be a political loss. Have to say that there is the danger if the white house overplays its hand. What republicans are trying to do, and what we heard congas and handsome and try to do, make the unwillingness to negotiate the issue not your public ends the issue the republicans took. Might be anger that problem for them. We can talk about who is right and who is wrong. To voters it is everyone in washington mess this up again. There is some danger for both parties. The difference between this crisis and the previous crises is that we have been through the fiscal cliff, through the budget control act, debt limit debate of 2011. The difference is obama negotiated in each one of those. Frankly, fromack, the Democratic Party, from progressives who say you are giving up too much, giving up too much spending. So that is really what is changing this dynamic. Republicans push the limit because they expected obama would continue to negotiate. Now he stood firm. The journal covers the markets. The congressmen suggested the president was intentionally trying to roil markets. To some extent he was. What the president said in an interview this week was the markets are too complacent, they ought to be more worried about this than they are. I do not think the markets take next on cspan, some of what happened on the capitol hill over the Government Shutdown. First a meeting in the house over a series of shortterm spunneding bills to Fund Specific agencies and programs. House leaders talking to reporters about the targeted bills and the need for negotiations with the white house and senate, followed by house Democratic Leaders talking to reporters about how they can get the senatepassed bill to the house floor for an up or down vote. Today in the house, members began work on a number of bills to fund parts of the federal government as the shutdown entered day four. Some of the measures included funding for fema, head start, low income Nutrition Programs, and retroactive pay for federal fur allowed workers. The rule provides for 40 minutes of debate between the Ranking Member and the chairman for debates. Each rule allows for 40 minutes of debate between the chairman and Ranking Member of the committee on oversight for government reform for hr 2233 and the federal employee retroactive fairness act. The rule provides a motion to recommit for each bill or joint resolution. Additionally, the rule extends sameday authority for resolutions reported by the rules committee through the legislative day of october 21, 2013, thus continuing to allow the house the flexibility to continue to address the Government Shutdown. Finally the rule permits the speaker to entertain motions to suspend the rules until october 20. Here we are again, mr. Speaker. Day four of a Government Shutdown. Unfortunately for the American People, not much is changed. The senate is still unwilling to consider legislation that would reopen parts of the government. I do want to add an exception and thank our friends in the Upper Chamber for agreeing with us to exempt the military from these counts, both civilian and uniform. The senate also, however, is still unwilling to go to conference to discuss the serious issues facing this country. The senate is unwilling to consider any of the five pieces of legislation the house passed in the last two days which will rehope parts of our government. The house will bring legislation to the floor to meet the needs of american citizens. Todays rule will allow for the consideration of resolutions that reopened the bureau of indian education, the bureau of indian affair, the Indian Health service, the wic program, the National Weather center, fema, the intelligence agencies, impact aid, head start, and the list goes on and on. In addition, mr. Speaker, this rule makes clear to the commitment of the 800,000 federal workers currently fur allowed they will indeed be paid. Its not their fault that washington is dysfunctional, that congress cant agree on the size and scope of government. If they are caught in the cross fire wondering if theyll be able to afford their mortgages and pay their utility bills. Mr. Speaker, that simply isnt fair. Hr 2233 of which im a proud cosponsor would codify what we have done in every previous Government Shutdown, pay our federal employees from the date of the Government Shutdown on. And i want to compliment in a bipartisan fashion our friends mr. Moran, mr. Wolf, who worked together on this measure, brought it forward, and gathered many dozens of cosponsors from both sides of the aisle. Quite frankly, i think their example of bipartisanship and working together is something we could all learn from. Mr. Speaker, democrats and republicans alike agree thats the responsible thing to do. House republicans are working to deal with the real World Problems of our constituents, republicans are working to reopen the government. However, we lack a willing partner in the senate and in the president. Every time we have attempted to negotiate with them, they have told us to accept their plan. Theyve even rebutted our attempts to go to conference. Therefore, House Republicans have been left with little choice except passing the number of smaller bills to see if the senate would be willing to accept those. Again, i remark on one occasion with respect to the military, they did indeed accept one. I would urge them to do that with the others. I urge support for the rule and the underlying legislation and i reserve the balance of my time. Gentlemans time is reserved. Gentle lady from new york . Thank you, very much, plk. I thank minute friend for yielding me the time and yield me the time as i might consume. The gentle lady is recognized. Thank you very much. Unless the silent members of the majority, todays debate is a fate acomp li. The last two days, the members of the majority said publicly they wished this Government Shutdown would end. A call of 218 democrats and republicans has publicly declared they are ready to vote on the clean cr and 218 would be the majority and they would pass it. Thats why the powerful minority has taken the government hostage is doing all it can again today to prevent the senate cr from coming to the floor. None of it makes sense. Last night the rules Committee Proposed a rule for the 11 rules today. They didnt go to the single committee the subcommittee process, the subcommittees, the committee would have given both republicans and democrats an opportunity to weigh in on these measures. And remember half of the population of the United States is represented by democrats and that in the last election, democrats candidates for congress achieved a million more votes than our republican friends. But we are shut out of the process. Indeed, the bills were written yesterday afternoon, brought straight to the rules committee as so many are lately in order to be rushed to the floor. During our hearing, a colleague promised that the records approach would continue. Even suggesting that we could see 150 more of these piece mill bills before the majority agrees to end the Government Shutdown. That should take us to sometime this mainly october of next year. The minority can stop the will of the house. Unlike the senate, the house can only be held back so long. Thanks to the democrats spirit, the agenda of our rules in majority will always succeed. For the more than the 218 members, a majority, who have expressed a desire to vote on the clean cr, our most powerful tool is voting down the previous question and bringing the clean senate cr to the floor for to vote on. Now, earlier this week, my democrat colleagues and i urged the chamber to vote no on the previous question so that we could bring the senate bill to the floor. Not a single republican joined our cause. Today were going to give you another chance. Following the debate on the rule, we will have a chance to vote down the previous question. And while that may simply be legislative language, to most people what that will do is give us an opportunity, those of us who very strongly believe this government should work an opportunity to bring the cr, bring the sequestration bring the shutdown to a close, and put everybody back to work. We can actually i wanted to see it by the oechbd this day that we accomplish that. Because words are no longer enough. Those members of the majority who claim that they want to end the Government Shutdown get the opportunity today to stand up and vote. As i said the other day when we had the same opportunity, i would like for them to put the voting cards where their mouths are. I encourage every member of the chamber to reflect on the damage thats been wrought on our nation because of the shutdown. And the damage that will ensue if we wait another day. The shutdown is costing the nation 300 million a day. And more than 800,000 workers are furloughed without pay. Were going to vote to pay them when the shutdown ends. A logical person would say why dont you bring them back to work if theyre going to be paid anyway, let them work . Theres no answer to that. There must be some reason here available to only a few people as to why the majority wants to keep this country the Government Shutdown. We have to end it because the state department and intelligence employees need to come back on the job. The hurricane is barreling down right now on the state of louisiana. 80 of the fema workers were furloughed. Nasa had to turn off the mars rover which is giving us so much information about the universe, stopping all of the Space Exploration in its trackings. I think one of the best things i have read to describe what were doing in this house was said by a republican. Because there is no plan here, there is no end game here. Theyre saying that what they are doing is laying the track ahead of the speeding train as it bears down on them. The majority starting the shutdown because they are dead set on the Affordable Care act. They think they can still get there. All of the issues about the Health Care Law, its a law that would hurt American Workers is absolutely turning out not to be true. In the last week, two of our nations Biggest Companies have responded to the Affordable Care act by giving tens of thousands of their part time employees fulltime jobs. Guess who they are . One is the largest employer in the United States, well markled. They are raising 35,000 of their part time employees to become fulltime employees to make them eligible for Health Insurance. Walt disney announced that 427 employees at disney world will be hired who will be hired as fulltime employees will be given access to the Health Insurance plan. And we hear all the time that Delta Airlines, and ive really got research this, Delta Airlines has said, they tell me, that the Affordable Care plan would cost them 100 million a year. I sure would like to know how that is possible unless they plan to hire 70 million new employees, which is certainly good for the employment. But i see no earthly reason for them to do that. We need to know whether thats true or not, since all of the rest of the dire predictions have turned out not to be. The Affordable Care act is working. But because the majority, the government is not. And its time for the majority to give up this losing game. I strongly urge my colleagues to vote no on the rule. The underlying legislation, and so importantly, i vote urge a novote on the previous question. And then, mr. Speaker, we can bring the clean senate cr to the house floor as we should have done weeks ago and end this Government Shutdown today. I reserve the balance of my time. The gentle ladys time is reserved. The gentleman from oklahoma. I thank mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as i may consume. Gentleman is recognized. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I addressed a couple of points that my good friend raises. Before i do, i want to agree with her that i think we all think that the government ought to be open. I dont think theres Much Division about that. And folks have actually tried to do that on our side of the aisle every single piece of legislation we brought to the floor during this period is either kept the government open in whole or in part. And i suspect well continue to try to do that. So its not the aim of either side here to shut down the government. In terms of the Affordable Health care act, i dont support it. I voted against it. I voted several times to repeal it and delay it. Ill agree with my friend on that too in the sense that there are times when we have actually worked together on both sides of the aisle to change it. My friends like to quite often mention theres been 41 or 42 efforts to, quote, repeal, delay, refund the bill. But they usually forget to add, and what frankly some people on our side, seven of those have succeeded. That is the democratic senate, democratic president agreed with them. And the proposals we have on the table now in terms of the Affordable Health care act are in imminently sensible and overwhelmingly popular. The first one is quite simply we just dont think that political appointees and elected officials ought to be treated different lip than other americans. We can get to a big fight about health care, but the reality is, right now, under the law, members of congress and their staff can bring subsidies with them on the exchange. No other american can do that. Now, we can do this either way as far as im concerned. I could lead them back as federal employees and they would be treated like every other federal employee. Thats an acceptable solution to me. Or we can allow other americans to bring subsidies on the exchange like members of congress. But the underlying principal is we ought to treat them all the same. Washington politically shouldnt be treated differently than the average american. Second is very simple. Were not talking about delaying all of obama care. But if were going to allow big businesses to wait a year before they implement what theyre required to do, if we allow 1100 organizations, many labor unions to do it, why shouldnt we allow the average american at their choice to delay as well. If they dont want to delay, they can go on to the exchanges, the subsidies are still there. The tax programs are still there. Why shouldnt the average american have the same privilege that weve bestowed on big business, big labor, and countless other organizations . Thats what were talking about. Now my friends points here, i suspect this is true the debt ceiling a little further down the road, the democratic approach is very simple. Do everything i want and then im willing to negotiate. Well, we would like to sit down and talk now and see if we can find some Common Ground. Weve got negotiators, conferees, technical title, available to sit down, find Common Ground. Were not asking for something that is unreasonable in my view. And were certainly not proposing something that, you know, is outside of the scope of the type of things weve been able to agree on before. The president , i want to add, is taking the same approach that the senate has taken with regard to the continuing resolution with the debt ceiling. Hes just simply said we have to we have to raise it unilaterally. Thats not a particularly popular vote, probably on either side of the aisle, certainly not on my side of the aisle. But im willing to work with the president on the debt ceiling. I did it in 2011. I just want to note for the record thats something he never did when he was a member of the United States senate. He didnt vote to raise the debt ceiling when he had the opportunity to do it. Instead he engaged in a lecture about debt. Probably a lecture that was needed. But regardless, he did not do for george bush what hes asking us to do for him. Im willing to do that. Im willing to work with him on the debt ceiling. If you voted for the ryan budget, you envision something the deet debt ceiling has to be raised while you deal with the underlying deficit. I want to do something be in negotiation with the president on what to do on that deficit. I dont think thats an unreasonable position. So i think the real central issue is not the Affordable Health care act, not the debt ceiling. And frankly, not even the Government Shutdown as serious as that is. The real issue is, well, my friends and the president of the United States simply come to the table to negotiate . Will they put a counterproposal out there . Or is it simply going to be we insist getting our way in full tall time . Dont think thats an acceptable way to to arrive at a Common Ground and i dont think its likely to succeed. So with that, mr. Speaker, i will reserve the balance of my time. The gentlemans time is reserved. Gentle lady from new york. Plk, im so pleased to yield four minutes to the gentleman from massachusetts, the incredible member of the committee on rule, mr. Mcgovern. Gentleman from massachusetts is recognized for four minutes. Thank you very much. I thank the distinguished member for the time. Mr. Speaker, here we are on day four of the republican shutdown of the peoples government. Day four. The other day after meeting with the president at the white house, Speaker Boehner said, and i quote, at some point we have to allow the process that our founders gave us to work out, end quote. Mr. Speaker, ive studied American History too. What the Republican Leadership is doing with this rule is a million miles away from what the founders had in mind. I am trying to find it comforting that Speaker Boehner said he wanted to raise the debt ceiling. He also said he didnt want to shut down the government. Here we are. I dont know what senator cruz is saying privately, which is important because hes apparently calling all of the shots around here. The rule extends marshal law rule until october 31. They have thrown the rules and traditions of this house into the trash can for the next 2 1 2 weeks. Thats four days after we default on our obligations. That should make all of us very, very, very nervous. The rule also makes an order 11 separate bills, many of which were never considered in the committee or the house floor, under a closed process with no amendments. Now, i ive been on and around the rules committee for quite a few years, mr. Speaker, but i have never ever seen a rule like this. I find it astounding that the republicans have suddenly found religion on the need to go to conference on the budget. Because for months and months and months and month, they have refused to appoint budget negotiators. But suddenly, the American People rise up in outrage over their tactics, and the poll numbers fall off of a cliff, our republican friends all of a sudden want to negotiate. Well, theres a very easy way to get past this bring up the short term clean continuing resolution that has already passed the senate at republican sequester numbers, no less, bring it up and well pass it with a bipartisan vote and end this unnecessary republican shutdown. Its simple. But in not only mr. Speaker, not only is this process awful, so are many of the bills made in order under this rule. I want to talk about one in particular that has its a its the one that provides funding for w. I. C. , the women, infant, and childrens Nutrition Program. After months of trying to cut 40 billion from the snap program, after months of demonizing poor people, after months of trying to slash Food Assistance programs across the board, republicans would like us all to believe that they care about hung rip america all of a sudden. Give me a break, give me a break, mr. Speaker. I said to my republican friends, where have you been on this issue . Because of the sequester, weve seen wic clinics close and participation in the program fall. Fewer and fewer low income women and children are getting help, the nutritious food they need. This bill does not fix that. The National Wic Association urges the house to oppose h. J. R. E. S. 75 calling it a cynical ploy to use low income nutritionally at risk mothers and Young Children as political pawns for political ends, end quote. They are right, mr. Speaker, this is a cynical, cynical ploy. Enough is enough. I urge my colleagues to defeat this rule and pass the clean cr and let the American People get on with their lives. I would say to the speaker of the house, all you need to do all you need to do is schedule a vote. You dont even have to vote for it. If you schedule it, it will pass in a bipartisan manner and it will end the shutdown once and for all. Please, mr. Speaker, practice a little democracy in the peoples house. Please, mr. Speaker, give us a vote. Give us a vote. I yield back my time. The gentleman from oklahoma. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as i may consume. The gentleman is recognized. Just a quick point. My friend is quite eloquent and i know frankly very passionate and very well meaning and very expert when he talks about Nutrition Programs where he spent a great deal of time. But for the record, its worth noting that we have increased Nutrition Programs, robby, by 400 , since george bush became president. We doubled them when bush was president. Doubled them again while the president president obama has been in office. What the Republican Program is talking about is a 5 cut after a 400 increase based on reforms. So i think its maybe not quite so dire, but, again, i recognize my friends good work in this area and hope we get the opportunity to get to conference, have that discussion. I suspect the bill comes back, may be closer to his liking than when the bill comes out. Certainly yield to my friend. I thank the gentleman for yielding. My objection with the republican approach to the snap program is that 3. 8 Million People will lose their benefits, 170,000 veterans would lose their benefits. And we have a problem with hunger in america. We have close to 50 Million People who are hungry, 17 million are kids. We should be ashamed of that. We should be coming together to solve the problem, not making it worse. Thats where my frustration comes from. Reclaiming my time. The rolls have been going up in a period that were supposed to be recovering. And i think that i think we have some genuine problems in this program in terms of reform. But, again, thats the initial proposal. Its not out of bounds considering a 400 increase to have a 5 cutback. Well wait and see what comes out of the conference committee. Will you yield gentleman will have some time of of his own in a minute. With that, i reserve the balance of my time. Im delighted to yield five minutes from the gentleman from maryland, democratic whip, mr. Hoyer. I thank the Ranking Rules Committee for yielding and i thank ms. Slaughter for the leadership shes shown and the work shes been doing. Mr. Speaker, the people want their government open. A government of the people and for the people and by the people ought to be open. They want their dedicated federal employees that have been unfairly furloughed to go back to work. And they want to end the shutdown that is having negative consequences four economy and for our National Security, and for the confidence of americans that their government can work. The only way to do so is by passing a clean get the government open funding bill to keep the government open while we discuss, negotiate, put forward our positions, a longer Term Agreement on the budget. The senate has acted. And acted responsibly by passing a bill that will keep the government operating. They pass that bill with the number that was suggested by the Republican Party, mr. Speaker. Now, we have the opportunity to do the same thing right now and end this shutdown. Get the peoples Government Back to work. There are growing number of republicans who say they would vote for a bill, which is socalled clean. Not with any of the poison pills that have been on it time after time after time. I tell them, this is your opportunity to back up your words with actions. Dont just say, lets end the shutdown. Vote with us in just a few minutes to end the shutdown. On wednesday, majority leader canter said this, and i quote were trying to get this government open as quickly as possible. As quickly as possible is in about five or ten or 15 or 20 minutes. Thats as quickly as possible. I dont know whats as quickly as probable, because im not sure the majority leader means those words. Or that his party means those words. But were going have an opportunity to vote on it. I say to my friend from sla va, heres the chance to to do so. To the gentleman from oklahoma, mr. Langeford, mr. Coles colleague who said about the shutdown he and his republican colleagues have imposed, quote, i would like end to it this afternoon. I say we can do it. Hes right. And just a few minutes, mr. Langeford is having the opportunity to vote that way in just a few minutes. Its either rhetoric or he means what he says. Lets do it. Lets open government. Lets get the peoples Public Servants back to work for them. Right here, right now, we can end the shutdown today, this afternoon, in just a few minutes. I urge my colleagues, we will differ. As i understand it, everybody on both sides of the aisle says they dont want to shut down government. Mr. Cole says that, i say that. We have the power to just in a few minutes, put people back to work for all of our constituents. I urge my colleagues, vote no on this motion, the previous question as we call it, jargon for saying lets move on. If we vote no on the previous question, we can put a bill on the floor which will put the Government Back to work this afternoon. Mr. Cole knows we do that. I dont know if mr. Cole will vote to do that. I think well vote to do that. I think mr. Andrews will vote to do that. Others will vote to do that. If they do, if they match their actions with their talk, then we can open this government in just a matter of minutes. And i yield back the balance of my time. Gentleman from oklahoma . Thank you, plk. I yield three minutes to my good friend and fellow members of the rules committee, the gentleman from ga, mr. Woodall. Gentleman from georgia is recognized for three minutes. Thank you, plk. Thank my friend in the rules committee for yielding me the time. I listened with great interest to what my friend the minority whip just said. He said the things you agree on, how can we get those things done. Every Single Member that the majority whip has pointed out that said im going to vote for that, theyre going to vote for that, theyre going to vote for that. We have an opportunity today to reopen parts of Homeland Security. I know we agree on that. Lets do that. We have the opportunity under this rule to go ahead and fund the wic program. Lets do that. I didnt come to that conclusion on my own. I listen to my colleagues. This happens to be the minority whip from a rules committee hearing. He said this. He said the American People are deeply distressed. They are distressed when they see agreement, that agreement is not made into law. We dont have an agreement on everything, but we do have an agreement. Lets move forward on that which we agree. I agree. Every single provision we bring to the floor today, mr. Speaker, is something on which we agree. Yield i will be happy to yield if i have time remaining. The gentleman knows i would be happy to yield. I will. Let us move forward on that with which we agree there is not one provision in this rule on which we disagree. You will not hear anybody on this floor say otherwise. Its not just the minority whip which i would like to yield to if i have time remaining, its the minority leader, same rules committee hearing. Here is the place where we are all in agreement, whatever else we have, we can continue that conversation later. The gentleman now yield . Continue that conversation later. Lets do what we all agree on. Will the gentleman now yield . I agree with the minority whip. As i have said will the gentle dmoorn. I would be happy to yield. But at the moment, i do not, very respectfully to my friend. And its not just my friend, the minority whip, its not just the majority leader. Minority leader, its president barack obama. I want the American People to urge Congress Soon to begin the work we have by doing what we all agree on. We already all agree on making sure middle class taxes wouldnt go up, so lets get that done. We did. We did. Some republicans voted no, democrats voted no. But the chamber got together and we got that done. Were in the same place today, mr. Speaker. I if one of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle disagrees with any one of these provisions, believes any one of these provisions is not worthy of their vote, if they have not affirmatively wanting to see the programs reopen, id like to hear that from my friends. Mr. Speaker, they do. I would like my friend to have one additional minute. I want to give my friend yield as much time as you may consume. Gentleman is recognized. I thank my friend for yielding. I like to thank my friend the minority whip, thank the gentleman for yielding. Does the gentleman believe we should shut down the government. Reclaiming my time, i say to my friend, we spend the entire month of august at every town hall meeting i could find telling folks Government Shutdowns was not the right plan for this nation. Thank the gentleman for continuing to yield. Then we agree not only on the small slices on which the gentleman has spoken and youre on the floor today, but on the whole and we could put every employee back to work for the American People today because as you say, we agree, reclaiming my time from the gentleman no, we do not agree. Because the gentleman wants to continue to support those programs that are putting workers in my district out of work. They want to continue to support those programs that are taking Health Insurance away from families in my district. They want to continue to support those programs that we know are broken. Folks, my constituency wants to do away with preexisting conditions. My constituency wants to ensure that every child has access to health coverage. But my constituency does not understand why we had to regulate the entire health care industry, destroying the 40hour work week as my Union Friends have said, destroying the Health Care Plan that folks in my district have now have had that lost. Breaking the promise that the president made that if you like your Health Insurance you can keep it. Theres not a man or woman in this room that believes this promise has been kept. We were duped, mr. Speaker, by that promise. Today, however, we have straightforward narrow bills. Not 2400 pages of legislation, plk, but one idea at the time. Stand up, mr. Speaker, who doesnt believe the department of Homeland Security focused on our nations security should be funded. Stand up, vote no. You believe it should be and youre going to vote no any way. Who doesnt believe the impact programs the department of education that helps children my district and every district. Who doesnt believe that ought to be funded. The truth is everyone believes that ought to be funded. Yet theyre going to stand up today and vote no anyway. Encouraged to vote no by leadership. Its disappointing to me, mr. Speaker. Im disappointed we cant agree on everything, but i recognize that we cant. I know we agree on most things. Lets do the things on which we agree. Dont take my word for it, take president oh whats work for it. Lets do the work we have by doing the things we all agree on. Take Nancy Pelosis word for it. Do what we all agree on. We can continue that conversation later. Do what my good friend the minority whip who just left the floor said, we dont have an agreement on everything, we do have an agreement. Lets move forward on that which we agree. I could not agree more. A strong yes vote for this rule and a strong yes vote for every single underlying provision. I thank my friend on the rules committee and i yield back the balance of my time. I yield myself 30 seconds. Gentle lady is recognized. My colleagues have confused the fact they go around saying they have indeed throughout august and all the rest of the time say they dont want to shut down the house. And some hope that no one wanted to shut down the house but they have actually done that. The democrats are saying lets do what we agree with. Theyre taking their word for it that you didnt want to shut down the house, so lets not do it. You cannot superimpose that notion on to the idea of setting up this government by dibs and drabs. None of us are for that. The senate wont do it. You know this is an exercise in futility. But pretty soon, the preside president the previous question is coming up. Youre going have a chance to do what you said you dont want to do, shut down the house. You said because of the house care, because of health care, and because of what you think its done to people in your district, you are holding this country hostage. Gentle lady yield . I dont have the time. I aint got time. Its all given. I yield back. The gentleman from oklahoma. Inquiry, mr. Speaker . Could you tell me how much time is remaining with the gentle lady from new york . Gentle lady from new york has 13 minutes remaining. Gentleman from oklahoma has 12 1 2 minutes remaining. Thank you, mr. Speaker. Gentleman from oklahoma. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I want to yield two minutes to my good friend from the great state of florida, mr. Micah. Gentleman from florida is recognized for two minutes. Thank you, mr. Speaker. We are here on a friday. The government has partially been shut down for some four days now. Republicans have tried to be reasonable. Many of us did not like obama care. Sometimes like myself, my family didnt have health care at certain times and i thought we had a responsibility to help people who had preexisting conditions, some help some of our young people. And we disagreed with the other side. They passed it. They said you know what was in the bill after we passed it. After we passed it it became the law, we saw what was in it. The president some 17 times now, many times in countervengs took the la that was passed, changed the law. It came a few days ago, october 1 r 1, there wasnt money to run the government but there was money to run obama care. I admit to being probusiness. They gave them a waiver. But when we said members of congress and the white house staff and others should be under obama care, when we said that the individuals should also have a break here. This is a system that the democrats or some democrat says was a train wreck. We didnt say that. But we should have the opportunity to make some changes. And we offered three opportunities to make change, some of them minor, that we thought were fair. But when you go out golfing on a saturday before the government is about to run out of money, when you dont show up for work on sunday, and you come to work on monday as the United States senate did, you cant negotiate. When you send people to the white house and sit there and say you wont negotiate can i have an additional yield my friend an additional minute. The gentleman is recognized for one additional minute. They go to the white house and i stood here and urged the president that as a staffer, i used to call dlsh was a staffer with senator hawkins and Ronald Reagan would ask me he worked with my boss and others to get them i voted on this floor to impeach bill clinton. And bill clinton came back and worked with us. We balanced the budget. We have the last shutdown in 95. Within two years, we balanced the budget. We reformed welfare. We made we balanced the budget. The debate here on september 11 just before september 11 is left to do with the surplus. So some good can come out of this. Good people working together. But when they wont negotiate, when they call you to the white house and they wont talk. When they go to maryland as they did or wherever it was in that region and tells the folks that were holding a gun to their head, thats wrong. Lets negotiate, lets get this done for the American People. Yield back the balance of my time. Gentle lady from new york. Im feeling quite badly. I didnt know how much time i had. I would be happy to yield more time to mr. Micah if he would like that. I would be happy to yield him a minute if youd like. Gentle lady is recognized. I yield two minutes to the gentleman from illinois, a member on the committee on oversight and government reform, mr. Davis. Gentleman from illinois, recognized for two minutes. I want to thank the gentle woman from new york for yielding. I oppose this rule and i oppose the bill and i dont oppose it because my district is not need the assistance. I represent one of the most impoverished and disadvantaged districts in america. We have great need. But fortunately many of my constituents know the difference between genuinely trying to help them or as the guys in the barbershop might say, gaming them. All they may say fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Or we could say that this piece mill approach is not going to cut it. Poverty in my state of illinois is at nearly 15 . And in my district, Child Poverty is 40 . Women, 28 . Africanamericans, 38 . 23 of Asian Americans and 24 of latinos in my district, live in poverty. Overall, 196,478 people in my district live in poverty. So you can see we need the assistance. But we also need Affordable Health care. We need mortgage assistance. We need to get Homeless People off of the street during chicagos cold winters. I cannot support the piece mill approach. What we need is a clean cr so that the employees can return to work and our people can receive the services and benefits that they so greatly need and rightfully deserve. We need a clean cr. I thank the gentlewoman from new york for yielding and i yield back the balance of my time. Gentleman from oklahoma. Plk, i yield two minutes to the distinguished chairman to the appropriations committee, my good friend, the honorable robld rogers. The gentleman from kentucky is yielded two minutes. Might i engage in the colloquy with the gentleman . What is the normal procedure, the time honored procedure in the congress when the two bodies disagree . How do we work that out . Mr. Chairman, we schedule a conference, we go to conference, we try to negotiate our differences. Thats the timehonored tradition. Thats the way the place works. Thats the way it should operate. Thats regular order. Now, the senate has passed a bill. The house has passed a bill. Which disagree with each other. The house, two or three nights ago now, passed their motion to go to conference. And it passed the house. The the speaker of the house with conferees from the house side and sent that to the Senate Waiting for the senate to appoint conferees so that we can meet together, work out our differences, and bring a better agreement back to each body of the house and the senate. Why arent we proceeding on regular order in this case . Do we have an answer . No no, mr. Chairman, i dont. I would just highly recommend to my friends that we do, since it seems to be a good way to resolve our differences. Thats the way weve done it for 200 years or so. And that is to when we disagree with the other body, we each appoint our conferees. They go off and haggle and amend and change and argue and debate until theres some agreement that can be brought back to each chamber, which then can reject our accept that conference report. The the house has acted. Were waiting on the senate to appoint their conferees so they can go off and work 24 hours a day if necessary to come to an agreement which we can do. And i would urge the other body to honor the ageold tradition in the congress, when you disagree with the other body, you appoint conferees to work out the differences and bring it back to the other body. I would hope that the senate would do that. I yield. Gentle lady from new york. Mr. Speaker, i would want to say the regular order has not been the order of business in this house for a long time. Im pleased to yield two minutes to the gentleman from california, Ranking Member, mr. Fior. Thank you, chairwoman slaughter for yielding. Im a member of the appropriations committee. This process is about appropriations. Thats how we keep government open. And unfortunately weve never been able to get any of the Appropriations Bills to the floor because republicans are willing to appoint conferees to the to the joint committees. So were doing a continuing resolution, continuing resolution is not new to this congress. Its bun done every year. The shocking thing is its never been used as a weapon of destruction until now. We were here last year, same argument. The Health Care Bill is not the issue here. Thats been law in this country for 3 1 2 years. For 3 1 2 years, weve been appropriating money to keep the government open. Whats the difference now . The difference now is a new attitude, new breed, very mean, very conservative, very antigovernment. And theyre willing to bring their internal kind of power within their caucus to shut down the whole country, if not the whole world. Its totally irresponsible. And they argue, well, they can do this if they can change the Health Care Bill. If the Health Care Bill needs changing, bring it up in a bill. Thats how we change things. So im not opposing this rule, because this rule says, okay, lets bring up ten parts of government. So lets bring up ten parts. Lets just have multiple choice. Lets have a triage. Which parts of government do you like . And i would like to compliment my colleague, mr. Cole, because in it we cant be against all health care because we keep opening one of the bills, hr80, the Indian Health services. Were going provide Health Care Service for some lowincome people but were against any other system that might provide assistance for other kinds of lowincome people. So this is government by multiple choice. Its not working. Thats why we oppose it. Lets bring the whole family, the whole nation together reject this rule, get reject the ability, the defeat the previous question, and defeat the rule and get on with the cr that is in this house and can be voted on right now. Gentlemans time is expired. The gentleman from oklahoma. Im going to reserve my time for a moment. Gentlemans time is reserved. Gentleman from new york. I believe i only have one mr. Speaker in the room. So i want to inform my colleague that i after mr. Anders, i might be prepared to close. But i would like to yield two minutes to the gentleman from new jersey, mr. Andrews. Gentleman from nnlg new jersey for two minutes. Without objection. The gentleman is recognized. I thank my friend for the time. Theres been an avalanche of opinion. One indisputable fact. One way to end the Government Shutdown today is for the house to passes the senate bill and send it to the president. That would end the shutdown immediately. Now, its my opinion that a majority of members of the house would vote in favor of that proposal if it reaches the floor. I think thats what would happen. But its my conviction, and i think it should be a shared conviction, that we ought to take a vote on it. We ought to let all 433 members that are present there cast a vote on whether they want the senate bill to pass or not. And if our side wins, fine, if our side loses, thats fine too. Thats democracy. After this avalanche of talk, theres going to be a chance in a few minutes for people to actually vote on this question. And this is not the technical procedural language, but the reality language. What this vote is going to ask is this do you want the Government Shutdown to continue or not . If you vote no, that you dont want the government the shutdown to continue. The senate bill will come to the house floor this afternoon and well take that vote. If you vote yes, then the senate bill will not come to the house floor and well continue on this ever lasting process of burdening the American People, talking the issue to death, and not getting anything done. We owe it to the American People to raise our hands, vote yes or no on the senate bill. If the answer is no, the answer is no. Mine would be yes. But the way to make that happen is to cast this vote in a few minutes. The question on this vote is do you want the Government Shutdown to continue or not . If your vote is no, then we vote on the senate bill. If your vote is yes, then we dont. And the shutdown continues. The American People deserve this vote. Plk, give us this vote. I yield back. Gentleman from oklahoma. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I have good news i want to announce here in just shortly. I want to note for the record that we dont like the piece mill approach. Rowdy if you look at actions, sometimes they do, they like it until they dont. The point that we had, of course, hr 3210 here which funded the military by our good friend from colorado, mr. Kauffman, i think in a very bipartisan way, we voted overwhelmingly on both sides to fund the military and most of the contracting and civilian employees. A little disagreement with the administration about that right now. But thats half of the discretionary budget, taking care in a piece mill vote. Today the Administration Just announced and i commend them for doing it. I commend my friend because she announced she was going to be supportive of this too. I think we all are. Its evident in the rules committee, hr2233, federal employee retroactive administrations Just Announced that theyre going to support that legislation. The president looks forward to signing it. Thats a bipartisan agreement. And quite frankly the good work of mr. Moran and mr. Wolf of virginia that found Common Ground in a piece mill approach. Its maybe not the greatest news in the world, but on a day when theres not as merchandise good news as we would all like, some good news. And i would hope my friends would look at the individual pieces of legislation that are coming where we mostly agree and accept those. We dont have to weigh on everything as the point has been made by several to agree on some things. Those are areas that we do agree. We can fund our military in this fashion, and we can make sure that our federal employees are not going to lose any pay retroactively, certainly, you know, one step at a time we can walk in the right direction and turn back on critical parts of our government. I hope thats what were moving toward, mr. Speaker. And with that, ill reserve the balance of my time so my friend knows im quite prepared to close when she wishes to close. Gentlemans time is reserved. Gentle lady from new york. Thank you, mr. Speaker. Im absolutely going to vote to retroactively fund the federal employees that is the best i can do on one issue. Thats the matter of basic fairness. Its not good enough. The fact is, that the federal employees will not get paid the retroactive money until after all of this charade is over. We have no idea when thats going to be. I think what let me reiterate again what all my colleagues have said. We can do it right now. Put them back to work and let them get their paycheck. Im embarrassed every time i pass the Capitol Police, whats happening to them. It bothers me terribly to hear from my friends at the state department theyre working on fumes. We cannot run the government of the United States, which is the beacon of democracy, has been the pattern for countries all over the world, by saying that were going to fund this piece over there and that piece over there. And we dont care what happened to the rest of it. Thats not what we are here for. Certainly we will fund that one piece. But i can tell you right now, the democrats are not going do the rest of it because the senate is not going to take it up and the president is not going to sign it. We are simply wasting time. And were taking up valuable time. And we are worrying the country half to death. For heavens sake, when we do this previous question, let us do the right thing, vote no and get all these does it literally make sense to anybody who manages a house hold or their own business. Go on and rest, well pay you later when we decide you can come back for not being here. That makes absolutely no sense. Let them go back to work. Were going to pay them. Pay them now for the work theyre doing. Pay concurrently with work. Done that make more sense . Does it really make any sense at all were saying to them we have no idea what the end game is here. You may be sitting around for a very long time while the country pays 300 million a day of the cost of the shutdown. So heaven sakes, say once again that you have to do this today. We have to stop this nonsense. Its humiliating us. We cannot go on with this another week. Were only here today to maybe try to look like were doing something because of the Government Shutdown. And we know it. Those bills that were voting on today had no committee action, nothing. The senate is not going to take it up. They will not become law as every school child knowles. Now, those who vote no on the previous question will give the chamber what the leadership of the majority has not. And that will be the real chance to vote this down so we can put the cr on the calendar. And stop the shutdown now, today. The president it does have to go back to senate. The president is waiting for it. And its unanimous consent to insert the text of the amendment in the record along with extraneous material 3450edly prior to the vote on previous question. Without objection. Mr. Speaker, i urge my colleagues, i beg my colleagues, i do implore my colleagues, for goodness sakes, come to the floor, defeat the previous question. Vote no. And i yield back the balance of my time. The gentle lady yields back her time. The gentleman from oklahoma. I want to thank my good friend from new york. Shes always a good counterpoint debater. We agree on a number of things. Its not something either side wished to achieve and its something we ought to Work Together stepbystep to try to undo. And frankly, we made a little bit of progress. Again, the idea that it never works to work piece mill, it did with respect to the United States military, civilian defense force, and contractors. Exactly what we did. We passed something out of here and the senate which said wasnt going to agree on anything, magically did. Then the House Resolution 2233 out of here to guarantee back pay. Most people on both sides of the aisle will support that. The president indicates he will sign it which suggests to me the senate will take it up and move it. Voila, once again, working through the process, we found something that we can agree on. The differences here should not be so great that they cant be bridged. Just to remind everyone of the history, we have placed multiple offers concerning the Affordable Care act before the senate. The last offer seems to me something that we ought to be able to agree on or certainly be willing to sit down and discuss. Only has two points. And its basically a question of fairness. Why should members of congress and i appoint the executive branch and our staff go into the exchange and be able to bring subsidies to us when no other american can do that. Its just not fair. Now, we can amend the law and let everybody come in to the exchanges with subsidies, that would be fair. Or we can say, you know, really members of congress and their staff are a fundamental level, you know, employees of the federal government. They ought to be in that. That would be fair. But lets treat everybody the same. More fundamentally, currently, the president has unilaterally decided to exempt 1100 plus organizations, hes unilaterally in a questionable measure constitutionally to suspend parts of the law for the year and big business. We think, gosh, if youre going to do that, shouldnt every single american have the right to decide if they want to participate in this for one year until everybody is operating under the same system . That, too, is a question of fairness, give every individual american the same relief from the mandate that youre giving big business and big labor. It seems to me common senseive cal. Doesnt mean you have to stop the exchanges or the taxes, dont undo the program. Treat everybody the same, be fair. Thats the republican proposal in front of the senate right now. Frankly you dont want to discuss it because its a hard one to say no to. Its fundment tally fair. Thats what we ask is that the senate which rejected it to come to congress and talk about it. The issue here beyond the questions of policy is the senate going to be allowed to dictate unilaterally what the house does. Is it going to say no, youve got to do it our way. Were not going to negotiate, were not going to go to conference, were not going deal with you. You have to do it our way. Thats not the way the system was set up. My friend and chairman mr. Rogers pointed that out simply. Weve got a way to handle this. Its called go to conference, argue, work out the differences. And i suspect were going to see the same thing a little down the road from the president , who told us and told the speaker this week, you know, im not going to negotiate with you on raising the debt ceiling in the United States. You just have to do it unilaterally. You have to put the country further into debt without any discussion of what were going to do to protect the debt. The remarkable change of what he wants in august 20611, remarkable change. He was in a very different place and position. He was willing to sit down and talk. I dont know what why it would change that now. We should do something on this bill to build on the piece mill approach. We agree the parts of government ought to be open. We continue to work through in confidence with our friends in the senate and ultimately in negotiation with the president of the United States on the debt ceiling. So i urge the adoption of this rule. In closing, i would like to again say the basic functions of government are to fund government, congress, excuse me. This rule would allow ten more pieces of that government to open again, provide for Crucial Services that they provide. I would urge my colleagues to support this rule and the underlying legislation. Mr. Speaker, i yield back the balance of my time and move the previous question on the resolution. The question is on ordering the previous question on the resolution. Those in favor, aye. Those opposed, no. The ayes have it. Request the yeas and nays. Those favoring the questions of the yeas and nays will rise. The yeas and nays are ordered pursuant to the clautz rule 20. Pursuant to clause 12a of rule 1, the house will stand in recess subject to the call of the chair. Next House Speaker john boehner and house Republican Leaders talking to reporters about the Government Shutdown and efforts to end it, including a call for negotiations with president obama and Senate Majority leader harry reid. Members spoke about the current process under way in the house to fund individual federal agencies and programs through targeted spending bills. You know when we have a crisis like were in the middle of this week, the American People expect their leaders to sit down and try to resolve their differences. Listen to the president 20 times and listen why he would negotiate. Sat there and listening to the majority leader of the United States senate describe to me hes not going to talk until we surrender. And this morning, i get the wall street journal out. It says it doesnt matter how long this lasts because were winning. This is not some damn game. The American People dont want the government shut down, neither do i. All were asking for is to sit down, have a discussion, bring fairness reopen the government and bring fair tons the American People under obama care. Its as simple as that. But it all has to begin with a simple discussion. Good morning. You know, this week the American People have seen once again that obama care is not ready for primetime. Dysfunctional website is the least of that laws problem. And weve asked as the speaker said for basic fairness to the American People, no special treatment for anyone under the law. And were continuing to ask for that, no special treatment for us, no special treatment for special interests. Now, now the president has refused to sit down with us republicans. And sadly, that is a hallmark of his presidency. A divided government, americans expect us to Work Together to solve problems. We vote reopen trials for children with cancer, to fund the services and the National Guard. Today were going to vote to open fema and the National Weather service as we witness a growing storm in the gulf. And were also going to vote to provide Nutrition Services for women and children in poverty. We plan to also later next week open up head start. And tomorrow, were going to vote to ensure that all furloughed federal employees know that they will receive their pay once the shutdown is over. Now, 57 democrats have joined us this week to make sure that some of the critical functions of government are operating while we in washington are trying to work out our differences. I want to thank them for that. And im hopeful that we can see more bipartisanship and Start Talking so we can end uncertainty and restore the confidence in our economy and the faith in our government. This morning i read the president is cancelling his trip to asia, the perfect opportunity now that hes here to begin the negotiations. As the speaker laid out, it doesnt matter how long were shut down. I believe it does. I believe the 57 democrats that joined with us on passing the legislation to open Government Back up believes it matters as well. Now the is the time we get in the room, settle our differences, and move this country forward. We continue to hear from the president that the way out of this shutdown is basically to give him whatever he wants. He wants the easy way out without addressing the debt crisis, without addressing a stagnant economy, without addressing an unaffordable Health Care Law. Weve heard the president say that the republicans are holding the u. S. Hostage. He said that he has bent over backwards to work with us. His words may sound good, but you know what . Actions speak louder than words. And this is the president , this is the democrats in the senate that continue to tell us that theyre not going to negotiate. Theyre not even willing to come to the table. The government is committed to keeping the government open. Theyre working every day to keep the government open. What we need is a dialogue to begin with the democrats with the senate and the president. These bills were working on, this legislation, is the area where we should be able to start finding some Common Ground so that we can have a dialogue over the other big issues that face this country. That the American People want to see us add dress. I reminded the president the other night hes famous for saying you know, in a negotiation, nobody gets 100 of what they want. Were not going to get it in this one either. Yes, sir. You got a debt ceiling coming up in the next couple of weekings. What were hearing about in conference, you guys focus mainly on the cr. A, is that true . And solely on the cr, and, b, to what extent would you be willing to look at the temporary debt ceiling increase given theres little time to resolve both of these issues. The continuing resolution to open the government. All were asking for is for harry reid to appoint conferees so we can sit down and have a conversation about bringing fairness to the American People and getting our government open. Plk, youve been quoted before saying you do not want that you want the debt cerealing to be raised. You do not want the u. S. To default. Democrats are interpreting that saying the 11th hour, when the president refuses to negotiate on the debt ceiling, youll run a clean debt ceiling bill. But can you be clear on where you and your conference is on the debt ceiling. You heard me saying this, going back over the last two or three years. Our goal wasnt to shut down the government. Our goal here was to bring fair tons the American People under obama care. I dont believe that we should default on our debt. Its not good for our country. But after 55 years of spending more than what you bring in, something ought to be addressed. This year, well have more revenue than any year in the history of our country and yet still have a nearly 700 billion deficit. I think the American People expect if were going raise the amount of money we can borrow, we ought to do something about our spending problem in the lack of Economic Growth in our country. Is this shutdown this showdown about the Affordable Care act . Is it about the budget deficit . Why is the government shut down right now . We sent four billes to the United States senate. Four different positions trying to soften our position to get the Senate Interested in keeping the government open and bringing fairness to the American People under obama care. Its as simple as that. Last question. Mr. Speaker, weve seen a lot of reports about how theres sniping personality sniping between you and the democratic leader and the president. No, no. Thats just not true. Thats just listen. Thats just not true. Now look most of you have dealt with me for sometime. I might have sniped once or twice. But i have Good Relationships with all of my colleagues across the aisle. About getting the government open. You said you care more about your job than your country . Congratulations, guys. Next, House Democrats talking to reporters about efforts theyre taking to end the Government Shutdown. One scenario mentioned at this briefing was the option of a discharge petition that would bring the senatepassed funding bill to the house bill for a vote if the majority of members were to sign it. This is 20 minutes. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for being here. Im honored to be here with some of the leaders in the congress who have great experience and the appropriations process as well as in the authorization process. Chairman dingle called to our attention recently an opportunity for us to keep the government open. Its an attempt for us in a bipartisan way to open up government. And with that, im pleased to yield very distinguished member of the house chairman for the Natural Resources committee, chairman of the education and labor committee, now Ranking Member on that committee, george thank you very much, speaker pelosi. Were on the fourth day of the Government Shutdown. The question in everybodys mind is how does this shutdown end. We believe the best course of action would be for the Republican Leadership to bring up the senatepassed funding resolution today and for an up or down vote to reopen the entire government right away. Its very unfortunate that the majority of the house has not been allowed to freely cast the vote to reopen the government. But one thing thats becoming clearer is that as the shutdown drags on, the growing number of the republican members of Congress Want the opportunity to work with democrats to end this crises. Weve seen this in press reports and i heard it in my private conversation with republican colleagues. Were offering the republican friends and the American People a way forward. Were initiating this afternoon a discharge petition under the rules of the house that will allow the majority of the house to freely express their will on whether or not to reopen the government to a clean funding resolution. If a majority member signed this petition, house members can take up an up or down vote to reopen the government as early as october 14. It is time to return the majority rule to the house of representatives and to get the federal Government Back to work on behalf of the American People, again, make no mistake, the first choice would be not to have to wait until october 14 or even one more day, but to have the Republican Leadership to have the senatepassed funding bill and immediately allow an up or down vote on it. We believe the Senate Funding bill would pass in the house and the government would be reopen right away. But if that doesnt happen, we have another way forward. It is time to allow a true majority in the house to allow the vote, to open up the government, the entire government right away. Thank you. Mr. Dingle. Ladies and gentlemen, were about to rescue the republicans who have gotten themselves in the unhappy position of the dog that caught the car. They shut the nation down, theyre costing the country money, theyre jeopardizing our international reputation. Theyre costing us wasted money. Theyre having us have employees of the government not being paid and not working and were going to have to then come forward and pay them. In addition to this, theyre threatening the stock markets, theyre causing huge amounts of difficulty in the economy potentially. And theyre probably significantly increasing the National Debt. And indeed theyre disregarding the words of a number of their distinguished leaders like senator mccain and my dear friend senator dole and my dear friend from other my dear friends from other places who have pointed out, including mitt romney that this is not the way to do. We ought not hold obama care in thrall of the republican effort to shut down the government, to tie the whole mess together into an infernal battle thats hurting each and every one of us. Having said this, my good friend George Miller has announced that were going to be bringing forward a discharge petition on hr 1164. Thats a good republican bill. Congressman hensarling of texas. Congressman blackburn of tennessee and huizenga of michigan. Good, solid conservative republicans. Were trying to help the republicans get back to show some real sincerity. Because as you note, theyve been all over the lot. Theyve been talked about how theyre doing this for one reason, and now for another. And theyve left this country in the awkward position where every time they get to be angry about something, they go about their business like spoiled children to stop the government so that we will negotiate with them and give them something that spoiled children want and thinks they get that by blackmailing the country and by blackmailing the congress, by blackmailing the senate and the president. This is no way to do. So were going to, as announced, help them by putting one of their bills on the floor which will speed things forward in terms of getting the country back going again and we will stop this radical republican shutdown of our government, something that the american citizens want and are insisting that we do. Thank you. Thank you to the dean of the house. Great to be with my colleagues here. All of you know from the beginning weve had a simple message which is we want a vote in the peoples house on a clean continuing resolution to keep the entire government open now. The president has indicated he would sign it as soon as he got it to his desk. If the speaker would allow us to have a vote on that bill, we could go upstairs on the next five minutes, vote on it, and send it down to the president and he would sign it and the government would be opened up. The American People would be shocked to learn the lengths that the speaker and the government majority have gone to undermine the democratic process here in the house in order to keep the government shut down. We learned from the parliamentarians just two days ago that on october 1 r, the republican authority changed the standing rules in the house to keep the government shut down. The standing rules in the house say if youre in the situation you are in the house and the senate, in the situation back and forth, that any member of the house, any of my colleagues up here, any republican member, could bring up the clean Senate Passed resolution for a vote. Thats what the standing rules of the house say. Its rule 22. 4. They changed that rule in the rules committee to say only eric cantor, the majority leader or his designee could call for that vote. So not only has the speaker of the house denied us the opportunity of the democratic process. But they deliberately rigged the rules in an abusive way to keep the Government Shutdown. So today, were calling on using the standing rules of the house, the real rules of the house, to get us a vote by october 14. We want the vote today. Make no mistake. We want it right now. But this will start the clock ticking so by november 14, unless they abuse the rules of the house, that we will have a clean up or down vote to keep the government open. We should do it now, but our republican colleagues that keep telling us, many of them, want to keep the government open, now have the opportunity to join us in signing this discharge petition seven days from now so that we can put an end to this ridiculousness, open the government, open it today, lets start the process and get it done. Now im very pleased to yield to our terrific colleague on the appropriations committee. Enough is enough. Its a National Disgrace that the government of the greatest and strongest nation of the world should be shut down and held hostage to the demands of a small faction of the most radical Tea Party Republicans led by senator ted cruz. Its time to end the reckless and dangerous republican Government Shutdown. At this point, the majority cant even tell us what theyre trying to accomplish. One republican made what some may call a gaffe a moment of unintentional honesty asked why the majority would not end the shutdown, he said, were not going to be disrespected. We have to get something out of this. And i dont even know what that is, end quote. Well, democrats know exactly what we must accomplish and it could not be simpler. We want to end the republican shutdown immediately, put 800,000 americans back to work. Restore all of the Services American families depend on. That is why the discharge petition is so important. If Speaker Boehner will not allow a vote on a clean Senate Passed bill to open the government, we should force one. I call on all republicans to stand up to the tea party and end this reckless political game. Join us to reopen the government. Put americans back to work. Get on with the business americans sent us here to accomplish. I thank my colleagues for leadership on this issue. Remember, this is the bill that was introduced by the republican conference. This is their bill that were asking them to support. I i i just want to act knowledge that we have been joined by congressman crowley whos left now to vote, whos been such a great member of our leadership and our distinguished whip, mr. Hoyer. Any question s . Yes. Considering how the debt ceiling deadline is october 17, thats coming up. Any negotiations work to start now would include that as well. Is there a chance that the Government Shutdown lasts all the way to the deadline. I hope and pray it does not. Its harmful to our country. And as dreadful as the as the full faith and credit of the United States of america being discredited, this is parting our fiscal our fiscal is hurting our Credit Rating as well. So the sooner we can shut this down, the better, and perhaps the leverage of having something go forth to the 14th is something that will encourage the republicans to go earlier. Because defaulting on our full faith in credit is horrible, but this is terrible. And the combination is really catastrophic. Im going to yield to my colleagues who have been working on this. None of us has voted maybe steny you voted. I voted. But you talk first about the discharge petition. Talking about the october 14 bill. Is this a non the rule is you might consider the petitions on the second and fourth mondays of the month . Thats a federal holiday . Hope were going to be here. And we that drags that out. I realize youle might have legislative options. But thats not the question of thats not the question of the legislative options. We chose to do this, everything worked right. We can get it up. We can get republican cosponsors. The leadership can provide an alternative, the leadership can take it up when we return from columbus day. The point is, the clock is ticking. The more this gets combined with the issues around the debt limit, the more complicated all of this all of this becomes. And i think the point is, we ought to open up the government now. The government should be opened when were when were discussing the debt limit, when the leaderships of the house, the senate, the president , are discussing the debt limit. I think to have the government close down at the same time you do that youre sending a horrible, horrible message to the World Markets about the United States. And you heard all of the discussion how important we are to the markets, how were the reserve currency and the role that we play to have the Government Shutdown while youre discussing the debt limit, the republicans are asking for double trouble for the American Economy and theyre going to end upstanding on the throats of the american Job Opportunities if they do that. Yes. The procedure. Are you circumstance latering the procedure. How do you expect this resolution, we will make an order to discharge the petition, to discharge the the language of the langeford bill, but we will have a complete substitute for that language that will be a clean continuing resolution to open up the government. How do we get this we get the we round them up. You how long do you think it will take . We have in seven days, theyll be eligible to sign the to sign the discharge petition and we expect that we can get them all in one day. Yes. With this. Well want to broaden out the discussion to include budget issues, including, even, possibly the sequester. Is that going anywhere . Well, i think i think all youre seeing through for the moment is the signal that they understand that the idea of holding the government hostage and peoples jobs hostage and the service hostage to their vision of repealing the Affordable Care act has now failed and theyre trying to shift to some other topic. But on the budget, let me have our budget the senior person, chris van holland. Look. We have said from the very beginning, as you know, that were prepared to sit down with the republicans to talk about all of the issues. Weve been trying to do that since last march when the house passed a budget and the Senate Passed a budget, weve been blocked three times on votes here in the house asking the speaker to name budget negotiators so they can have that negotiation between the house and the senate. And the senate, senator reid and senator murray have tried 18 times to try to appoint budget conferees. They were blocked by senator lee and cruz and some of the Tea Party Senators in the senate. They blocked that conversation to date. We welcome that conversation. The president has a budget with a big jobs package in it. Hes got a balanced approach to reducing the longterm deficit. The republican budget takes the country in the entirely wrong direction. But we always wanted to have that negotiation. They stayed away from the negotiating table for months and months in order to very deliberately push this government and the country up against the wall because they thought they could get through that process but they could not get through the negotiation in compromise. So we stand ready to do it. I would say the irony here, of course, is the underlying bill were amending as part of this process, the underlying republican bill as mr. Dingle said, has called the Government Shutdown prevention act. Now they worked hard to say the government did shut down. We are going to use that vehicle. That is the vehicle to make sure that we have a chance to open government again. We could do it in the next five minutes if the speaker would allow a vote. But this is an opportunity for republicans who claim that they want to vote on a clean cr to keep the government open to actually put their signature where the statements are. And were going to yield to were going to yield to as the whip, im going to we yield to ours. A couple more minutes. Because the bottom line is, the government wants the government open. They dont want to shut it down. The majority leaders given himself the authority to do exactly that, he ought to exercise it. This is just another legislative opportunity for us to press that point. Go to the senate. Youre looking at are you throwing your hands up and saying were not going to get there any sooner . Or is this more of what weve seen a lot of press conferences and not real opportunities to do much . I agree with you. I agree with all of it. We should stop the press conferences, stop the rhetoric. But a bill on the floor. Lets vote. See who wants to open up the government. See who wants to shut down the government. This is a previous question vote. You now have we have 178 noes on this. We have 217, i think, is what we need. Theyre one over what they need at this point in time. If we have 217 vote, then the ability would shift to us and we put on a clean cr. You hear people saying i want to open the government. Look at the 180 votes to open the government, the 219 votes right now voting to keep the government shut down. Youre right. Dont listen to the words, watch the actions. Yes, sir. Is there any republican with a chart petition like this simply guaranteeing the primary challenge . I think thats part of the problem here. I think republicans are terrified about tea party opponents. I think youre right. You asked me a question that i dont know the answer to. No, but the fear factor is high. I have a lot of republicans coming to me. I have a very Good Relationship with most of the republican side of the aisle, some of the more conservative members as well. And they tell me that we have 17 republicans that said they would vote for a clean cr. Hate that term. To open up government. But they would vote for that. The speculation from looking at the numbers from 184 who have voted on that side of the proposition they havent voted that way. Both sides say procedural votes you should stick with your party. But hundreds of thousands of people who want to work are not allowed to work. And the peoples government is shut down. Mr. Hoyer . As we said earlier, no one wants to see this come to fruition. Were hoping the republicans come to their senses that can get a vote on the floor and get government open right away. So far ive seen two republicans put their votes where their mouths are. Peter king and charlie dent. They have not yet here to for voted against their leadership to get what is known as a clean continuing resolution on the floor. That is what we want to have happen. This is a tool to demonstrate whether your signature and your vote is where your mouths are. I pointed to him already. Will democrats in the house support the bill to retroactively pay federal worker which is i understand the administration is working to pass . The administration is urging pass ing . I dont think the democrats are going to vote against it. Not a republican vote against it. There are hundreds of thousands of people are worried about are they going to be able to pay their mortgage in november . Are they going to be able to put food on the table . Most of us do not have a deep reservoir of savings to sustain weeks of nonpayment. Were now seeing the specter of going into a full week of a Government Shutdown unless, of course, our republican colleagues put on the floor, which they could do today or tomorrow. A bill that would open up the government of the United States of america. Thank you all very much. President obama made a stop at the local Sandwich Shop in washington, d. C. And he talked about the federal shutdown and the impact on federal workers. The Vice President was joined by Vice President biden. Heres a brief look. Before i order, i just want to say that part of the reason were here is were starving and the food here is great. The other part of it, though, is right now this establishment is providing a 10 discount to all federal workers who are furloughed. And and and that, i think, is an indication of how ordinary americans look out for each other. And arent obsessed with the politics and arent trying to extract confessions out of each other. Theyre just trying to make sure that everybody is doing their job and that were doing whats best for the country. And right now, the house of representatives has the opportunity to do the exact same thing. This furlough or this shutdown could be over today. We know theres a vote for it in the house of representatives. And as i said yesterday, Speaker Boehner will simply allow that vote to take place, we can end this shutdown, a whole bunch of families, not just here in washington, but all across the country, will have the certainty that the paycheck will be coming, that theyll be able to make their mortgage. That theyll be able to pay their expenses, that theyll be able to look after their families. And we can get back to what we should be focused on every single day. Thats how we make sure that we have a strong middle class in this country that anybody whos willing to work hard can get ahead. And when it comes to negotiations. I said im happy to have negotiations with the republicans and Speaker Boehner on a whole range of issues. But we cant do it with the gun held to the head of the American People. So reopen the government, make sure were paying our bills. Two major functions the congress has. And take your cues from folks like this. You know, who are more interested in making sure that everybody is being treated fairly and properly and less interested in politics and scoring points. All right . With that, im going to order. But let me just have a look. Hi, how are you . Welcome. I know what i want. Theres no winning. Yeah. No winning when families dont have certainty about whether theyre going to get paid or not. Ive got staff in the white house. Theres staff all across the country in rural areas, who with working for the agricultural department, working for veterans affairs, who are on their job. And despite the fact theyre not getting paid or have sent home and want to be on their job because theyre looking at this the fellow citizens on a whole range of disturbances. As long as theyre off the job, nobody is winning, thats the point. We should we should get this over with as soon as possible. Im going to order. What did you guys i got the ninth street. Im paying for joes. Hes going to pay for you. No. No. Hell, okay. I got it. You got the what . I got the ninth street. You got the what . Its the ninth street. Kind of like a like a sub. Someone said the ray street was good too. Yes. Turkey. Lets try that out. What do you want to drink . You know, i think im going to have water. Bottled water . Whatever it is. And ill i want a cookie too, right. You get a cookie today, guy. Im not on furlough so the so the original or wheat. Im getting a cookie. These are two cookies. Why dont you give me one cookie. Yeah, its one package, man. Im not giving you my cookie. You can have one of my cookies. What kind of cookies do you get . That is toffee . A toffee cookie. I think we should give them to i think i think thats what he got. Yeah. Take your pick. Go ahead. Take a taste. Coconut, mack dame yeah nut. There you go. Having one of those. All right. So we got would you like yours original or wheat bread . Wheat bread. That way i can tell michelle im eating healthy. There you go, yeah. Im going to take the cookie right there. All right. There you go. So your total is the white house announced late thursday that president obamas planned trip to asia was being cancelled as a result of the ongoing Government Shutdown. The president was slated to attend two economic summits in the region. Instead, the secretary of state john kerry will be going in the president s place to talk about u. S. Trade and other interests in the region. Next, more from today on capitol hill with senators speaking on the senate floor about the Government Shutdown and how to end the current stalemate in congress over federal funding. Then Senate Majority leader harry reid and other Democratic Leaders speaking to reporters about the shutdowns impact on National Security and veterans programs. Cspan, we bring Public Affairs events from washington directly to you, putting you in the room at congressional hearing, white house events, briefings, and conferences, and offering complete gaveltogavel coverage of the u. S. House, all as a Public Service of private industry. Were cspan, created by the cable tv industry 34 years ago and funded by the local cable or satellite provider. Now you can watch us in h. D. Texas republican senator ted cruz came to the floor to introduce a number of bills in the house that would Fund Specific agencies and programs despite the current Government Shutdown. Three Democratic Senators came to the floor to oppose him. Patty murray, dick durbin, and charles schumer, all trying to amend the language that would fund the entire amendment. Youll also hear from the majority leader, harry reid. This is an hour. Mr. President , i had intented to give remarks and promulgate a series of unanimous consent requests, however the majority leader requested for purposes of scheduling i begin with the request which im happy to do so to accommodate his schedule. But i would ask that at the conclusion of these unanimous consent requests i would ask unanimous consent that i be given 20 minutes to speak at the conclusion of this to lay out the reasons why i believe the majority should aseed to the unanimous requests. Objection . Without objection, so ordered. So the first unanimous consent request i would promulgate, i asked unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of h. J. Res 72 making continuing appropriations for the veterans benefit s fiscal year 2014. I ask that the measure be read three times and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. Is there objection . Mr. President. Senator from washington. Reserving the right to reject. The junior senator from texas has offered a unanimous consent that we take care of veterans in this shutdown of government. Mr. President , i would note that there is no senator or member of congress here who doesnt care deeply about making sure that our veterans are taken care of, including this senator from the state of washington. As the presiding officer knows and our colleagues know, i have spoken often of our own father who was a world war ii veteran who spent most of his life in a wheelchair, earned a purple heart, i know the sacrifices that our veterans make. As chair of the veterans of the committee before this, i fought hard to make sure every veteran had what they needed. We said more than just thank you but we provided them for what we need. So i know our veterans well. What i do know about our veterans, mr. President , is they above everybody else are selfless. They went to serve our country and said we will take care of the rest of you at our own personal sacrifice. They will have the last to come before us and say take care of me before everybody else. They would say to us, take care of our fellow man and leave no one behind. So, mr. President , i am going to ask that the senator modify his request and do what our military has always asked their fellow man to do and leave no one behind. A request that will assure that everyone who fights for our country takes care of our country, works for our country, in emergencies, depends on our country to make sure that they have the opportunity that every one of us have here is able to have that opportunity and theyre not held hostage to a Government Shutdown so that we can get back to work and solve our countrys problems. Uh this amendment is the text that has cast the senate and is a clean continuing resolution for the entire government. And its something that is already over in the house and reportedly has now the support of the majority of the members of the house of representatives. To the senator from texas so modify his request. Reserving the right to object, i thank my friend from washington state. I note that she talked about leaving no man or woman behind. I would note that the continuing resolution that the house has passed to fully fund the veterans administration, treats our veterans the same way they treated the active duty military. The house passed a bill that said the men and women of the military would be paid. It seems to be the position of the majority of this party that veterans should be treated not as well as our active duty military. And in particular, the full funding of the v. A. Should be held hostage to every other priority that the democrats in this chamber must have. I understand the democrat in this chamber are committed to obama care with all of their heart, might, and soul. But the veterans of this nation should not be held hostage to that commitment. It is likely given the majoritys refusal to compromise, refusal even to talk to find a middle ground. Its likely this shutdown instigated by the democratic majority will continue for sometime. During that time, we ought to find Common Ground that at the very minimum, our veterans shouldnt pay the price. If moments from now my friend from washington simply does not object, by the end of the day, the v. A. Will be fully funded. If as we all expect she does object, if she repeats the objection that her majority leader and her party has made throughout the course of this week, then much of the v. A. Will remain shut down because of that objection. So she has asked if we can reopen the entire federal government. And if she doesnt get every if the request is not granted to give every single priority in the federal government that the Majority Party wants, that the v. A. Will remain without sufficient funds. I find that highly objectionable and i object. Objection to the original request. I reject on behalf of all americans who should not be left behind. Objection is heard. Mr. President , the second unanimous consent request i would promulgate, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of hr 3230 making continuing appropriations during a Government Shutdown to provide pay and allowances for members of the reserve components of the armled forces which was received from the house. I ask further consent the measure be read three times and passed and that the motion to be reconsidered be considered made and laid on the table. Reserve the right to object. The junior senator from texas launched this shutdown here from the United States senate. Its clear from the actions of the house and his actions today that hes trying to reconcile in his mind all of the damage that this Government Shutdown which he inspired is causing across the United States. This particular unanimous consent requests relates to the National Guard service. A group we hold in high esteem. But if the gentleman from texas is focused on veterans and those who serve the country, take into consideration the 560,000 federal employees who are currently facing furlough or on furlough, who are veterans, a fourth of whom are disabled veterans. So what the junior senator from texas is doing is picking and choosing those he will allow in the lifeboat. At this point, its National Guard and reserve. Leave 560,000 veteran employees out in the water, thrashing for themselves. Thats not the way we should manage or govern this country. I can understand the anxiety you feel about the problems you created. But trying to solve them one piece at a time is not the american way. I object. And i ask unanimous consent, though, before i object. I ask unanimous consent that your request be modified. That the amendment that is agreed to. That the bill be amended, then be read a third time and passed. Motions to be considered considering made or laid upon the table with no action or debate. This amendment that passed the senate is a clean continuing resolution for the entire government, National Guard, reserve, nih, all of them, its something thats already over in the house of representatives and reportedly has the support of the majority of democrats and republicans and could pass today. I ask for that modification. Will the senator so modify his request. Mr. President , reserving the right to object. No one watching these proceedings should be confused. We are in a shutdown because president obama and the majority leader of this body want a shutdown. Because they believe it is in the partisan interest of their party to have a shutdown. Four times the house of representatives has compromised. Four times the house of representatives has endeavored in each of the middle grounds. And four times the majority leader and every democrat in this body has said no, we will not talk, we will not compromise. We will not have a middle ground. 100 of the priorities of the democrats in this body must be funded, or they will insist on a shutdown. I thank my friend from illinois for making clear that the members of the reserve components of our armed forces in his judgment are not worthy of being paid during the shutdown than that the democrats have forced. I could not disagree with that judgment more strongly. Let us be clear, this bill that is passed the house doesnt mention obama care, has nothing to do with obama care. It simply says the exact same thing that my friend from illinois already agreed to, which is that the active duty men and women of the military would not be held hostage and would be paid if it so happened that the democrats forced a shutdown. Now, apparently the position of the majority of this body is that we have a double standard that reserve members are not treated as well as active duty members. That reserve members will not get their paycheck. Lets be clear that this bill could be on the president s desk for signature today if my friend from illinois would simply withdraw his objection. Unfortunately, in a move that i think reflects a level of cynicism not befitting of the responsibility all of us have, my friend is prepared to object and to say that not just veterans, but reserve members shall be held hostage in order to force obama care on the American People. Thats the objective. Now the Democratic Party has become the party of obama care, by obama care, and for obama care all of the time. And over other priority reseeds. So veterans are told your concerns do not matter unless we can use you to force obama care on the American People. Reserve military members are told your concerns do not matter unless we can use you as a hostage to force obama care on the American People. Thats cynical. We ought to take the individuals off of the table. I would note that the friends from illinois noted a great many of federal employees have been furloughed. I would be willing to work on a bipartisan manner with my friend from illinois to bring a great many of the federal employees back to their vital responsibilities. But unfortunately, the position that Democratic Party has made is not one of them will be allowed to come back until this body agrees to force obama care on the American People, despite the jobs lost, despite the people being forced into parttime work, despite the skyrocketing Health Insurance premium, and despite the millions of people losing or at risk of losing their Health Insurance. Mr. President , i find that highly objectionable, i object. Objection is heard. Is there objection to the original request . I would say to my colleague from texas, some of the language which hes used in the debate relative to impugning the motive to other members may have crossed the line. Im going to ask him to be careful in the future. I object. Objection is heard. For the edification of all senators, rule 19 reads as follows no senator in debate shall directly or indirectly by any form of words impugn to another senator or other senators any conduct unworthy or unbecoming a senator. Mr. President , i now promulgate my third unanimous consent request. I ask the senate proceed to h. J. R. E. S. 70 for National Parks received from the house. I ask further consent that the measure be read three types and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. Senator from new york. Mr. President , and i will object. Let me just say a couple of things here. First, in reference to a colloquy he had with my with the senator from texas had with my good friends in washington state. He said that he notes that the senator from washington talks about leaving no man or no woman behind. She does indeed. That is why one of the reasons so many of us oppose this piece mill approach. Its leaving lots of people behind. The bottom line is that the senator, junior senator from texas is advocating shutting down the government. And now he comes before us and says, well, why dont you pass the parts of the government that i want to open. No one would want to do that. Makes no sense. Lets shut down the government and then ill come to the floor and be bag unanimous mouse and offer a few place where is the government opens. Id note that no other colleagues are standing here on the floor with him. Id note that at least according to press reports, many of the conservative colleagues in this body reject this approach. And i would note that it would make no sense to pick a few shut down the government and pick a few groups. Who wants to shut the government down . In my view, mr. President , its the tea party. They said it all along. They advocated for it. There are countless instances where even in 2010 Tea Party Folks said lets shut the government down. Then its said after the government is shut down, that president obama or this size or the senator from illinois caused it when we had a bipartisan resolution with the majority on this side. An opportunity. I think the junior senator from texas urged the resolution. 25 of them did not. That kept the government open here in the senate. There were many, everyone on this side, the other side of the aisle, opposes obama care. But the majority didnt want to use a bludgeon and say unless you reject obama care, were going to shut the government down. Were not in an alice in wonderland world, where those who advocate shutting the government down and accuse others. That is not washing with the American People. And it wont wash in this body with the vast majority of members on both sides of the aisle. So i would say to my colleagues, if you wish to have a debate on what parts of the government should be funded and at what level, it is wrong in my opinion to say shut the government down and then well decide piecebypiece which we opened. Thats alice in wonderland in my judgment. I would rather, makes much more sense to have the government open and then have the debate in the proper place, a conference committee, to first deprive the National Parks of dollars by advocating shutting the government down, then accuse others who dont want to leave 98 of the government behind, and of the people who work there behind. And of the American People who depend on so many other programs. Whether its Student Loans or feeding the hungry, its wrong. So i would ask consent that the request be modified as follows that the amendment which is at the desk be agreed to. That the joint resolution be amended, be read a third time and pass and the motion considered be considered laid and made on the table with no intervening action or debate. This amendment passed the senate, a clean continuing resolution for the entire government, actually leaving no man or woman behind. And its something thats already over in the house and has the support reportedly of a majority of the members of the house, including members of both parties. So would the senator agree to modify his request . Does the senator agree to so modify his request . Mr. President , reserving the right to object, i thank the senator from new york for his heart felt concern for the Republican Party. I note that the senator from new york stated that i, quote, have advocated shutting down the government. Friends ono note my the democratic side of the aisle have described what they claim isbe the piecemeal approach following my priorities. Several democrats have used that language publicly. I must note, mr. President , i find it ironic. If i were to stand up here and say it was my priority and not a priority of the democrats to military, reserve, National Parks, Fund Research they would quite rightly be able to rise and say i was impugning their motives. Imagine a greater insult to claim it is not a priority of members of this body to treat fairly our veterans and yet what a far and so striking as so Many Democrats go out publicly and embrace it. Isy say funding the veterans senator cruises priority and not ours. Yet what i will note even on is the funding proposal the house of representatives has passed are not even the houses priorities even though they have a legitimate role lying out their priorities for funding but they obamasident priorities. A few days ago the president gave a speech to this country, a watchedhat we all los downly that if i shut happen they would find their support centers unstaffed and he parksaid with regards to tourists will find everyone at the National Parks and monuments from yosemite to the smithsonian to the statue of liberty immediately closed. To the credit of the house of representatives, they listen to the president s speech, listen to his priorities, and the house act did with bipartisan cooperation and said, mr. President , we have heard your priorities, lets ponder them. Lets Work Together. My friend from maryland gave a speech about how important it is that we should fund food inspectors and the department of agriculture and our Intelligence Community. Andlly agree with him indeed would be happy to work arm in arm to fund the Intelligence Community today. The only impediment to that happening is that the democrats in this body are objecting. Should beat abundantly clear. When it comes to parks and memorials, we have all heard about them being turned away from the world war ii memorial. We have already about mount vernon, which is privately owned, the federal government blocking the parking lot i ask permission to direct a question to the senator from texas. Will you yield for a question . Im happy to yield. I was under the assumption that my friend would offer the my onlyagreements concern is this. I have six senators over here wishing to speak. To take 20 minutes following this in addition to the time you have taken now . The senator from texas. Leaderink the majority for his question and i begin with the unanimous consent requests and it was my intention to keep my remarks at the end but i would note my friends on the democratic side of the aisle have chosen to stand up and give their remarks. If the remarks are to be given by the democrats than it is certainly appropriate that some response be given. The courtesy the majority leader was asking and not the remarks that his friends and colleagues made had any response, that was not a courtesy i was prepared to give. I was prepared to work and cooperate on timing but not to allow only one side of a discussion to be presented. Pending the consent the unanimous consent requests that he finishes his consent and there is one more, as i understand it. Then i asked permission for the next senator to be recognized, senator mikulski. For 10 minutes. Its not bad. Only a couple of speakers. Senator mikulski for up to 15 minutes. I apologize for the interruption. The floor is the senators from texas. Without objection. Is there an objection to the modification . The modification . Is there an objection to the modification of your consent request . Objectrving the right to , the modification the senator from new york has suggested is that he is unwilling to open our National Parks to open our memorials unless every other aspect of the government is open immediately and obamacare is forced upon the American People. That is, quite simply and the senateying that will not respond to president obamas priorities. He gave a speech saying we could open our parks are memorials on the house of representatives said, we will work with you to do that and today the democrats in the senate are rejecting and saying we want every park in memorial closed, it will all be held hostage until obamacare is forced on every american and i find that very objectionable and i object. Objection to the original request . Reserving the right to an objection and i will be brief. Texasnior senator from has said that it is president obama and the democrats who are shutting the government down. My modification which he just objected to would open up the entire government. We put it on the floor. We are all for it. He objected. Therefore i will object to the snior senator from texas proposal. The objection is heard. The senator from texas. I asked unanimous consent that the senate concede to the immediate consideration of hj appropriationsng for the National Institute for health and i ask that it he read three times and passed down that emotion for reconsidering being laid and made upon the table. Is there an objection . Leader. Rity i would use just a few minutes of leader time and its very brief. Heres what im going to say. Mr. President , weve heard this back and forth stuff about veterans, but in addition to what the senator from washington said, let me read one paragraph from the record yesterday. I believe the resolution the hastor is offering the past only partial funding for the va. There is no funding to operate national cemeteries, none for the board of veterans appeals unfortunate thing va hospitals and clinics, none to operate the i. T. Systems that they need in order to going forward. I reserve the right to object to my friend from texass request. Object, as do most americans there is no reason for us to have to choose between important government functions, as has been said by my three colleagues and so brilliantly this morning. I guess my objection is best hair phrased by reading a column in the washington post. Is continuing what may be called the lifeboat strategy to see which functions are worth saving. Children, pregnant children, just about every function that regulates business. Here are some of those not on the gop lifeboats. Market regulation, Chemical Spill investigation, antitrust enforcement, Workplace Safety inspection, Environmental Protection agency, communications, trade regulation , nutrition for pregnant women and children, food monitoring, and functions of the cdc as well as housing and rental assistance for the poor. Mr. President , one month ago, i spent one day at the national and to dove health. I remember so clearly one where this went to young girl about 12 years old had come back for her second visit. She had a disease that you really did not know for sure what it is. They were trying to figure out what she had. They were on the cusp of being able to figure that out and her parents were very happy. Mr. President , we know how important it is that children, babies, adults the taken care of , especially towards the time when they have no hope. Those with the nih is about. President , i really believe we should have all of the government. This is a trip down a road that is so foolish we need not be there. People have a problem with obamacare and i know my friend, the junior senator from texas, does not here for obamacare. A context thatn is a reasonable land fair and not have all of the people in america so troubled with this. I heard an interview with the governor of maryland this morning. They are losing 20 million a day because of the government being closed in maryland. President , i would ask my friend to accept a modification and it is one that is so well intentioned. All it would do is open the government to take care of the National Institute of health, the veterans, including all of the stuff left out of the consent which we had read. It will take your of the National Parks. Have won a few minutes outside of las vegas and millions of people per year visit that. We have one about 12 miles out great vegas and we have a basin National Park. Mr. President , that would solve this problem like that. I ask consent that my friend from texas consent to modify an amendment which the desk agreed to in the joint resolution read a firm time and emotion be reconsidered with no intervening action or debate area this text passed the senate and is a claim continuing resolution for the entire government and it is already in the house and has majority of a supported the house of representatives. Made, thatnt that i little girl, she came back for her clinical trial, likely she would not be able to get any help just as we learned earlier peopleek there were 200 turned away from Clinical Trials, 30 of which were babies and children. Does the senator agreed to so modify his request . Toreserving the right reject, i think most americans want to see a compromise. The house of representatives has repeatedly compromised. The house began. It is the view of every republican in this body and every republican in the house that obamacare should be entirely and completely repealed. Nonetheless, the house started with a compromise not with repealing obamacare but simply that it should be defunded. Senate that the majority leader and 54 democrats voted in lockstep to say absolutely not. Up with athen came second compromise. They said, fine. If the senate will not fully agree to the Fund Obamacare, lets agree to a reasonable one year delay. President obama has deleted already for big business. Workingreat hard American Families at least the same. Lets have a delay because we see how badly it is working. Thats a big compromise. It came over from the senate. 54 Senate Democrats said they absolutely would not talk or compromise. Shut down the government. The house came back a third time and said, ok. How about we simply delay the individual mandate . One small portion of obamacare and we revoke the congressional exception that he of the exempt usgave us to from the burdens of obamacare afflicted on millions of americans. That represented an enormous compromise from the view of republicans that obamacare should be repealed in its entirety. What did the senate say . Did they say we should work down and work something out . Did the senate say to find a middle ground . No. The majority leader and the 54 democrats said absolutely we will not compromise. Shut down the government. Thats why the government to shut down. Just a moment ago the majority leader gave his latest offer give us everything we are nodated, no compromise, middle ground. That is the position. Not a reasonable position. That is not how people Work Together to find a middle ground. It was reported the majority leader urged the president to not even talk to congressional leaders. The president apparently had a change of heart and sat down with congressional leaders and had an extraordinary conversation where president obama said i called you over here to say im not going to talk to you. Must admit thats a remarkable conversation. Call someone over to say hi, good to see you. We are not going to talk. Is going to be resolved we need to see good faith among members of both sides. Repeatedly been offering compromises to resolve this shutdown and, unfortunately, the behavior of the Majority Party in this body has been my way or the highway. One can only assume that the stated public belief which is what a Senior Administration official from the Obama Administration said, we think we are winning politically and we dont care when the ship down and this. Thats a paraphrase. That was certainly the thrust of the statement from what was described as a Senior Administration official. I think that is cynical and partisan. Its not what we should be doing. I wish the majority leader of the democrats would cede to what should be seen but it appears that they are not. Their position is to give us everything, fully Fund Obamacare and force it on the American People. Cannot consent to so i object. Is there objection to the original . I still reserve. Mr. President , my friend from texas among i have developed a. Elationship with him he talks about a meeting that he did not attend. The senator from texas did not attend and i was there. I was one of five people. The president , Speaker John Boehner, mitch mcconnell, and me. The Vice President was there also. Im sorry. I attended that meeting, mr. President. , comeesident did not say on ann. Im not going to talk to you. I have nothing to say. The meeting lasted an hour and 20 minutes and there were a lot of things said. One thing that was not said was who alice in wonderland talks about the meeting that was not there. Mr. President , lets talk about compromise. My friend brought up compromise. We have before us a continuing. Esolution my friend, the speaker of the house, john banner, called me and said we have to work this out. How are we going to get it done . This was on september 9. He says we have to have 988. I said it could not do that. Is 70 billion above that that we passed in the senate. 988. Not agree to fight. I want to get this done. So i spoke to chairman murray, chairman mikulski, and others. Even though it was desperately hard to do because we do not like that number. Thats not our number. We agreed to do it. That was a compromise. I have been in congress 31 years and that is the biggest compromise ive ever made. , but wes didnt like it did it. In an effort to have a clean cr. You talk about compromise, that was big time. Speaker boehner could not get it done. He could not get it done. It was his idea on how to get it done. Then mr. President , talk about further compromise, one of the last things we had left over from the house was the conference. Was sosomething that good he could not refuse. What did i do . With the cooperation of all 53 Democratic Senators, here is what we agreed to do. What we will do is go to not on little select areas. We will go to conference on i listed everything. Agriculture, discretionary spending, and yes we listed healthcare. I gave the letter to the speaker and i spoke to him 45 minutes later and he said, i cannot do it. President , i know what legislation is all about. It is the art of compromise. I understand that. We have compromised in a big time fashion. The speaker and other republican members of congress are in a real bind because the only thing they want to talk about is a law that passed four years ago, the Supreme Court declared constitutional, which is a little unusual. We are where we are because we not only have the Government Shutdown but we have the full faith and credit of our nation before us. Mr. President , i dont want say o able talk about how difficult it has been to accept that number and agreed to go to conference. Not anything. I object. The objection is heard. The senator from texas. I would yield. Following his statement of 20 minutes, i asked the following senators be recognized. Mikulski already has 15 minutes. Murray, i ask consent she follow mikulski for 10 minutes. Heinrich how much time . 10 minutes . Humor, 15 minutes. Be the case. That is there objection . The neck senators in order or on the democratic side . Senators in order . I would be happy to yield any of them. We have had a large number of her here this morning. Without objection. Senator from texas. Bismarckesident, famously talked about legislation being like making sausages. I wish we saw elected leaders in both parties working together to listen to the American People. The majority leader talked about the meeting at the white house and i will note he noted i was not at that meeting. That is certainly true. The statement that the president said he would not negotiate came directly from the speaker john. Anner Speaker John Boehner i know hes not impugning the integrity of the speaker of the house and disputing that is exactly what president obama said. Us 100 of what we want or the government station down. Is quite simply not reasonable. I would like to address a few of the arguments that have been because i dont think the arguments withstand scrutiny. We are not going to pick and choose. Theres no reason to choose between government priorities. Thats the essence of legislation. We have 17 trillion in debt. Theres no reason to choose between priorities. We should spend on everything. This is the traditional means of appropriating and legislating. The only reason we have this omnibus continuing resolution is because the congress has refused to do its job. We should be considering the va on it dont merit. Funded the most critical components of the va, pension, home loans, g. I. Bills,. Isability payments it funds the entirety of the va and we could reach unanimous agreement on that with an hours. It is one subject at a time and it is not typical when considering funding for the va at the argument be about unrelated matters. Is the department of agriculture or obamacare. The way this body has always operated is it considered one subject matter at a time except when it has failed to appropriate and everything gets lumped together in a giant omnibus bill. Bit asy, every critically, weve done it already. This is not theoretical. At the beginning of this proceeding, the house forimously passed a bill the military. Theyit came to the senate expected to funding the military. They prepared to make the argument that we should not hold the men and women of the military hostage. Pleasantur very surprise, the majority reconsidered. They agreed and this body unanimously passed funding for the men and women of the military. Soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, should not be held hostage. They should get their paycheck. Sadly, that was the last of that. Ehavior i hope that majority leader returns. The majority leader who said we are going to fund the military returns to say the same thing to our veterans. I hope that majority leader returns to say the same things to the National Guard, the parks hope hememorials and i returns to say the same thing to the National Institute of health , say the same thing to children facing lifethreatening diseases like cancer. There are differences. To resolve those differences it will take sitting down, talking, side ofthrough and one the chamber is willing to do this and the democrats are not. Meantime, it all to be a bipartisan priority to fund our veterans. A second possible objection, i how some possible funding the va, somehow this has to be connected to obamacare . As every member of this body knows, they have totally disconnected. It does not implicate obamacare, does not mention obamacare. Of this body thinks its a terrific bill young part of this body thinks its a train wreck. Thats an important debate. Whether or not they get the disability payment should not be held hostage. This bill. Ly like it is exactly the same. For whatever reason they made a decision that certainly appears to the public that appears to be partisan. Here should be no confusion the house of representatives have over him overwhelmingly protected overwhelmingly voted to protect. 35 democrats voted. It was bipartisan. They all agree we should fund the va and pass the bill. When the president addressed the nation he said his priority was to find the va. They agree we should fund the va. We have republicans in the senate and a democratic resident of the United States agreeing we should fund the va. If my friends on the democratic side of the aisle and plea stood up right now and withdrew their objections, by the end of the day, the va would receive its funding. My friends on the democratic side simply stood up and withdrew their objection, by the end of the day, the friends in the reserves would have paychecks and funding returned. If they withdrew their objection, by the end of the day , we would be able to open the statue of liberty and our War Memorials. Let me note there are many other priorities. There are many aspects of government. The directorweek, of National Intelligence and the nsa testified in front of a judiciary committee. Some 70 of civilians employed in the Defense Industry have been for low down to that resents a real threat to our National Security. Urloughed. En for regardless of what you do to the rest of the budget, lets fully fund the department of defense. I would note the junior senator from arizona asked to the head of National Intelligence, had you advise the president that congress should pass a continuing resolution just like we did for the members of the armed forces . The answer from the head of the National Intelligence appointed by president obama was, yes. Mr. President , right now we have who are notrats listening to the testimony and advise of the members of our Intelligence Community who say there is a grave National Security threat that we are not adequately prepared to defend ourselves against. Should partisan politics end. At that point we should be able to come together and say we on obamacareghting and eventually we would work it out. Surely, we should not expose our toional security to threats attacks on our homeland in the meantime. At the end of the day, theres only one explanation that makes sense for why you saw one democrat after another standing up and check thing, dont fund the va, dont fund the parks, the memorial, the national its to to self. The only explanation which is at all plausible is that many members of this body say that this the benefits the fortune of democrats. I sure hope theyre focused on things other than political fortune and partisan politics. They take seriously the obligation we have track constituents back home. Its hard for the American People not to be cynical when they read about mount vernon, which is privately owned and operated, does not get its money ,rom the federal government being effectively forced to shut down because the federal government blocks the parking tos and puts up barricades prevent people going to mount vernon. Its hard not to be cynical when you read about what senator john thune said about Mount Rushmore barricading the roads. To eradicateney them and the government said take them down. The only conclusion possible there is that you are seeing cynical, partisanship. Inflicting the maximum pain on the American People will yield political benefit. Able to agree the veterans are above politics. We ought to be able to agree that War Memorials are above politics. Able to agree that the funding National Security against terrorist threat is about all it takes. Congress is prepared to do so except for the Majority Democrats insisting everything be shut down. Mr. President , if a federal government worker is at home today, you should know the is in large part because the Senate Democrats refused to let you come back to work. Agree for a significant portion of the government to come back to work monday morning. If they would stop objecting and insisting they get everything on obamacare. The issue on obamacare is very simple. President obama has exempted big business and members of congress and yet he has forced a Government Shutdown to deny that same exemption to hardworking americans who are being forced skyrocketing premiums and losing their Health Insurance premiums. Theme remind this body of words of james hoffa who said is destroying health, using that word, destroying the health care of millions in this country. Thisu dont believe me, will underscore what this fight is about. The people who are right now getting notices that they are losing their Health Insurance, thats what this fight is about. Minimum, we ought to agree on common priorities. We have to come together today right now and funded the va. We ought to come together today and find our reservists and National Guard. We need to open our memorials and stop derrick aiding and sending Police Officers to prevent world war ii veterans from coming to the memorial. Everyone agrees on that. The decision to hold those priorities hostage because they ont to force obamacare everyone, it is not related to them. Them. Nothing to do with its all about political leverage. We should be listening to the people. We should make them listen. Hank you, mr. President [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] spoke. Ral other senators is next followed by marco rubio and alabama senator jeff sessions. Thank you, madam president. First of all, i want to thank for theirl Police Bravery and the important work that they do protect and all of us. Yesterday really showed how important they are so i want to thank them for everything that they did yesterday to make sure that people were protected. Madam president , this is day four of the Government Shutdown. It is a shutdown that did not need to happen. I had hoped when i came to the floor a few days ago, and i had hoped when i heard that congressional leaders were meeting with the president that , that they would have emerged from that meeting with a plan to and this impasse, to get the government open, to come to an agreement to responsibly fund the government and address the challenges we face as a nation. Yet, humming out of that meeting , what we got of course was a president who says he will not negotiate. We have a strategy that was from the beginning but i have said it was an ill conceived strategy. They fought that the funding obamacare and shutting down the , number one,uld stop the exchanges from happening. It already happened. T was illconceived again, we knew with the president in the white house that they were not going to defund the signature piece of. Egislation i have seen the impact already in my own state of New Hampshire anderms of premiums individuals. I do believe there is a better healthcare. Ss where we find ourselves right now is on except the bull. Asis on except the bull leaders who have been elected by this country. Constituents to resolve this now. On both sides, we need to get together, resolve this. Say to my republican colleagues and to some in this chamber, its time for a reality check. The funding obamacare did not work as a strategy. Lets find Common Ground and Work Together to address the concerns that are barely legitimate we have with this. Ealth care bill i would say to my colleagues yes, lets senate, work this out on behalf of the American People. I think where we are is an ill by many in mytegy party leading to an immature response that we will not negotiate and try to work this out on behalf of the American People. They are the ones suffering the most from the shutdown. Federal employees whether they will be able to pay their furloughed workers at the shipyards, smallbusiness owners who cannot get the help they need from the Small Business administration because they deserve better from this. I hope as we head into this weekend that the leaders of the house and senate, they will get on behalf of the American People to get this government open, resolve differences, find Common Ground and do the peoples business. Thank you, madam president. The senator from florida. Let me start by thanking the men and women of the Capitol Police department that reminds us there is a thin blue line that stands between us and danger. Its a moment to extend our thanks to all around the country who are around the thin blue line as well. We are thankful for how you keep us safe. How thisto talk about has been an interesting week to say the least. Up to the government slow down and then in the aftermath of this as well, about how many days we have been into this thing and there is no doubt this impasse is a problem and this is not the way to run the most important government. All they do is focus on politics and for them every day is election day. They are focusing on who is winning, who is getting the blame. I suppose that has a place in politics and in the governing process. Let me answer whos going to get the blame. We all are. Are goingle one of us to get the blame. Let me tell you why. There are people who woke up this morning you did not get aough sleep. They guzzled bunch of coffee and forced themselves to work. They are going to work today, go home and go all at it again. Why cant you guys do that . A validthats frustration people have with the process today. Im not happy with some of the things we have seen this week or the last couple of weeks. I think its very unfortunate that some of the rhetoric being used here, in this chamber, and the public domain, im more and what may notabout be what everyone else is worried about. I think its wrong. Who stand on principle and believe obama care going to badly damage obamacare, i think its wrong and it compares us to the taliban. They say were like people with bombs strapped to our chest. I think its wrong. The president has used the megaphone of the presidency not to bring them together but to deepen these divisions. Youre not the chairman of the democratic arty. You are the president of the United States. Acts like the president of the United States. Your job is to bring this nation together. I know people are going to say things about you you dont like. Rise above it. That are not the things worry about us the most. We are running out of time to fix it. There is no doubt this government slow down is not a good thing. This issue about the debt limit is the problem but it is not the most serious crisis we face either. Single most important crisis is that for millions of americans, the promise of the American Dream is literally slipping away through their fingers. Of the focus around the crisis of the day, i fear we are simply not spending enough time on that reality. A friend of mine in florida was on a twin engineer plants line from one part of the state to another. Plane flyingineer from one part of the state to another. Both of the pilot started to put out the fire and nobody was flying the plane. Within a few seconds of began to plunge and lost altitude. They figured it out quickly and were able to address it. They were not flying the plane. They realized in time that they did not start flying that it was going to be pretty insignificant. We have a government slow down thats a problem. The fire in our cockpit down the one we need to address is the erosion of the American Dream. You think the slowdown in government is problematic. That is one vote away from being solved. Either chamber and we can solve that problem. Let me tell you when the slowdown is going to be a problem when it slows down because the government no longer has the money to pay its bills. Think the debt limit situation is a problem, that is one vote away from being solved. Be ae tell you what will real problem, when no one wants to buy our debt anymore because we cannot pay them back. You think all of this division and dysfunction is bad for our economy . Yes. You know whats worse . A tax code that kills jobs. Regulation that on a daily basis is killing jobs. A National Debt killing jobs. One of the greatest destroyers of jobs today is obamacare and thats why we are so passionate about it. Peoplerican dream that throw around so loosely, it is basically the notion that no matter where you start out in life, you have the godgiven right to do hard work and perseverance to achieve a better life for yourself and leave them. Etter off its being eroded on a daily basis. Not near the attention enough attention is being paid on that. The most dangerous thing happening in washington today that everyone is so busy fighting is that there does not seem to be in focus on the crisis we are headed to pretty soon. We are on the verge of losing the American Dream. To one extent or another we are all guilty of this place enough focus. This is a reminder of me of why i wanted to serve to begin with. I do not think i know america is special. I was raised by and around people that know what life is like in places other than america. You are trapped. Thatre only allowed to do i those societies that we have been different and ive seen it with my own eyes. Mye seen that in neighborhood and in my families. They have come here with little through hard work and perseverance achieve a Meaningful Life and the their kids better off. I also see how there are millions out there now trying to achieve the same thing. Theyre finding it harder and harder to do it. We are on the verge of losing that. Every day that it is eroded. People love to use that term, and exceptional nation. It is primarily because of the American Dream. Powerful militaries. What makes us different is that here, if you are willing to work hard, you can be rewarded with a better life. That is eroding. If we lose that, we lose what makes us special and different. No one seems to be fighting enough about it. It relates to the American Dream. This undermines the American Dream. The reason why the tax code matters is because it undermines the American Dream. The reason why im so passionate about obamacare is it undermines the ability of people to achieve the American Dream. The reason why iran for office is because we are headed in the wrong direction because we are. Osing the American Dream we still have time to fix this but we dont have all century or decade. We have got to take these issues seriously or we will be known as the first generation of americans who lost the American Dream and left our children worse off than ourselves. We still have time to refocus ourselves on this. With all the noise about who is responsible for what am i hope we can use these challenges before us as a catalyst to focus on these issues about why they matter. They matter because they are hurting people. Were trying to achieve a better life. Focus onthat, if we that, and resolve the problems , we an eye towards that have an opportunity to do what every generation has done, to leave our children better off into leave them what our parents left for us. They are very important. It is an action by the United States that i think has helped in a number of ways with the radicalism in iran and we need to keep it up. I did hear yesterday testifying before the budget judiciary hadittee and he said he these people not working, senator grassley said. If they are not critical people, than why do you need so many . , enough a critical job people to do the critical duties. How many do you need. You must not need all of these people. You say they are not important. I dont think he had a very good answer to that. When they raise the question of defense cuts and onto the budget thing, at, that sort of he expressed concern about that, which i would share. Hes right to be concerned about it. Way to 1600the pennsylvania avenue . Have you ever heard of the commanderinchief of the United States . The house, the republicans house, i must say, has half a dozen times or more over several years passed legislation that uses those cuts and find the reductions in spending from other departments and agencies that received no cuts and reduces the burden on the and Ae Department represents 1 6 of the United States budget and they are being asked to take one half of the cuts. Dont think that counts bringing down costs in iraq and afghanistan. Thats entirely different. Half the cuts on the budget control act. It ought to be spread around. Timesmore than one dozen voted to do that and died in the senate. I guess theyre utilizing the military to threaten the republicans if you dont do what we want, we are not going to fund your military. The commanderinchief of United States military. Doesnt he have a responsibility to make sure we are adequately funded . Im just getting a little frustrated with that argument. Say isf all, i dont required to lay off that many people. He indicated he is reviewing it and will bring back more people as he could have been doing but he did allow another example of disastrous complaints eon reality, i think. And many of our democratic colleagues have been direct sustained and attack on millions of people who supported and identified with the tea party movement. Make no mistake about it. Do not respect the people in the tea party movement. They demean them in every way and virtually every day and this body. Everybody a part of that movement because they believed in america, they felt the United States justice has gone lunatic in spending this into bankruptcy. Obamacare with the overwhelming objection of the American People and they did it anyway without listening. They spontaneously rose up and clobbered a lot of emma craddick senators. They dont like it. Them, it that opposes says youre not listening to us and they are now the meaning and. Ttacking the American People who have identified in support of the tea party either directly or indirect leak, need to know that. They love. They care about america. They think were going into bankruptcy and we have forgotten the concept of constitutional limited government. A lot of talk about the challenges facing the government during the funding. All of us want to see the government return to normal operations. I certainly do. What we seem to be losing is in sight of the permanent consequences, debt consequences of the Affordable Care act. It needs to be a part of the discussion. The democrats refuse to listen. They basically block any effort in the senate to reform in any significant way the Affordable Care act. It has been going on ever since the past. The goal is to put up a wall around it. It is a fact. It is a deal. You cannot even discuss. The house has a right to fun with a want to fund under the constitution. They are not funding what i choose not to. They are trying to initiate and force a discussion on one of the most important issues facing america, and one of the things that is so dangerous about this is not properly discuss. I want to talk about it today. A lot of us are going to donate friends would our begin to be more concerned for the arrive at sector workers. Millions of American Workers who will be affected by the Affordable Care act. Hammered by it. Eventually, full funding will resume to our government. We know that. The furlough will end. If this obamacare remains in full effect, the consequences for American Workers is going to be lasting. So were the consequences to the treasury. And our financial conditions. I like to focus on the huge and fundamental accounting manipulation that lies at the center of this Health Care Law. Im going to make state miss today, and i hope somebody if. Hey have the details to it people dont want to talk. They want to ignore. We have to deal with these accounting manipulations. It is a colossal blow to our treasury. The Affordable Care act was packaged and sold based on a going tohat i am disprove. The American People knew that wasnt true anyway. Before a joint session of congress, before a joint session of congress, the United States congress, the president United States said and promised this. I will not sign a health care. Lan they would double counted under the legislation that was passed. At least 400 billion. 400 billion. I ask for an analysis before the bill passed. December 23, we ended up voting on december 24. Scott brown, who denied them the 60th vote, was elected in massachusetts. On the commitment that he would be the vote to kill obamacare. The night before we voted, i asked cbo about it. It would be received by the government only wants. To payn not be set aside for future medicare spending, and at the same time, pay for current spending on the other parts of the legislation of obamacare. Or on the programs. I would ask for another two minutes. Amount ofe the full hih rest fund savings, as both improving the governments ability to pay medicare future benefits, and finance a new spending outside of medicare with a sense with the double counts, a large share of those savings, and overstate the improvement in the government fiscal position. What a statement. If medicare savings were set aside, the new Health Care Law would not decrease, but increase the deficit over the first 10 years. They say it would increase the deficit. There is a lesson equally shocking that i want to mention today. Hello was done with Social Security. They will pay another hundred Million Dollars over the next 10 years by double counting Social Security money. Is up. E i can explain in more detail. We have to understand this. According to the Government Accountability office, i asked them not too long ago. They issued a report. Term the next long implementation of this, it would add 6. 3 trillion to the debt of the audit states. That is almost as much as the liabilities of Social Security. My budget self tells me that the obamacare legislation will be harder to find. Wen he to stop digging, need to stop digging. I think the chairman and yield the floor. Said majority leader harry reid and other senate Democratic Leaders speaking to the Government Shutdown. The renewed their call for the house to take up the Senate Passed funding bill atwood in the shutdown with a majority vote in the house. This is 25 minutes. Last night the president announced he wasnt taking a trip to asia for the two summits that he had. The shutdown is obviously unfair to the American People, and embarrassing to the American People. Stage ofy on the International Events the president had planned for a long time. He has been hamstrung in his efforts to keep america competitive and secure because republicans simply are unwilling to allow us to open the government. This kind of a basic function of what we do. The shutdown is hurting our economy. Had conversations with elected officials in nevada. They are concerned. They are losing revenue as result of the shutdown. As all states are losing revenue. This is just not an economic issue. It is about National Security. The Government Shutdown is hurting our ability to enforce to gatherons on iran, intelligence, operate our own armed forces, just to name a few. The Treasury Department has for load 90 of the employees of the office of terrorism. That is their charge. They are not able to fill that. Monitoring agency, only 11 out of 175 working today. R secretary of state 72 of the intelligence communities has been idled by the Government Shutdown. I wish on these figures this morning. Whats really incredible has happened. 900 phds. 4000 computer sciences. I thousand not mass petitions 1000 mathematicians now working. James connie ward his agency would have to implement furlough days just to meet the painful sequester. Now it is worse than that. There are workers still going to work at the fbi. , he has saidstaff that the shutdown impacts day today operations of the army. The longer it goes on, the worse it gets every day. We are losing manpower incapability. Courageous men and women coming to work doing so without we witness an event here in capitol hill. Weapons being discharged, bullets. A number of those people are working without pay. Could in theer shutdown if the quantity. Lets remind everyone why. Whyrepublicans try to cover they were closing the government. Threatening to not extend the debt. Obamacare. I say to my friend john boehner, it is not about you and harry reid. It is about our country. Our National Security. Do the right thing for the men , in the shutdown now. Thank you. 20 for hours ago, we face a potential threat to our own personal security on capitol hill. The minute women of the Capitol Police went forward to protect us. A woman lost her life in the process. They were doing their duty. They were doing their duty, and we should respect them for it. It is another thing for him to respect whatand they are doing by paying for them. Here they go to work every day. Part of the tea Party Shutdown of the government is so senator reid has said earlier that it isnt the whole story i long shot. There is a lot more involved in this. To think we have laid off 72 of our civilian intelligence employees. At this moment in time in our history, it is unthinkable. To think 90 of those who were responsible for enforcing the iran sanctions to stop the development of Nuclear Weapons have been for load is unthinkable. Can declare ae timeout, but he cannot. Neither can the tea party. This threat continues. This notion that we are going to furlough, layoff, nab not pay others for protecting us here is not in the best interest of americas National Security. Let me tell you reaches beyond the federal pay low payroll. They are facing a situation that he has publicly announced year that he has announced year. The lack of department of defense inspectors on production lines. 4000 people out of work because of the decision of the Tea Party Republicans to shut down the government. We have learned that every time ago to the floor and tell the stories, the Tea Party Republicans say we will make an exception. Need we should come to the floor of the senate or the house and read the director of the federal agencies. Would they open the government then . The point is these men and women are doing important work to keep this country safe and moving forward. It is an embarrassment that we have reached this point. If a resistant this, it is quite her more than just that a rural employees. It is quite to damage our economy. We are going to find ourselves moving backwards instead of forwards. Harry andy dick. Harry and dick. I spoke this morning to officer carter. He is the Police Officer who was injured. He is a 24 year veteran. Of the Capitol Hill Police force. It looks like he will be back on the job in two days. Here is the point. These people were not for load furloughed. If that they are not getting job, theyne little did a great job. The belittling of the federal , including officer carter. The second one i want to make is related to security. Some americans are saying it didnt affect me. It affects every american because the National Security has decreased because of the tea Party Shutdown. Harry mentioned the intelligence agencies. We are only 72 of the people who are not working. They are very vital people. These are not slackers are people not doing their job. Workinge diligent, hard people protecting us. Mary area i choose to focus on here is iran and sanctions. Focus onea i choose to is the iran sanctions. We are finally seeing a change. It is an opening. That occurred o because of sanctions. The diligence of the minute women who are enforcing the sanctions. There are all kinds of rose to get around the sanctions. They look every way to do it. Federal employment theyve done a great job. The office of intelligence and analysis, the office of financial crimes enforcement, they have 30 of their 345 employees. The primary office for the sanctions is operating with a scaleables cap. Scalable staff. Shutdown lightens those sanctions for more than any negotiation could do. It lines the sanctions, and the people who want to sell oil to iran, who want to trade with iran, are back in business. This is another. There are so many that assets to the shutdown. I know a senator cruise will do tomorrow. We mentioned iran sanctions. He will a bill on the floor. Fund these offices. Maybe if we talk about middle class families getting Health Getting help for Student Loans, bill put a bill on the floor to do that. Maybe if we talk about middleclass families, they will put a on the floor to do that rate it is ridiculous. We have something to say to our republican colleagues. Their talking point is lets talk. We are happy to talk. Talking is not going to undo the damage to our economy, and to summon the american citizens with the tea Party Shutdown. They are talking point theyre talking point leaves out what should be said first. Just vote. Bring back the government. All the people who are vital to our security, and our health, and our wellbeing. Then lets talk. We want to modify the republican talking point today. We do not want to change it. We want to say youre talking point is missing a vital piece. Just vote. Then, lets talk. Over the past week ive been in touch with the r b on the m m impacts of this vote. There is impact of the shutdown on the nations heroes. I wanted to share with all of you some of the information on just how many veterans will be impacted if this continues into the weeks ahead. The next day the checks will go out in the mail, up to 5 million veterans may not receive benefits they have earned to make ends meet. Over 700,000 young veterans, many who are doing multiple afghanistan, when i get the benefits they are using to transition back to civilian careers. Who willand veterans only see their wait time increase. This is absolutely unacceptable. Our nations veterans are waiting. They are watching. I know that my republican friends in the house think they have a Silver Bullet solution to every problem that has been created by the shutdown. I know the house is going to nd a week in getting out giving out exemptions. Here is the truth. Anyone who has worked on Veterans Issues will tell you, it is not one program or one agency that provides the services and benefits all of her veterans rely on. It is a variety of programs, all across our government. Homeless grants. It is not as simple as House Republicans or senator cruise think it is. Veterans understand that. I just saw a store in the Huffington Post that included interviews with our veterans who are visiting the world war ii memorial. Unsurprisingly, many said that veteran specific measures were not enough. Wilber tate, a veteran from kansas, said that i think it should all be reopened. Another world war ii veteran who served in the navy said, i think the whole works should be reopened. It can be. It is up to Speaker Boehner. The senate has passed a short term bill to open up the government and end the manufactured crisis. We know there is a bipartisan majority in the house that supports that approach. All Speaker Boehner has to do is let them vote. This isnt the time to talk about opening up the government. It is the time to actually do it. No more gimmicks or games. Stop scrambled to make it look like they care about families. Do something to help them. Once the house passes our bill, once the in the crisis, and stop threatening the country with another, we would sit down with the republicans and work towards what we have been trying to work for for more than six months to my longterm budget deal. I have been trying to start a budget conference now for over six months. As you know, it has been blocked every time. Yes, lets start. First, lets ask and in the crisis. Aside from the meeting you had at the white house, have you walked the 100 yards or so to Speaker Boehners office to talk through possible solutions, or has he come to your office . I have said, and i will tell you again, i am not sure anyone comprehends how difficult it was to negotiate the numbers Speaker Boehner said we would have to agree to for a clean cr. It took several days. Kolskyince murray in the that we would accept 70 billion less than what we passed on the senate floor budget. I did that. In good faith that the compromise that negotiations would bear fruit. I lived up to my end of the bargain. He did not. That he try to send over a clean cr. We know that he tried to attach that the deepening of obamacare. We are where we are. Everyone understands the fact ist the only thing they want the end of obamacare. Ats say there were republican president , and we had a democratic majority. To we say we will be happy raise the debt ceiling. There is 85 of the American People supporting background checks, people who have mental illness, and her criminals. We are not want to let them buy guns. We will allow the government to reopen if you accept this bill that the vast majority of the American People except raid the difference in this and what they are trying to do, is that it is a different subject matter. The president cannot do this. He explained that clearly. Better than i did. This thing that they have come up with, we saw the exchange. We poll tested this. This is a great idea. We have negotiated our hearts out. We have gone one step further. We will give you a deal you cant refuse. That is you want to talk, we are going to negotiate and have a conference at anything you want to talk about. Agriculture. Discretionary spending. We will talk about health care. It is a deal we thought he couldnt refuse. But he did. We have negotiated a lot. Said, senator murray has once the government reopens amid get the debt ceiling settled, we will be happy to talk about anything they want to talk about. If there were things that they didnt include in the letter, we will talk about them. A Park Service Ranger in washington who was reported saying they have make life as difficult for people as we can. Parks that are privately funding are being closed. Parks are privately funded . Nonprofits. They want to know why the being close. Using this being done at despite . Do you think this is being done out of spite . We believe that all government should be running. I do not know about nonprofits. That all government should be open. On thethe things National Parks, the state of nevada is 80 on by the state of nevada. You cant pick and choose. It doesnt work. I dont know about this lady. You have to talk to her yourself. The fact is we are doing the best we can. Every federal agency is doing the best we can to follow guidelines given by the office of management and budget breed that includes senator durbin, chair of the appropriations subcommittee on defense. He has talked and leslie about he has talked in leslie about the federal employees who work for the Defense Department. Half her veterans. 25 are disabled. They not being paid now. I dont know what a park ranger said. This is a tremendous hurt the people throughout america feel because of the intransigence of Speaker Boehner. The funding level decision was made before the shutdown. One side has the advantage offers some face saving measure to the other so they can save face. This is not a facesaving deal. This isnt a date to the prom. This is our country. Get thisery hard to caucus to accept that lower number. It is a lower number. 70 billion less. Lets not give this facesaving business here. Lets talk about our country. Our country. What is more important . Our country, or leadership . I hoped i would have the courage when i came to that, i would choose the country, not over my job as leader. [inaudible question] the problem we have with what is going on in the house of representatives, it changes by the hour. They had a bunch of bills. Last i heard, they were in recess trying to figure things out. Pretty determined that we do things not in an erratic fashion. Were going to wait and see what happens. I hope they open the government today. We wait to see what we do next week. I am not going to be determining what we do next week until next week. People start to blame democrats . You search the papers with maine. Find anything that suggests democrat said anything to do with the shutdown. What is your plan for the retroactive pay for furloughed workers . Is it something you get the the senate. I have no idea what the house is planning to do. They are changing from day to day. Our tower. We will see what they do. We will be in session tomorrow and a terminal we have. Thanks. Will be in session tomorrow and determine what we have. Thanks. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2013] both chambers of congress are in session tomorrow. The house gavels in at 9 00 eastern to consider a bill that would provide paid to federal employees who have been furloughed because of the shutdown. The senate will be in at noon for general speeches. Off the floor, lawmakers are searching for ways to resolve their differences over funding the federal government, and the Health Care Law. Ive coverage of the house live coverage of the house on c span. Government shutdown continuing through the weekend, we are interested to hear how it is affecting you. Take a poll at our Facebook Page and post your thoughts at facebook. Com. Cspan. Public events brought directly to you. Events, briefings, and conferences. Offering gaveltogavel coverage of the u. S. House as a Public Service of industry. Created by the cable industry 34 years ago, funded by local cable or satellite provider. You can watch us and hd. Coming up next, an airing of newsmakers with jen Jeb Hensarling. He talks about the ongoing shutdown and what it might mean for the debate over raising the debt ceiling. Congressman Jeb Hensarling, republican of texas. Part of the Republican Leadership team in the house of representatives. Thank you for being with us. Good morning. Let me introduce our reporters. From usa today and Washington Bureau chief for the washington journal. We are all interested as the debt ceiling date moves closer, what you see as the endgame for what is going on with the standoff on the budget in washington. How do you see this all coming together and ending . Regrettably, my crystal ball is a little fuzzy. House republicans have now put one offer on the table, a second offer, a third offer, a fourth offer. We are not through negotiating, but we are through negotiating with ourselves. Regrettably, the president called congressional leaders over yesterday to tell them in person what he already told them in public, that was we refuse to negotiate. Ultimately, i do not believe that is what the American People believe in in divided government. House republicans won a few simple things. We expect to negotiate under our constitution. It is congress that has the power of the purse, not the power of the rubber stamp. House republicans will negotiate in good faith. We are not going to rubber stamp necessarily what the president and senator harry reid want to do. Second of all, obviously obama care is a huge, divisive factor within our nation. Regrettably, for House Republicans it is not going away as long as president obama is president. But we said, if obamacare is going to be imposed upon the nation it ought to be imposed equally. Equal protection under the law. No special deals for big business, big labor unions. No special deals for washington elites while working americans are having to suffer through this program. Alternately, this is about tens of millions of our fellow countrymen, underemployed and unemployed in this week, tepid recovery. And trillions and trillions of debt. We are on the road to bankruptcy. People in washington say, dont rock the boat, put this off until tomorrow. We cannot put this off until tomorrow. The opportunity on the continuing resolution and the debt ceiling is to deal with improving our economy to put us on the road to fiscal solvency today. Today is the time to seize the moment. Congressman, as you pointed out, you had four bills. They rejected everyone. What is it you realistically hope to a combo should now . Give us a specific proposal you think might actually work were not sure anything is going to work if the president and harry reid refused to negotiate. In the press today, the administration said they really do not care how long the Government Shutdown last because we are winning. They take a political view that this is about politics if it is not about the republic, about citizens who are suffering, im not sure they go to the negotiating table. If obamacare is going to be imposed upon the rest of the country, employers, big businesses should not get a one year reprieve if their employees do not. If obamacare is good enough for working americans, it ought to be good enough for the president and the Vice President , the cap, the white house, and members of congress. There should not be any special carveout. Otherwise, in our budget we have a number of items. The socalled supercommittee. There are lots of ideas on the table we are willing to negotiate in order to promote Economic Growth, get our country back to work. And again, to do something about this explosion of debt. More debt in four years under president obama than our nations first 200. As one economist famously said, something that is unsustainable will one day cease. We have to deal with it today. In our House Republicans budget written by congressman paul ryan we have hundreds of ideas that we are willing to negotiate in good faith but cannot negotiate a loan. You say you are willing to negotiate in good faith. The house passed a budget, the senate also passed a budget. Why want the house negotiate that budget . We have conferees that are appointed, happy to talk about the budget, the cr, the debt ceiling. Nobody is showing up. I find it somewhat ironic that a body that did not even bother to follow the law and ignore passing a budget for four years now all of a sudden is lecturing the house about budget matters. I find that somewhat ironic. Congressman, i take it from what you said that the goal is no longer to deFund Obamacare and no longer to delay the individual mandate. If i could interrupt, this is always the goal. Democrats have been working on their version of a government controlled health care system, i would argue, since harry truman. Certainly at least since hillary care. It is unrealistic to think that after three years the republicans are going to throw in the towel. But the law is the law. Probably 95 of obamacare is what is known as automatic spending or mandatory spending. So regrettably under the law no, we are not going to quit fighting for this, but at this point if the president turns down these other offers, all were saying is at least apply the law equally. The president has already done 1100 specialinterest carveouts. That should not be happening. There is a carveout for big business and labor unions. That should not be happening. There is a carveout for washington elites. Why isnt the president the first to sign up for obamacare . He is not subject to it. I understand your frustration the senate will not accept the versions of the continuing resolutions the house passed. At least they voted on those. I am wondering why the house will not vote on a clean extension of the continuing resolution the senate has passed. They have voted on it. They have table a number of these measures. It is important to note that it is House Republicans who passed legislation to open our National Parks. The president says no, i will veto that. House republicans have passed legislation to make sure our veterans get their benefits and the white house has threatened to veto. We have legislation to ensure the National Institutes of health that is critical work for patients with cancer, including children, and now we know senator harry reid on cnn when asked why he would not open up the nih, even if you could help one child struggling with cancer, the answer is, why would i want to do that . It seems to me this is a rather cynical ploy. The white house is quoted in the papers saying they do not care how long the shutdown lasts. It is regrettable. So we have passed bills, bill after bill to keep the government open. We have disagreed. It is our fourth offer on two provisions of obamacare. If it is good enough for working americans, it ought to be good enough for the washington elites whom opposed the bill. There is a oneyear reprieve for employers. There ought to be a oneyear reprieve for employees. That is a position that would be overwhelmingly supported by the American People. I think you know we are now getting 25, 30, 35 democrats in the house to say enough is enough, lets get the Government Back open and they are supporting these provisions in the house. I want to challenge you a little bit on the statement that there is a carveout for washington elites. What you are really talking about is the employer contribution that the federal government has always made to employees of congress and members of congress. You are saying now they should no longer get simply because obama is what im saying, right now members of congress would have been the only people in the individual pull that were receiving an employer contribution. The only people if you want to try to convince the American People that somehow washington elites are getting the same deal, you can carry on that case. It is not the way i see it. There is a broader issue here. It is not just members of congress. Why isnt the white house involved . Why isnt the president , the Vice President , the cabinet, the white house personnel. Why arent they part of obamacare . One thing the American People are cynical about is washington elites imposing laws on others that they do not impose on themselves. I just want to be treated equally under the law. We now understand opm, i am not sure, people will have to look into it, are now putting members of congress and their and their staff into the Small Business exchange. Last time i looked, government and congress was not a Small Business. I do not know they have the Legal Authority to do this. It is a simple issue, what the level of their compensation ought to be. I think a clear reading of the law, it is hard to figure out how you could be having an employer contribution in the individual pull. I just do not think opm has the Legal Authority to do that. The law has so many different specialinterest provisions and sweetheart deals. So lets make it clear in the law. I do not want to lose my employer subsidy, but i do want to follow the law. 15 minutes left. Congressman, you do not have to look far beyond the Government Shutdown to see the next problem, that the country is close to hitting the debt ceiling. Given that deadline is approaching very quickly, do you think it is now likely that both issues, the Government Shutdown and debt ceiling increase the white house ekes, will be resolved together . I would say with time on the clock, i do not know exactly when the socalled date will take place. Treasury has the opportunity to manage that. The date is whatever secretary lew claims the date will be. Frankly, there may be a likelihood there. Again, House Republicans have a bill, hr 807, the full faith and credit act, to make sure america never defaults on its bonds. No default on sovereign debt. And the white house issued a veto threat. Why would they do that . I can only imagine yet again they want to use it for leverage for their vision of government, their vision of spending. That is not going to happen. Whatever passes for fiscal responsibility in this town, which is not much, that is attached to the debt ceiling. It is a very important vote. Be it the budget control act, again, whatever passes for fiscal responsibility in washington dc is attached to the debt ceiling. The president says, i refuse to negotiate. Ok, fine. Lets at least take to fall off the table. The other day i saw something i never thought i would see in my lifetime. A president of the United States appearing to spook markets. He is asked on national television. His response was, they do not take it as seriously as they should. I have never seen that before. The problem Financial Professionals inside the administration see with the full faith and credit act is it would amount to paying off chinese bondholders but not guaranteeing other creditors of the government get paid. And it would make people in the bond market reluctant to buy bonds if they are under a legal cloud as to the provision might be disputed in court. There is a practical problem was not raising the debt ceiling. Do you not agree . I do not know what could be clearer under the law than taking sovereign debt, taking our u. S. Bonds out of the debt ceiling calculation. I am unaware of any legal cloud. I am aware of a veto threat. I am a where of a president of the United States who clearly wants to try to hold our sovereign debt hostage. The bond rating agencies, as i understand, moodys and one other, they get it. They understand this is about sovereign debt. The American People do not equate bonds with funding the next irs star trek video, the travel expenses for the alabama watermelon queen, pottery classes in morocco. There is something very different between a Bond Obligation and a budget priority. We are on a road to bankruptcy. Everybody says, lets do it another day. Others in the Administration Just want to turn off the debt ceiling boat. My guess is greece did not have a debt ceiling boat. Detroit did not have a debt ceiling boat. It is like turning off the smoke alarm when the fire breaks out. I want to press you on that a little more. You mentioned moodys. Moodys said that even if we prioritize the debt, november 1 when we have a payment due they will not be enough receipts in the federal treasury to pay both the bondholders and Social Security recipients, much less Veterans Health care and military salaries and all of the other things you have exempted from the shutdown. Would this be even worse than the shutdown . The full faith and credit act, in accordance with the constitution, explicitly exempts Social Security. It would not be a part of the calculation. At some point we have to deal with this debt crisis. There are those who always want to put it off to the next day. I am sure there were voices in greece, in detroit, saying put it off for another day. But no, we have to do this today. I am saying this not just as a congressman, but as the father of a 10yearold son and 11 yearold daughter. On the verge of being the first generation in americas history to leave the next generation with less freedom, fewer opportunities, and a lower standard of living. There is no economist in the land who believes her current spending trajectory is sustainable. Nobody. Congressional budget office, general accountability office, private economists, even the president of the United States has said the drivers of our debt are medicare, medicaid, and health care. Nothing comes close. I give him and a for candor but f for effort. What im hearing, lets just turn off the smoke alarm. Lets cut the wire. Lets take it down. No, lets begin to deal with the problem. That raises the question. There is a chance that what might emerge here is a return to a conversation about a big budget deal. Maybe now the grand bargain people talked about a couple years ago, but something meaningful that would at least it the issues back on the table at once. Is that a likely prospect . We cannot even get harry reid and the president of the United States to open negotiations. My motherinlaw famously said the least you can do in life to show up. Today, right now, we cannot get the president and harry reid to even show up. That is an impasse. I do not think that is a position that is acceptable, alternately, to the American People. I would hope people can come together in good faith and negotiate without compromising their principles, compromising their policies. Clearly we hope there can be an element of fundamental tax reform to this. I served on the supercommittee that unfortunately did not succeed, but i will tell you this we came closer on a bipartisan basis to coming together on fundamental tax reform probably than any other item. The president himself has put at least a handful of very small, minimal entitlement reforms on the table. So they would at least show up to negotiate. I think there would be something to negotiate over. Republicans, we are not going to sit idly by, not going to rubberstamp their plans. We are going to do something to get people back to work and we are going to do something to get us off this road to national bankruptcy. I wonder if maybe your party has not had more success in this arena than you are giving yourself credit. Discretionary spending has declined each of the last two years for the First Time Since the korean war. There has been some progress on the spending front. I am wondering if that is an argument for continuing the conversation. Because you are enjoying something of a victory and may be declaring a victory for yourself. I am happy to declare a little bit of a victory. Relative to history, i am very proud of the fact that for the first time in my lifetime the federal spending is actually decreased two years in a row. That has never happened before. That is a great thing, and i celebrated. The challenges relative to the size of the problem, it still qualifies as something close to a rounding error. The bottom line is, we need Economic Growth. The lesson affordable Affordable Care act, we are getting mired in 1. 5 to 2. 5 gdp when the norm is three percent to 3. 5 . I think we are capable of four percent to five percent. On the spending side, you cannot have entitlement programs that grow at five percent, six percent, seven percent per annum with Economic Growth at 1. 5 , two percent. At some point the math does not work. I would hope the president and his people would come to the negotiating table and negotiate in good faith. The constitution gives congress the power of the purse. This is what we are supposed to do. Lawmakers make laws. We are debating spending bills and borrowing money to pay for spending bills. So far all we hear from the president and senator reid as we are not negotiating. Let me ask you about the politics of this. Speaker boehner has floated the idea that the debt limit voters so serious that if he had to he would cross the aisle and get democratic votes to pass a debt limit increase. Youre the former chairman of the gop conference. Would you support that . Is this a test of Speaker Boehner . I think that story is inaccurate because i spoke to the speaker about what he said. House republicans have passed a bill that says they will never be default on the bonds, there will never be a default on sovereign debt. We encouraged senator reid and the president to take it up. It is a fact that the president has issued a veto threat. The speaker has said before, we are not going to sit here and continue to press on the accelerator on the National Road the bankruptcy. Again, default on sovereign debt is totally unacceptable. But we are not going to borrow more money to pay for pottery classes in morocco and the travel expenses of the alabama watermelon queen and thousands of items you can find in the budget that are not going to pass the smell test or the laugh test or the fiscal responsibility test of the American People. So again, i hope the president and senator harry reid will be reasonable about this. But that is why we have a debt ceiling vote, to correct where we are. You know, the real question here, as you suggested yourself, is not spending on things like the alabama watermelon queen, but entitlements. You have suggested that the president put a few things on the table in his own budget this year that start dealing with these entitlements. Is there a reasonable chance that conversation will get underway in the next few weeks . Is there a tradeoff to be made here where you give the democrats a little bit on spending items they care about, and in return they give you some of the things the president himself has already offered on an tiedemann spending . I suppose, having been a member of congress i continue to have high hopes. I have lower expectations. There is something to negotiate here. When i was on the supercommittee, tax increases are anathema to me as a republican and conservative. I believe they are harmful to the economy. I would be willing to give up something if there would be fundamental entitlement return because that is really the great challenge. How do we get Quality Health care, quality retirement security, at a price that is not tank the economy and bankrupt children . The president at least acknowledges the problem. The president proposals are not any type of structural reform. A couple small baby steps. I hope there is something to negotiate over there. Again, the president and other democrats, have voted to work with us on a fairer, flatter, simpler, more competitive tax code. We cannot negotiate with a president and a Senate Majority leader who refused to negotiate. We are not going to negotiate with ourselves anymore. Final short questions. Last time you were asked about this on television you quickly change the subject. But i want to read you something. The Federal Reserve president of the dallas Federal Reserve bank, richard fisher. You may know him. I know him well. He says the white house has mishandled this terribly in the sizing this process. You agree with his assessment janet yellen would be a fine choice for Federal Reserve chairman . I do not see a great benefit for me to comment on somebody who is yet to be formally nominated by the president. I think very highly of richard fisher. He is a great public servant. I would be happy to talk about the texas a m football game. Will you comment on the process . I think i will decline and wait until whoever they choose to nominate is nominated. I will say it appears to be a unique process the white house has chosen. Last question, the simplest question. Why not go ahead and fund the government for six or eight weeks while these broader conversations we are discussing can commence . I would ask them the very same question since we are offering bills that fund 98 to 99 of what they have asked for. Now we are passing bills on an individual basis that would open National Parks, ensure veterans give benefits, ensure the nih continues cancer research. We have to ask them why they are voting against them. I do not think ultimately that will be a tenable position with the American People. Again, we want to negotiate. If obamacare is the law of the land, let it be imposed fairly the law of thes. Is land let it be imposed fairly on all americans but otherwise you have to get america back to work and off the road to national bankruptcy. Thank you for being with us. Was there any sense of an accord . Not really. The last week he has been the congress not agreeing on the things that they agree on and what we heard today was that the forth, itent back and is on the other side to afford what has been your view in watching how the president and the administration have been approaching this . The positions are almost reversed. We cante house view is accomplish this when you reopen the government and the republicans they do not want to do anything until they they did not want to reopen the government until there is the compromise. I think the white house is essentially the republicans got themselves into this mess by tying obamacare into funding the government and they will have to find their way out of it. There is not much room to negotiate. I think the question of the congress he knowledged a wont gain much crowned with the president. He said this before, as long as president a lot as long as obama is president , they will not repeal. They are chipping away around the edges of this, and obama has held the line on each one. There is nothing related to obamacare that he is willing to give up. Acknowledges the political reality. They will not be able to defined obamacare or the individual mandates amah the one that says you have to have insurance. We are not we are now down to the fallback position, so congressman have to pay as much for their health care as possible and democrats would agree to repeal the tax being paid on medical devices to pay for obamacare, which would add to the deficit. Are the only two things that are real estate on the obama on the republican wish list for obamacare. This has been the opportunity to put obamacare on trial, but we have had the rollout in the past week that has had a lot of glitches in the shutdown has overshadowed what would have been more stories about those legitimate problems with obamacare. There are legitimate problems but they are not just debt they are just not what they talk about. He accused the democrats of taking a political view. What are the politics of the republicans about what is happening . A lot of smart republicans warned of their own party that this was a political loser, if they tried to achieve an unrealistic goal of the funding obamacare by shutting down the going to bethis is a political loser and that is kind of where they are. There is the danger the white house overplays their hand. Making the white house and the unwillingness to negotiate the issue, there is some danger for the white house that over time that may be a problem for them. We can all talk about who is right and who is wrong, to the voters, everyone in washington has messed this up again. The difference between this crisis and the previous crisis is that we have been through the budget control act, the debt limit debate of 2011 but obama they negotiated each one of those and frankly got some pushback from within the formertic arty, progressives who said you giving up too much spending. Is really what has changed the dynamic. Republicans expected that obama would continue to negotiate, but now he has stood firm. Both congressmen suggest that the president was intentionally trying to roil the markets. What the president said in an interview this week was the markets are too complacent and they should be more worried about this than they are. Remarks being the danger that the u. S. Would default on their debt he does congress will refuse to raise the debt ceiling. I dont think the markets take that seriously and republicans are sending the message that they wont let this happen. How they dont let that happen is still up for question. But there was a beautiful Market Reaction to the president said not a lot. The danger comes in the weeks ahead. Thank you for talking to us on friday. We have a long week ahead of us in washington, it looks like. Thank you. Just a reminder, you can see this interview with Jeb Hensarling again with newsmakers 10ors at its regular time, a. M. And 6 p. M. Eastern on c span. Outside of the u. S. Capitol earlier today, the National Treasury employees union held a rally with furloughed federal workers calling for an end to the Government Shutdown. This is little more than one hour. Thank you for being here. We have a very Important Message for you today. The message that we have is very simple. The message is that we want to work. Shutdown we have to shut down the shutdown and and the shutdown. Today, and to kick us we have one of the most dynamic leaders of American Workers anywhere on the globe and we are lucky to have him in the United States today, president richard will give you a word about getting back to work. But your hands together for richard. Keith, and thank you everyone for being here. House been 72 hours since Speaker Boehner and his Tea Party Caucus have hijacked government and taken economy hostage over partisan attempt to thwart a duly elected president. Standing with us today are the workers that have been directly impacted by the shutdown. There are only a few of the 800,000 who cant go to work because republicans wont get to work. Witnessed the brave actions of government workers, our capitol Police Officers, the governments first responders, who risked their lives to protect members of congress, staff and the public from a shooting on capitol hill. Their actions remind us that government workers are proud, Public Servants who also do selfless and courageous work because our government because of the government shut down these people are working but dont know if or when they will be paid. The Financial Impact of these workers, the shutdown on these workers and their family is devastating but others are hurting, too. Veterans,s, seniors who dont have access to lifesaving services that federal workers provide. Think about this for just one second. Young children are receiving lifesaving medicine. Ongoing ccess to food is not being delivered to poor families with children, hardearned benefits may not get to veterans on time. Systems, computer schools and information are more vulnerable to cyber attacks. Workplaces across america including mine no longer have as many safety inspectors to make sure that those workers finish their shift and get to go home safe. Hammering Small Businesses, who are losing customers. The federal workers shut out of their jobs. There is the impact on the weakened economy. Instead of creating jobs and investing in americas future, reckless republicans have laid off almost a million workers. That irresponsible behavior could throw the entire thing the entire country back into recession. Think of the veterans who have traveled to the national capital. There is the reckless leadership of the Republican House and listen to this. One member of our community affiliate, working america, had to cancel a trip to nash feel as though National Park with a friend who is headed to a military searchandrescue mission overseas. In communities all across america there are countless stories like this. And one last point. John boehner and his hostage takers say it is not enough to deprive millions of americans of health care and damage the economy. Now, some say that they want to cut hardearned Social Security benefits. To throw our parents and our grandparents into dust it offered a. Said it before and i will say it again. No cuts to Social Security or american needs action, not political games. And on behalf of the millions of working americans, we demand that Reasonable Republicans stand up to the extremists in their own party, and get america back to work. We want to work. We want to work. President j david cox is the head of the american federal Government Employee union. This is a union is anyone from their . Anyone in the house . Ast. Represents the hardworking people who have dedicated their lives to Public Service all over the country and he has a message for those federal employees who have been furloughed. Good morning. I am so very proud to be standing here today with leaders, leaders are not afraid to offer up a continuing resolution to be voted up or down. Leaders are not afraid to want to run the federal government providing the services that the American People need. And leaders are what we have standing with us today, we need more of them in the United States house of representatives today. There is no question about that. Today is day number four that the American People are not receiving the services that they paid for. We paid our taxes, we pay them every payday. And now it is incumbent on the house of representatives and the thate, to pass legislation funds every law on the books. No exceptions. Law, goont like the through the process to change the law. We are paying our taxes. Day number four that the natural National Institute of health and sciences are not on the job and trying to find research for someones child am a who is dying with cancer. Thefor that over half of billion employees are not there supporting the military, supporting the security of this country. And a 4 that millions of disabled people who are unable to work, Social Security employees are not on the job assessing those benefits that they paid for, brothers and sisters. It is their right to get. Situation werible are in in this country. Federal employees are held hostage because 48 billion people have the right to Purchase Health care. That is a disgrace. And weld not have this support the president. We have the true leaders of the house of representatives. We are not willing to offer up federal employees as a ransom for the services that the American People deserve and have taxes and this is a right that they have received. We want to work. We want to work. We want to work. We want to work. We want to work. We want to work. Let me tell you, everybody. Standing alongside these furloughed workers, these , theyted Public Servants will they are willing to Work Together on a ccr to get people to work. Many members for of Congress Today but the one you have to hear from right now whip, who hasy never wavered from his unyielding commitment to hard working people, steny hoyer. The government of the people, by the people, and for the people, has been shut down by the Republican Party that refuses to put a bill on the floor that if passed, would open the government by 1 00 today. Leader, he says he wants to open the government as soon as possible. He has the right to put the bill that opens Government Backup on the floor right now. And if he does not exercise that power he keeps the government of the people, by the people, and for the people shut down and not working for the people. Shame. The chair of the Republican Policy Committee says this. Anyone wants to stretch this out for two weeks. It is now four days. Too long. To shut down the peoples government. Jim langford says i would like to resolve it this afternoon. Tell the republican chairman of the policy committee, urged the majority leader, eric cantor of the state of virginia, 20 to put the bill to open the government on the floor, and lets pass this. I want to thank the representative of working people, in this country. Government, some are in the private sector. They all want the ability to work and to be paid for their work so that they can serve our economy and our people. Thank you for your leadership. We want to work. We want to work. David, thank you for your leadership. Thank you for your leadership and your work, and all the representatives. I dont know if the other federal unions are here. But thank you for your leadership. We need to open the government of the people, by the people, for the people. Lets do it, ask now and get the government open. Let them vote. Let them vote. Let them vote. Let them vote now. Let them vote now. One person who believes that is the to vote right now cochair of the progressive caucus, my friend and yours, rowley. Take it home. It is an honor to be here with the workers, an honor to be here with my colleagues, and an honor to be here with the leadership of organized labor. Four days of a lockout. This is what it is. We have locked up the working people from their jobs and the people from their services, and from the government surface that they paid for and that they need. This is a republican lockout. I would suggest to our speaker that the American People have reached the Tipping Point with this action. We cannot go on for two more days or three more days. Whatever political point was being made is lost. What is being lost in a very the effect on the lives and livelihood of the American People, and the people that work for the American People. That is what is going on now. We have to have a vote right away and we have to move on and get the deal with the budget cuts, the same budget, protect Social Security and medicare, speakere all, this needs to understand mark received. There is a majority will in this house, let that will work its magic and we will all be at work tomorrow. This is the job we earned and that we do for the American People. I am proud to be with you. We want to work now. We want to work now. Let me tell you, some people say they want to, they would like to have the vote, but we have a bicameral meeting right now and our speaker next, is the senator who fights for everyone all the time, bernie sanders. He fights for everyone all the time. Come up here, bernie sanders. Thank you very much. Former members of the house thank you all for being here. Colleagues. Thank you for being here and let me thank our federal employees for the work that they are doing. Everyone remembers that two weeks ago, there was a shooting in the navy yard. 12 brothers and sisters of ours were killed, and others were wounded in the people who went to action to take down that shooter were federal Police Officers, who today are not being paid. This is wrong. Yesterday, we had an incident right here on capitol hill. I heard the shots and many of us went away from the shot. The Police Officers went to the shots. Those officers are not being paid today, and Police Officers all over the country are not being paid. This is wrong. This country is in the midst of a Major Economic crisis. L unemployment is gross close to 14 million. What congress should be doing today is adding people back to work. We should be creating millions of new jobs not furloughing and laying off millions of federal employees. The United States of america is the only country in the industrialized world that does not guarantee health care for all people. We should implement obamacare and expanded, not shut down the government because 20 million americans are getting health care. This is absurd. You, as you all know, the Senate Passed a continuing resolution. A clean bill. Me, it does not go anywhere as far as it should. This was a conservative compromise made with the republicans. But today they say that is not good enough. But we know one simple fact. Stope speaker of the house being the speaker of the Republican Party and became the speaker of the u. S. House of representatives, what he bloc that bill . Boehner brought that built of the floor, it would pass tomorrow. That is what he has got to do. Lets put our people back to work and let democracy rule. Let them vote. Now you know, this beautiful young lady here, this is a hard working federal employee who serves the public interest. Her name is natasha. She wants to get back to work. Listen to natasha, carefully. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Day, someone asked me how i explained the situation to my fiveyearold daughter and i had to explain that mommy and daddy want to go to work but right now we are not able to do that. To work every day to provide for you and do things together as a family and serve the public. But there are some people who care more about themselves than others. That, they result of dont want us to work. Our jobs are closed so we are not able to go to work. In order to have money we have to work. You no money, i cannot take to the places you love the most, going to check eegs or going to the movies or buying you toys or books. It broke my heart that i had to turn sit down with my five yearold daughter to have this kind of conversation with her. Our job as federal Government Employees is to serve the people, but this is not possible right now as a result of the shutdown. I stand here before you today with all of the things we are going through, this terrible ordeal, hoping this is resolved quickly, fast and soon so that all of us can get back on with our jobs. Thank you. Let them vote. Let me tell you. I want you to hear from the leader of the National Treasury employees union. Let me see your pride. Nteu kelly, let them know what you know. Thank you for being here. It is an honor for me to stand here with and on behalf of federal employees, to stand here with strong leaders from the house of representatives and the senate. We support the federal employees and the work that they do. We are here to say that enough is enough. Enough is enough. Enough is enough. We are here to tell those that they congress cannot use federal employees as pawns to use to score political points. Federal employees deserve much better than that. They have mortgages and rent to pay and they are trying to help and support. Takenny of them have unpaid furlough days in the last few months because of the wrong action of some in congress by putting the sequester in place. So let me ask you this. Are we going to let them use us this way . Daywe going to wait all insist on not providing for children and not funding the government . Will we allow them to hurt the American People by continuing this shutdown . Were going to fight until we solve this crisis. Federal employees want to come to work. They want to do their jobs. We are here to make that message heard loud and clear. I think that they started hearing us. Let me do this chant into pieces. Let them vote, now. Let us vote, now. This is all that we ask. We want to work. We want to work. We want to work. You, i want every federal employee to know, i want you to know that you are not alone. Members of congress here, one of them is the chair of the black caucus, come on up here. Thank you. I know this is a warm day. We need to be hot so that we can deal with the people who set up in that building and dont want you to go back to work. I came here to say to mr. John boehner, what are you afraid of . In front of 52,000 federal employees in the state of ohio, they are furloughed. What are you afraid of . Why wont you put this on the house floor . You are the speaker of the whole house. Not one half of the house, the whole house. Act like this is a democracy. My friend, john boehner. Put do your job we can we can have these leaders. Are you feeling sorry for john boehner . I am not. These are the people i feel sorry for. John boehner give these people back their job. And do their jobs. Do your job. Do your job. Let me tell you about our hardworking employee. Marcelo is a budget analyst. The Mental Health Services Organization he works hard every day and has been in federal service for many years. He only wants to do one thing. Come on, marcelo. I work for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health organization as an analyst and i have been making sure that millions of americans who depend on our services, people who suffer from mental illness, they receive the services that they need. I speak for my colleagues when i say we have to get to work. My wife is also furloughed. Why my sonexplaining cannot go to day care because we cannot earn a living like we want to. We have to provide these services to all the men and women who deserve the services. Please let us get back to work. Let me do this in spanish so i can reach out to my latino brothers. Spanish] we want to work. We want to work. Let me tell you. We want to work. Everyone in this fight. In this fight we have had many champions. But a champion among champions rosie bolero than of connecticut. Thank you so much to everyone here today. Yesterday we stood here because the talk is came here together to tell the Social Security recipients we were not going to cut their benefits. Those benefits will be cut and i will say this today. All of those workers who are here today who have come out, you are the wind beneath our wings. You give us the strength, and the energy, to make the fight and a fight is what this is. I am proud to stay with all of and my colleagues and say you are not alone. Look at this crowd. It represents so many more who say, you want to work and we want to do our jobs. Lets deal with opening this government now, and putting the people in this nation back to work and getting them paid. This is our what our responsibility is. You are willing to hold your part of the bargain, we are willing to do our part. Million dollars a day, for no reason at all, this economy is bleeding. And this is a selfinflicted wound, hundreds of thousands of federal employees furloughed. Not just in washington but in every state across the country. In my state of connecticut. Workers i will talk my statee in a second, has the company that makes the finest helicopters in the the black hawk helicopter that protects american security. They rely on civilian Defense Department personnel to conduct the inspections of the aircraft before moving them off the line. 2000 workers will be furloughed because that personnel is not theirs. In the next couple of days after that, we can go to 5000 people who wont be furloughed. Who want to keep the Government Shutdown they have a job. I hope that their constituents are listening to them. Want to replace them in their jobs and find someone who is willing to fight for working men and women in this nation. You are the backbone of our country and we are standing with you, shoulder to shoulder. And thank you for being the wind beneath our wings. Now listen carefully here. You guys. Federal workers are being directly harmed by the shutdown. There were federal workers who were shut down, but they may work for federal contractors for 7. 40 per hour and they have been shut down. I want you to hear from a young fellow, from good jobs nation and have been all over the country, fighting for a better way for those who work for federal contractors. He is from good jobs nation, from the smithsonian air space museum. Thank you for everyone. It is my honor to be here. Alex is not have a loud voice like some of us professionals. So you have to hold it down. Hello, everyone, nice to be here. Vass gives, a recent High School Graduate and 18 years old. I was looking for a job and found a job at the air and space wage, not, minimum enough for someone supporting a family of one sister and a father who is unemployed. I devoted myself to help my dad to pay bills but now that i dont have this job, this is more difficult for me now because of the Government Shutdown. Very difficult for someone who wants to go to college but who is unable because he has to support his family. My dream of going to college has to be on hold because of this situation today. November. This is good. I like that. Jim is here, lets hear it for him. Like all of the virginia representatives, represents a lot of people directly affected i this. Lets give him a hand. I want to thank my Close Friends here. There are two things we are going to do. First we are going to have a bill, at least the rule, or a bill itself, to reimburse all federal employees. Absolutely. That will come up today or tomorrow morning. We went to all of the republicans, who we knew had a large large presence in their district. They said i have a lot of federal employees but i dont know i can help you on this. We have to make them make up their minds and let them know the millions are not just in november, this weekend we need some help. We need to let them know that the millions of federal employees, and the tens of millions of members of the federal family that depend on those hardworking federal employees, they know what they should be doing. You need to let them know what they should be doing. It is unfair that people, through no fault of their own are not being paid and will not be able to make their mortgage payments. And not be able to help their family. I do hope you will bear this in mind. We have been so proud of the federal workforce. Ted cruz and Newt Gingrich they have taking credit for the idea that you would shut down the government, which all of them voted to do, which all of us voted not to do, we voted to keep the government open. They say this will be a great political trip, to open up the government lease by piece. We are not going to let that happen. Says, notl workforce on my watch. I dont want you leaving my neighbor out of work. We want the whole federal government open. Open up the federal government and let it serve all of the American People. You have to do it now. Thank you. No piecemeal let me tell you everybody. This is very important. Very important that you listen the seniorr of caucus. One ugly rumor is they want to cut the deal to incentivize seniors. Been leading the fight against a lot of things. Come on up. Here,m so proud to be with all of these great federal workers and my colleagues from the house that want to open the government. It is so interesting to me how the republicans are finally figuring out, day by day, the government really matters. The monuments are going to be closed. We did not think of that. Wait a minute, people wont get there health care from the National Institutes of health, oh, we didnt remember that. They were supposed to issue the unemployment numbers. But guess what, the workers were not there or able to produce that. We cannot even get the information that we need. The National Guard, we forgot about them and now we have to do this, one by one. What happens over the weekend when the hurricanes hit the gulf coast . I think we are going to need a few federal workers. The only answer for all of us standing here today and for the American People is that we have to open up the government. We have to put all the federal workers back to work. Remember why they said they are doing this. 40 milliono stop americans who right now are uninsured, from getting health care. The systems are overloaded because the American People, who they say hate obamacare, are scrambling to sign up so that finally, in the United States of america, we will make health care a right for all americans and that is what is done. Give us a vote. Give us a vote. Let them vote. Let them vote. Let them vote. Let them vote. Next we have barbara lee, who is the chair all of the friends and neighbors, you just go up, that is how much she fights for everybody. One of them is the task force on policy and poverty and opportunity, to make sure that our federal employees are not affected by the shutdown. Barbara lee, everybody. Thank you, for your tremendous leadership. Let me say this. It is no secret the tea party asublicans came here not Public Servants but to destroy and that that decimate the government. Shutting down the government is why they came here. But you are the true Public Servants. You are the noble people of our country. Services forhose the public. And now millions of families and children and seniors, and our economy are paying the price. You are being furloughed. This is wrong. We want you back to work. You dont need to wait any longer. We have to vote today to get you back to work. Today. Federal workers, you are Public Servants. They have shut down the government. Let me just tell you about the economy in my district in oakland, california. The oakland city center, that serves thousands is empty. The shops in the cafes are empty. Businesses that rely on federal workers at the heart of the low economy are empty. Tea party extremists shut the government down. That is why they are empty. Workers, you have families to feed. You have mortgages to pay. You are the real Public Servants, and let me just say that the American People, they deserve a functioning government. That is the american way. Hostagetaking is a deplorable tactic. We dont pay ransoms in the form of denying health care to millions of people. That is wrong. It is time to shut down this shutdown, and put you back to work. We have to vote today. Give us a vote. Give us a vote. Now look, everybody. Ter orne here who has twit facebook or any kind of social toia, we want to take take pictures of this and raise this up across the entire United States. We are here in washington but we have to make noise in los angeles, san francisco, louisiana and mississippi, all over, everywhere. Know, weo let people have to inspire people to fight back against the shutdown. We have to shut down the shutdown. And i want you to hear, right now, from someone who understands what it means to organize the people. Has been at this quite a long time. Chairman charlie wrangle. Come on up here, charlie. I have never felt more proud to be an american than today. To see workers and their representatives, to see the Congress Really working to make certain that this constitution and all that we believe in the comes a reality. Never in my 40 years in the congress have i ever seen one man, holding the Economic Security of the United States of america in his hands. Never has one man, one man decided whether millions of workingclass people who live from paycheck to paycheck and keep their children in school and dont know where the next rent check will come from if they dont have the income happening. We dont expect them to care about the welfare of this country, they have the goose that lays the golden act golden egg. They make billions of dollars as the poor suffer from day to day. My sole goal was being a public servant. You are the heartbeat of the american government. You are the people that keep this country alive. And why they would pick a few in order to not even feel inconvenienced, i dont know. Thei am confident that Church Leaders who have been so solid so silent would recognize the pain taking place in this great nation. And whether you are catholic or gentile,t, jewish or muslim or mormon, this is the time to remember the words when someone says tom a you are going straight to hell now is the time to remember the words, you are going straight to hell if you dont take care of the lesser of our brothers. If you are sick and need the Affordable Care act, if you need to purification of the water, if you were naked and you needed if youre inty, 2 Million People caged like animals who wont release, it is clear what was said in biblical times applies to us today. Thank god that we are on the right side of this moral issue. John boehner, free us at last, free the whole country at last. Now, i want to ask you a question. If they dont open up this government, and we have to come back here next week, will you come . Every day. Build this thing and grow and create pressure. They will not do the right thing without pressure. So let me just tell you guys. We have a lot of excellent members here. Some of you would you will hear from. Some of them want to stand with you in solidarity but i want you to know who they are. Colin, con year, sheila jacksonlee. Johnson lowenthal. Waters. Brown. This weekend. Grayson gutierrez. Jeffries. Nolan. Those are know for you. They are for you. And al green. Not the singer, but the great leader. The leader who stands with the people. Rush. Jeffrey. Stephen help me out, you guys. They are all here. So now that we have a few more members, i want you to hear from the members who are standing here, fighting for you. We will make a quick but we want you to know, we have to make it a lot harder. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2013] mr. Speaker, let us vote on the clean cr. Mr. Speaker, let us vote on the clean cr. Let us vote on a clean cr. Mr. Speaker, let us vote on the clean cr. Mr. Speaker, let us vote on the clean cr. Let them vote. Let them vote. Let me tell you. One of the hardest working people who put this on the line for this country every day is sn lautenberg, i furloughed a furloughed safety inspector, a safety inspector where you whether you go up in the ground you want those airplanes to stay up. He does a wonderful job for our country and we have to do a wonderful job for him. I have some sobering news for you. The u. S. Aviation system was not as safe today as it was before the shutdown. This is not as safe. I am in aviation safety inspector and because i am furloughed, and 3000 of my colleagues who are aviation safety inspectors are furloughed, we are not out there watching the airline and making sure that the weights and balances on those airplanes is correct. We are not out there making sure that the airplanes are deiced correctly. We are not out there making sure that pilots and flight attendants are getting the proper rest and following the regulations that they are supposed to. The jobs thatng allow americans to have their jobs. We are not giving applications for new interns, we are not doing exemptions that allow u. S. Businesses, aviation businesses, to do business here in the United States and abroad. That means we are losing jobs. Ladies, i just have to say. Put us back to work. It is important and we want to be there. Boehner, dont be a speaker of just the tea party. Be a speaker for all americans. Is important for you to know, as they are doing this piecemeal bill, talking about how they care about americans even though they put americans out of work, workers arecan veterans. You want to help them, put them back to work. Steve, come on up, for a quick word. I am glenmore from wisconsin. Said, this isr just a masquerade. Who do they think they are . Lets just look at this crowd. Everyone is here. You are all americans. Who is it among us who is not represent represented in the federal workers. I think about the incident of yesterday. I think about the constant demand and reframe from backpay. Everyone has not been furloughed. Think about the Capitol Police working here yesterday. I just wanted to throw up