gentleman from kentucky for a minute and a half. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from kentucky is recognized for main and a half. mr. rogers: i thank the gentleman for the time. this is a bipartisan bill, and i hope every member in this house will be happy to support it. i'm glad to see at the very least the senate has plans to take up this bill, stop the presses, the senate is going to take up a bill even if they won't consider most of our other bills. as we wait for the senate to come to the negotiating table on shutting the shutdown down, our federal work force should not wait to find out whether or not they'll be paid. this bill will provide back pay for those workers who've been furloughed in a fair, full and timely manner after the shutdown ends. the house has made great strides towards this end. in fact, yesterday, the house has approved 15 different options to fund the government, sent them over to the senate. sadly, the only response is a loud snore. i hope this bill, which i know is a priority for my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, will encourage this congress to find that spirit of bipartisanship that seems to have evaporated over the last few weeks. it will demonstrate that we're able to let level heads prevail and that we can unite in our responsibility to care for the hundreds of thousands of people who serve this nation day in day out. i want to thank mr. wolf and mr. moran, two very fine members of our appropriations committee, for bringing this bill to the floor and i salute them, urge my colleagues to provide our work force with some serpt for their -- certainty for their futures and pass this bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from ohio reserve. the gentleman from maryland. mr. cummings: i yield three minutes to the sponsor of the bill, mr. moran. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from virginia is recognized for three minutes. mr. moran: i thank my friend from baltimore for yielding the time. mr. speaker, this bill is truly bipartisan. we have 32 republicans. it ensures that all federal employees will be paid for the duration of the federal government shutdown. the issue is fairness. it's just wrong for hundreds of thousands of federal employees not to know whether they're going to be able to make their mortgage payment, not to know whether they're going to be able to provide for their families. many of them live from paycheck to paycheck, and they're absolutely committed to paying their bills when they become due. but i'm sure that this experience has been shared by many of our colleagues. they come to our offices. in fact, just two days ago, a woman came in and she started to, you know, kind of matter of factly explain the financial situation she was in and she broke down sobbing. i don't know how i can provide for my children if i don't get my paycheck. it wasn't her fault. she didn't do anything wrong. it wasn't through any kind of performance. she's a hardworking employee. she's got commendations. but we decided because we ven't been able to fix the budget situation that will allow this government it shut down and she's collateral damage. it's wrong. 800,000 people are suffering. this would relieve their anxiety. that's why it's a simple matter of fairness, mr. speaker. now, of course, on this side of the aisle we feel strongly if we could just bring up a simple appropriations bill today, tomorrow. it would pass because there are enough republicans that want to do that, combined with virtually all of the democrats. but whether that happens or not, when it happens this bill does need to happen. it should be forward in mind keeping these individuals at home are costing us $300 million a day in loss productivity. hundreds of federal workers have come to our offices asking us to do this, asking us more importantly to let them go back to their work. they're dedicated to their jobs, so that's the underlying message, let them get back to work. but in the meantime, let's get this passed. let's bear in mind that this bill is introduced in a context that over the last four years the congress has frozen federal employee's pay. we cut their pension benefits and we furloughed thousands as a result of the sequester. the cumulative impact actually of these punitive measures will cost each federal employee an average of $50,000 over the budgeted period. i don't think that's fair. it's not right to punish a work force of civil servants for whom we are the board of directors, so we're responsible for this. let's do the right thing. let's get a unanimous vote for this bill simply because it is the right thing to do. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from ohio. mr. turner: mr. speaker, i yield two minutes to the gentleman from utah, mr. bishop. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. bishop: mr. speaker, last summer thousands of civilian defense workers were furloughed in violation of the law as the administration decided to spread the pain for political purposes. in july, the house passed the defense appropriations bill to fund the military, including those illegally furloughed employees, 315 votes in an intensely bipartisan effort. and yet since july, the majority leader has yet to bring that bill to the floor in the senate. we passed to fund our military although attorneys are arguing over the word support means. and we need to overcome this roadblock and get people back to work. because of these examples, it's imperative that all federal employees will be guaranteed they'll receive the back pay that's due them. this will not cost the government extra. there's precedent. it is logical. yes, our goals should be to get the government working. as we're looking within two weeks period of time the issue of debt ceiling, sequestration, entitlement reform, a senate that continues to demand we spend an extra $60 billion we don't have and obamacare, it's clear that the strategies of the past don't work. senator reid's position, my way or nothing, has won. we have nothing and we will continue to have nothing until something new breaks this logjam. if the senate were to engage in legitimate talks with real negotiation, that could break this logjam. so it's clear that the senate's attitude the key to ending the shutdown, but until that happens, it is significant that all federal employees know they'll receive their funds and they will not become innocent victims of the senate's attitude of belligerence. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland. mr. cummings: i yield two minutes to a member of the committee from massachusetts, mr. lynch. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts is ecognized for two minutes. mr. lynch: i thank the gentleman for yielding. i want to thank mr. wolf for his leadership along with mr. cummings, mr. connolly, mr. turner and mr. wittman. i know there is a lot of staff as well that's worked hard on this bill. mr. speaker, as ranking member of the federal work force subcommittee, i rise in strong support of h.r. 3223, the federal employee retroactive pay fairness act. this bipartisan legislation will ensure that our more than 800,000 federal workers who have been furloughed since october 1 had receive pull back pay for the duration of the government shutdown. this legislation recognizes that our middle-income federal employees are totally committed to serving the american people. and to their great credit, our american servants have been willing, ready and able even though there are increases in their retirement costs, sequestration, related furloughs. as they face the likelihood of their fourth consecutive year of pay freeze imposed by this congress. given that these furloughed employees have already carried a huge burden of the working towards deficit recux, it would be unjust for them to bear the addictional costs and uncertainty of a shutdown engineered by one extreme faction of the republican party. not all, but one extreme faction within that group who are intent in disrupting government operations for the sake of political brinksmanship. i'd also note that these furloughed federal employees nevertheless perform mission critical agency functions among these employees who have been sent home from the shutdown is federal aviation safety monitors, department of defense military technicians, disease surveillance personnel at the center for disease control and also food and safety inspectors at the f.d.a. as well as n.i.h. researchers who are engaged in experimental clinical trials that are life and death matters for some. so it is therefore imperative we pass clean continuing resolutions so that these federal workers can immediately return to their post. i thank -- again, i thank mr. moran and mr. wolf and mr. cummings for their depreat work and i -- great work and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the chair recognizes the gentleman from ohio. mr. turner: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from virginia, mr. wittman. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from virginia. mr. wittman: thank you, mr. speaker. i, too, would like to recognize mr. wolf and mr. moran for their leadership in bringing this forward and for the leadership on both sides of the aisle. this is absolutely necessary, and i rise today in strong support of the federal employee retroactive pay fairness act, and i'm proud to be part of the group, a bipartisan group of co-sponsors to make sure this was something that got done and is being done in the best interest of our great federal work force. this bill should really be called the pay certainty act, because that's exactly what it does. it provides certainty for our federal employees who through no fault of their own were told they were not allowed to come to work effective october 1. our nation's dedicated civil servants have already been asked to shoulder the burdens to reduce government spending. we all know it's a shared sacrifice, but they don't expect to do it alone. i talked to many federal employees who are willing to do their part, but like everyone else they don't expect to shoulder these cuts alone. these furloughs have had devastating impacts on people's lives, on the doctors and nurses at veterans hospitals who are responsible for taking care of the men and women who have faithfully served our nation. on the law enforcement running down leads on terrorist threats and protecting our homeland. the firefighters stationed at military installations around the globe. our capitol police who protect your congress and capitol. and who do a great job serving their nation do in and day out. the only thing they want is the ability to serve, and they have all do that done -- they have all done that in the greatest way possible. with that they have my deepest gratitude and sincere thanks. i know the deepest gratitude and i sincere thanks for this entire body, we appreciate what they do for this nation. we need to work together to get the work of the nation done. mr. speaker with that i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland. mr. cummings: thank you very much, mr. speaker. i yield two minutes to the ranking member of our government ops subcommittee, mr. connolly of virginia. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from virginia. mr. connolly: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the distinguished ranking member and the republican manager, my good friend from maryland. mr. speaker, it's been an orwellian week in which black is white and white is black. we have people surprised that led to the closure of national parks which didn't stop some of them from berating park federal employees from enforcing the shutdown. we have other members in this orwellian week saying that the shutdown's all about respect, and we got to get something out of this. we just don't know what it is. so finally, a moment of decency. finally, we turn to the men and women who serve our country, 800,000 federal employees who are furloughed and we do something decent for them. we alleviate the angst of whether there will be that paycheck whenever we get around to reopening the government. this week, one of those dedicated civil servants of my constituency, dave, received the prestigious service to america medal in recognition of his exemplary leadership of the 6,000 person team that conceived and executed nasa's incredible curiosity rover mars mission. america is unbelievably fortunate to have this kind of talent and passionate federal worker like dave whose public service should be celebrated, appreciated, and, yes, compensated. on october 1, dave was one of 17,600 nasa employees deemed nonessential and was furloughed. e irony was that dave had to consult the ethics office of nasa to see if he could go to his own awards ceremony because of the nonessential furloughed status. that's what we're reduced to. today's bill at least redresses one wrong in this otherwise orwellian exercise called the federal shutdown. i yield back. i thank my colleague. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from ohio. . the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from nebraska. mr. terry: i want to thank ntlemen, mr. moran and mr. wolf and for them asking me to be an early advocate of this very important bill. like them, i have many constituents that are federal employees that are furloughed right now, including most of the majority of them being civilian employees at an air force base in my district. the legislation we are considering is ensuring the federal employees are paid for the time lost or off work during this impasse. now, we worked last week in a bipartisan effort to make sure that our military would be paid. and included in that bill called pay our military act was also very clear language that protected civilian d.o.d. workers from furlough. but unfortunately in a bizarre -- what's the definition of is is, discussion in the white house and d.o.d., they furloughed almost 60% to 70% of the civilian employees for critical missions, endangering our country. so having a bill like this where we come together in a bipartisan way. we can reduce some level of frustration. we can give some level of peace of mind to those employees that they will be reimbursed for their time off. they will get paid. i want the d.o.d. today to put those civilian d.o.d. employees back to work as it's clearly in the law. now, there's historical precedent for this all the way back to ronald reagan times and e closedowns and employees reimbursed for their time off. so should this effort. this is bipartisan. and the president has said he will sign this and i urge my colleagues to support this. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland. mr. cummings: i yield one minute to the ranking member of the budget committee, mr. van hollen from maryland. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. speaker. no one should be made to suffer for actions that are no fault of their own. so i'm very pleased we are taking up this measure to ensure federal workers who are innocent victims, will be held harmless in the long run. but this important measure imply highlights the sheer folly for keeping the federal government shut down for one additional minute. these are public servants who are paid to do what they love to do. goodness sakes, let them all get back to work for the public now. this bill just doesn't say let's pay the federal employees at fema, it just doesn't say let's pay the federal employees at the national parks. it doesn't say pay the federal employees at the cherry-picking federal agencies that our republican colleagues brought to the floor, it says, make all federal employees whole and let's open the federal government and do it now. let's have a vote on that very simple proposition. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. chair recognizes the gentleman from ohio. mr. turner: i yield one minute to the the gentlelady from michigan, mrs. miller. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. mrs. miller: i support this bill to make sure that furlough federal workers are paid. but the average salary of a i eral worker is $77,500 and don't understand how my colleagues decide which of the funding bills we have passed are actually worthy of their support, because this week they said no to opening up our national memorials or grand canyon but yes to federal workers, no to veterans benefits, no to women and babies on food assistance, no to children at n.i.h. no to the national guard but yes to other federal workers. clearly it is time for both sides, mr. speaker, to sit down in a conference to negotiate a compromise in a bipartisan manner and to end this shutdown. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland. mr. cummings: we said yes to opening the entire government. with that, i yield to my distinguished colleague from washington, 45 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from washington. >> i rise and strongly support this bill. for the last few years federal workers have borne the brunt of congress' failure to deal with budget issues. cog going three years without a cost of living adjustment, sequestration and now further reductions in pay because of the shutdown. enough is enough. this shutdown is having a big mpact on our entire community. folks who won't be able to make buy a car or new tv. that affects our economy. i support this bill and it's why i'm introducing legislation to rovide back pay for workers. we need to end this gridlock, end the shutdown and get government and congress back to work. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from ohio. mr. turner: i yield one minute to the the gentleman from colorado, mr. coffman. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from colorado. mr. coffman: i rise in support of h.r. 3223, the federal employees retroactive pay act. five days ago, the president signed my legislation the pay our military act. hours later, d.o.d. comptroller sent a memo to all federal civilian employees incluted in the act, which is now law that starting -- that there would be furloughs starting immediately despite acknowledgement of the new law. last night, media sources reported that the secretary of defense had a change of heart no doubt due to the letters he received from me and my colleagues on this subject and decided to think these furloughed employees back to work. mr. speaker, it would be a shame if the thousands of d.o.d. employees who were needlessly furloughed were not paid for time they could have spent working had the secretary given the same level of priority to this issue that he did to college football. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland. mr. cummings: i yield 45 seconds to congressman lujan from new mexico. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from new mexico. mr. lujan: i rise in support of this bill which is important to all the federal employees in new mexico. it ensures federal employees will be made whole and contract employees who work in our national labs. congress tend to insulate those workers who provide services. in the past, d.o. e. has treated lab employees as federal employees. we are sending a message that d.o.e. should certify back pay for lab employees so they will be made whole if they are furloughed. i request unanimous consent to submit my letter asking for ongressional intent to provide back pay. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the chair recognizes the gentleman from ohio. mr. turner: i yield two minutes o the gentleman from illinois. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. >> this chamber is moving forward with another bill to fund our government. to make sure families are not harmed. i know how these employees feel because i was a federal employee for 16 years. i represent scott air force base. whether they are active duty, civilian, reserve guard or retired, we must take care of our military. the house has acted to ensure that these men and women are paid, ju bun fortunately this administration has chosen needlessly to furlough workers. mr. davis: today, i stand with these hardworking men and women and against this administration who always seems to find a way to make situations like this as painful as possible. we have been told to make things difficult for people as much as we can, said a park ranger this week to reporters. i had a similar experience a few months ago with an airport in my district that was at risk of losing their control tower. even though we told the administration how they could shift the money around to solve this problem, we had to stand on this floor and pass a bill and that tower remains open. congress had to pass a bill and has to pass a bill now to stop this behavior, and i'm offended by the punitive behavior of this white house then and today. mr. speaker, i stand with all military personnel, and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland. mr. cummings: i yield 45 seconds chairman of the congressional caucus. i rise in support of h.r. 3223, the federal employee retroactive fairness act. 87% of americans express in a political poll unhappiness with the direction of washington with this shutdown. federal employees are dedicated public servants, support their families and contribute to the economy. they did not ask to be furloughed and had no time to plan financially brought on by the stubbornness of the republican party. mr. hinchey: by supporting this -- >> if my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would bring a clean c.r., they could be back at work on monday. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from ohio. mr. turner: i yield one minute to the the gentleman from texas. mr. farenthold: i rise in support of this bill to guarantee our federal workers are paid. they shouldn't be the innocent pawns in the middle of a debate. caused by us unable to work with the senate. we are ready, willing and able to talk but we need to ratchet down the rhetoric and make sure our employees get paid and taken care of and the men and women who work in the district i represent, like the naval air station in corpus christi, are secure and safe. we need to get this done. the republicans are trying to lessen the impact of this. we passed something to even fund the entire government including most of obamacare with the exception of the individual mandate. we are ready, willing and able to negotiate. let's get this done. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland. mr. cummings: we want to open up the entire government today. with that, mr. speaker, i yield to my colleague from maryland, congresswoman edwards. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the the gentlewoman from maryland. ms. edwards: thank you to my colleagues. i rise in support of h.r. 3223 and i speak in support of tracy in laurel, who lives in my district who works at h.h.s. and she helps her mom out every month with her federal salary and christopher and his wife both of whom work at the department of homeland security and they are both on furlough. d dini, a single parent, she has been furloughed this summer and suffers tremendously. keep this in mind, the longer we stay out, meeting the needs of our federal work force is really tough and some of these people are struggling even if they are guaranteed retroactive pay. it's time to get the federal government back to work. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from ohio. mr. turner: i recognize the gentleman from pennsylvania. mr. rothfus: i rise in support of the federal employee retroactive fairness act. federal employees are concerned about the shutdown. these workers serve their fellow citizens and recognize and thank them. the bill will retroactively federal employees furloughed during the shutdown. federal workers should not be punished for the senate's refusal to come to the table and negotiate an end to the shutdown. i urge my republican and democrat colleagues to pass this bill. i thank the chairman and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland. mr. cummings: may i inkire as to how much time both sides have? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from maryland has one minute remaining and the gentleman from ohio has three minutes remaining. mr. cummings: i yield 15 seconds to the gentleman from north carolina, mr. butterfield. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes recognizes the gentleman from north carolina. mr. butterfield: my colleague on the other side said this failure to pass a c.r. was punitive behavior of this house. i cannot allow that to go unanswered. the fact is there are 260 votes right now this chamber to pass a clean c.r. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from ohio. mr. turner: i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland. mr. cummings: mr. speaker, may i inquire as to whether the gentleman have additional speakers? mr. turner: we do not. mr. cummings: mr. speaker, i yield myself 45 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland. mr. cummings: mr. speaker, it's critical that the house pass h.r. 3223, to ensure our dedicated federal employee are made whole and receive back pay once this shutdown comes to an end. federal employees have been the subject of relentless attacks on their pay and benefits over the last three years. this bill is the least we should do. our hardworking public servants should not become collateral damage in the political games and ideological wars that the republicans are waging. and i would hope that we would have a unanimous vote because there are so many people living paycheck to paycheck and they need our vote. i'd suggest we open up the government, the entire government, so all of our employees can get back to work. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the chair now recognizes the gentleman from ohio. mr. turner: mr. speaker, the other side of the aisle would have us believe that this shutdown is somehow a republican-engineered shutdown. they'd have you believe that the government only shutdowns with republican leadership and we knows that the not the case. the government shuts down when there is a failure of the democratic process to work and parties to negotiate in good faith in the deliberative process of democracy to move forward. the president has absolutely shut that down with his refusal to negotiate. now, the government shutdown, when mr. reagan was in the white house, under president reagan, the democrat-controlled congress shut the congress -- shut the government down a total of eight times for 14 days. the democrat-controlled congress actually shut the government down under reagan longer than it is shut down now. under clinton, of course, the house shut the government down. in each of those instances there was something different than what's now and that there were negotiations going on. president reagan was negotiating with the house and the senate. president clinton was negotiating with the house and senate. but this president said absolutely no negotiations. now, this president will negotiate with syria. he'll negotiate with iran. he'll even have secret negotiations with russia in secret deals, but he'll not negotiate with the legislature. he won't negotiate over the debt limit. he wants to take the country from $17 trillion to $19 trillion in debt. no negotiations. he won't negotiate on his sequestration. in my community, there were 12,000 people that were furloughed. the president will not negotiate on his sequester. the president will not negotiate on funding the government. we have sent countless bills over to the senate that would reopen the national parks, that would fund the veterans, allow washington, d.c. to spend its own funds and harry reid heartlessly said, why would we do that? but we know the president is playing politics because this house and the senate passed pay our military act. it was signed by the president of the united states. i have two letters i'd like entered in the record to secretary hagel and the president questioning -- the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. turner: questioning why he would have furloughed 400,000 d.o.d. workers when he signed our pay our military act. 8,700 workers in my community were furloughed. how do we know that they were playing politics even though the president had full authority to pund them? because he's going to be calling them back. he's calling them back without any other passage of any other law or any other law that he signs. so clearly the president is admitting that he's been playing politics with these furloughs and it needs to stop. it also needs to stop so our federal workers don't have to worry about their pay, they don't have to worry about the impacts on their personal lives. they have childcare payments to make, college to pay. while the president is playing politics, they don't need to worry about whether they're making ends meet. i ask my colleagues to support h.r. 3223 that would restore the federal pay to workers and ensure they have the security they need. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. all time for debate has expired. pursuant to house rule 371, the previous question is ordered. the question is on engrossment and third reading of the bill. all those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. third reading. the clerk: a bill to provide for the compensation of furloughed federal employees. the speaker pro tempore: the question now is on passage of the bill. all those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. mr. cummings: i ask for a recorded vote. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentleman ask for the yeas and nays? mr. cummings: yes. mr. cummings: the yeas and nays are requested. those favoring a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. members will record their votes y electronic device. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, this 15-minute vote of the question of passage of the bill will be followed by a five-minute vote on the motion to suspend the rules and agree to house concurrent resolution 58. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the speaker pro tempore: the yeas are 407, the nays are zero. the bill is passed and the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. the unfinished business is vote on the motion of the the gentleman from south to suspend the rules and agree to house concurrent resolution 58. the clerk will report the title of the house concurrent resolution. the clerk: concurrent resolution expressing the sense of congress regarding the need for the continued availability of religious services to members of the armed forces and their families during a lapse in appropriations. the speaker pro tempore: the question is will the house suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the speaker pro tempore: on his -- the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 400, the nays are one. 2/3 being n the -- in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the concurrent resolution is agreed to and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. the chair will receive a message. the messenger: mr. speaker a message from the senate. the secretary: mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: madam secretary. the secretary: i have been informed to that that the senate passed with objection the small airplane act of 2013 in which the concurrent -- concurrence of the house is requested. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does >> pursuant to clause 2-a-1 of rule 9 i rise to give notice of my intent to raise a question of the privileges of the house. may i be recognized? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman may read the resolution. >> the form of the resolution is as follows. whereas the bbc news on october 1, 2013 in england, published the following. for most of the world a government shutdown is very bad news, the results of revolution, invasion or disaster. even in the middle of its ongoing civil war, the syrian government has continued to pay its bills and workers wages. laiders of the powerful nation on earth willingly provokes a crisis that decreases economic growth is astonishing to many. whereas the state-run news service on october 2, 2013 in china published the following, quote, with no political unity to redress its policy mistake, a dysfunctional washington is now overspending the confidence of its leadership, closed quote. whereas the news of mexico on september 25, 2013 in mexico, published the following, quote, they squabble over the inconsequential accomplishments of a 10-week funding extension. it isn't serious, but it certainly isn't funny. closed quote. "the australian" in australia published the following. quote, the irresponsible way in which congress plays the partisan politics and obstruction does them little credit, neither does it say much for the budgetary processes in the world's largest economy, closed quote. whereas "the frankfurter" on october 2, 2013 in germany, published the following, quote, the main actors in this dispute which brings many factors, ideological and political, took a huge risk and unhindered proceeded to invalidate everyone whoever accused the political accomplishment in washington of being rotten to the core the public is wondering how things were allowed to get to this point and why there is so much poison in the system. closed quote. where another news organization in germany published the following, quote, what has been apparent in america for a few years is now the self-destruction of one of the world's oldest democracies. and the great tragedy here is that this work of destruction isn't being wrought by enemies democracy, greedy lobbyists or sinister major party donors. america is being broken by the very people who are supposed to carry and preserve it. the politicians. at the moment, washington is fighting over the budget and no one knows if the country will still be solvent in three weeks. what is clear, though, is that america is already politically bankrupt. closed quote. whereas "washington post" on september 30, 2013 quoted justice malala, a political commentator in south africa, quote, they tell us, you guys are not being fiscally responsible and now we see they are running their country a little like a banana republic. there is a lot of snickering going on. closed quote. the headline of "the new york dailyness," the fourth most circulated newspaper in the united states on october 1, 2013 ead quote, house of turds, and cesspolse stated these closed down government. whereas these reports call into question the dignity of the house of representatives and whereas the resulting reduction of the public's perception of the house's dignity has culminated in 7% congressional pproval rating in the most recent poll, therefore, be it resolved that it is the sense of the house, one, without seeking to effect a change in the rules or standing orders of the house or their interpretation, and two, without prescribing a special order of business for the house, that a government shutdown is a mark upon the dignity of the house and that the house would be willing to pass a clean continuing appropriation resolution to end t. the speaker pro tempore: under rule 9, a resolution offered from the floor by a member other than the majority leader or the minority leader as a question of privileges of the house has immediate precedent only at a time designated by the chair within two legislative days after the resolution is properly noticed. pending that designation, the form of the resolution noticed by the gentleman from florida will appear in the record at this point. the chair not at this time at this point determine whether the resolution constitutes a question of privilege. that determination will be made at a time designated for consideration of the resolution. mr. grayson: thank you, mr. chair. the chair is prepared to entertain one-minute requests. for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition? mr. thompson: mr. speaker, request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and stepped. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. thompson: mr. speaker, when congress was unable to reach agreement on a funding bill, the house acted immediately on the pay our military act. the bill passed the house on september 29. the senate on september 30 was signed into law by the president that same day. the pay our military act ensures that military personnel and military reserveists will be paid and reserve allowances during the government shutdown. over the past week, the house has funded critical areas of judgment. we passed our pay our guard and reserve act and honor our veterans act. yesterday we considered and passed nutrition assistance for low-income women and children and today we passed another bill to fund the government. these measures should have received the support of every member in this chamber and those are the bills that should have made their way to the president's desk. the president and the senate should back these bills just as they did to pay our military act. end the stale mate and move forward with the people's business. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? >> permission to address the house for one minute, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. green: mr. speaker, members, i want to wish congratulations to our republican majority and thank you for bringing a bill to the floor that guarantees pay for the furloughed federal employees. the essential employees that are already working will be paid from existing law, so now we are going to pass to the senate where the furloughed employees will be able to be paid. my question to the majority republicans, now that we are going to pay these furloughed employees, let's bring them back to work. why would we not bring them back to work without paying for them. i never heard the republican majority before that. i voted it and passed out of the house. let's bring those folks back to work and let's reopen this government and put the dedicated federal employees who don't have to stand by veterans to go to the world war ii memorial, those folks working on all the things that make our country great. let's bring them back to work. we are going to pay them and let them come back and do their job. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from arizona stand? >> permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. franks: mr. speaker, it is my precious privilege this morning to express a loving tribute to one gar rett freeman. she was my third and fourth gade teacher and if i could be with her right now as she is surrounded by well wishers on her 10 rd birthday, i would look into her eyes and say thank you precious lady for all you have done for me. without your loving encouragement to me as a child i may not have the privilege to speak on the floor of the united states congress. and i was only one of hundreds of children whose hearts and minds you so deeply touched with your noble message of love and human dignity to generations to come. beloved mrs. freeman, only he ternt will discover your magnificent contribution to humanity. happiest birthday to you, gentlelady, and may god keep you forever. that's what i would say, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? >> ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. doggett: federal workers under sustained attack from the republican caucus deserve to have no further abuse, but approval of this bill is surely one of the more bizarre moments in a truly bizarre republican-controlled house. these gray con serve stewards refuse to allow our federal workers work and now today they approve legislation to pay them for not working. getting nothing for your tax dollar. that's the new republican tea party concept of fiscal responsibility. and the federal workers, even though they have paid leave now, are unhappy because of the uncertainty of not knowing from day-to-day, whether they will be called to work and not knowing whether that paid leave will arrive in time to meet their bills at the end of the month. paying federal workers not to work. a new level truly of absurdity in this politically manufactured government shutdown. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee seek recognition? >> permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. cohen: just as mr. doggett has said, i'm not sure if this s joseph heller or palini, the tea party republicans came here because they were concerned about the debt. the debt was caused by reagan and bush. look at the records. reagan and bush caused the debt. now they've shut down the government like an arsonist sets the fire and coming around like they are firefighters to try and rescue children and the veterans they are going to rescue who couldn't go to the memorials and federal workers who aren't getting paid. movie.ike a palini there is a wall between the tea party republicans and mainstream republicans who would like to move this country forward. mr. speaker, tear down that wall. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee seek -- texas, seek recognition. mr. burgess: permission to address the house for one minute. what is going on in the house of representatives right now is actually about the debt. you could look back 17 years when speaker gingrich was speaker of this house. what was gaped by the republican majority during that time? if you look at it from a political lens, the majority was re-elected in 68 years after the last government slowdown, the last time being 1928. this house passed welfare reform and passed welfare reform and passed welfare reform until president clinton signed the bill, the largest capital gains tax reduction was passed after the last government slowdown and the first overall reduction in taxes in 17 years occurred after the last government slowdown. four consecutive balanced budgets came out of that activity. probably the only balanced budgets in my lifetime after speaker gingrich had the courage to do what he did 17 years. most telling in the state of the union address that followed the government slowdown last time, president clinton stood in this house and announced the era of big government is over. those are words we can aspire to. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from oregon seek recognition? >> permission to address the house for one minute. mr. blumenauer: welcome to the alternative universe in the house of representatives. we just voted, as we knew we would, to pay the furloughed workers when the shutdown ends, as we knew we would. what started as a right-wing tantrum to defund obamacare, which tailed, and then it became a demand to pull the rug out for another delay. we are now arguing about something, negotiations? what? since we decided to pay everybody any way, let's vote on the continuing resolution so we can at least get work in exchange for paying our employees and stop losing tens of millions of dollars every hour. the republicans now want to negotiate. i think that's terrific. we have been waiting for six months for the house republicans to appoint their conference committee so we can reconcile differences on the budget. let's vote on the continuing resolution. let's appoint conference committees and get back to work. . . the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. barton: thank you, mr. speaker. we're seeing an interesting dialogue today in the up with-minutes. last week the republicans brought to a -- brought to the floor a bill, before the shutdown, to pay our military. both sides totally supported that. the senate accepted it and the president signed the bill. so that's law. early this week after the shutdown occurred, house republicans brought to the floor to fund the veterans administration. to fund national cancer institute research. to fund and open our national parks. my friends on the other side of the aisle, most of them, not all, but most of them voted no against that and called it a gimmick. today we brought a bill to the floor, the house republicans, once the shutdown is over, to pay furloughed workers. again on that one today, both sides embreased it and said it's a good thing and now my friends on the democratic side are getting up and arguing against themselves. we want to open the government. we want to do this. but we want to keep as much of the government functioning while we do it. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from -- seek reck necessary? >> to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> through the looking tpwhrass. curiouser and curiouser, said ales, i'm confused. mr. defazio: we're going to shutdown the government until we repeal obamacare. now i heard a gentleman say we're shutting down the government because we're concerned about the deficit. what is it? which is it? you're concerned about the deficit, then we have a process. it's called the annual budget process and appropriations. it's a law. we should follow the law. which means temporarily continue the government. we don't shut down the government to, you know, deal with our differences in how much money we want to spend each year for what agencies. this is getting absurd. we're now going to pay federal employees to not work. let's declare them all essential, make them cook back to work and then we'll pay them later, maybe in the republican world that makes sense. no, let's just end the shutdown. bring them all back to work. give them regular pay now. let them have their lead and move forward with fwokeses over the budget. -- with negotiations over the budget. the speaker pro tempore: are there any further one-minute equests? under the speaker's announced spoil of january 3, 2013, the gentleman from oregon, mr. defazio is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. defazio: thank you, mr. chairman. ne minor point, we say oregon. and since the ducks are going to win the national championship this year, we want to make sure everyone know house to say it properly. thank you. i rise today to discuss something that happened earlier in the weeg. now the republicans are playing whack-a-mole. every time something pops up in the national press that's really embarrassing about this shutdown, they whack, they hit it with a phony resolution that they're going to fix the problem that they know is going nowhere in the senate and not going to the president. so earlier this week, after the extraordinary embarrassment of the veterans at the world war ii memorial, i was just down there for an honor flight this morning they still don't have bathrooms, by the way, they decided, well that, and then they're hearing from a lot of small business people outside of yosemite and other parks saying, put the -- open the parks. ok. so they took one little tiny slice of the department of interior budget and they funded it. that which is most iconic, that which is most visible in the press. but guess what? they forgot everything theals goes on within the department of interior. now, i'll start locally and we'll build back to the national issue here. the william finley national wildlife we fuge opened the very popular firearms hunting season for black tailed deer late last month in september. but this week, they're having to turn away hunters because of the house government shutdown. the brandon -- the marsh wildlife refuge in my district, great place for wild fowl hunting, it's closed. the beginning of hunting season, closed. the fish and wildlifer is vess in oregon recently proposed that three other oregon refuges be opened to hunting. guess what? they can't continue the process to open those areas to hunting because of the government shutdown. according to the oregon department of official and wildlife, nearly 300,000 hunters spend more than $135 million a year by shutting down the federal government, restricting hunting access on public lands, house republicans have turned their backs on sportsmen and small businesses, not just in oregon but across the country. in addition to hunting, the refuges provide anglers for fishing, hikersing kayakers and bird watchers, all of whom spend money in the local communities around these refuges. they're not come, they're not spending money in the local businesses, all buzz of the phony shutdown of the government. well, it's a real shutdown. but the stupid shutdown of the government by our republican majority. national wildlife refuges generate $1. billion in sales for nearby communities and many of of them are totally dependent, much dependent on that for their survival and every day, every day, small businesses across the country that relate to hunting and fishing and other outdoor recreational activity, 4.-- $4.5 million a day in lost sales to their small businesses. this has got to end. there are other very serious issues which a number of my other colleagues will talk about here this morning as relates to commercial fish, commercial crabbing and a number of other critical activities that are fulfilled by the federal government under the department of interior, -- h were not restored or not restored by the republicans. i yield to the gentleman, mr. thompson. mr. thompson: i thank the gentleman for yielding and also bringing this issue to the attention of the american people and by the way, for the great work you do as our ranking member on the natural resources committee. i think mr. defazio made a great explanation, a very instructive explanation about this whack-a-mole game we're playing. the vets memorial is closed so we do a bill to open that up. a bill we know isn't going anywhere. there's an issue comes about because of the lack of cancer treatment that some of our constituents need and must have, we co-do a quick bill a whack-a-mole a quick band-aid. the capitol police demonstrate that they put their life on the lean every day and it became very, very apparent this week when we had the very unfortunate situation other in the senate. so what do we do? we come out now and say we're going to pass a bill to pay for federal employees after this fabricated government closedown is done. those are all very, very serious issues. and there are a lot of other serious issues in front of us. and that may pale -- what may pale in comparison is the issue of the wildlife refuges and people may say, well, you know, that's just a sport, it's recreation, but to some, that's very, very important. and just a week ago, ironically, our nation celebrated the national hunting and fishing day. but today, sportsmen and women who are supposed to be out enjoying the opening day of duck season in many parts of my home state of california, but they're not. because of this reckless, manufactured government shutdown that has shut down hunting opportunities throughout the entire national wildlife refuge system. this shutdown is having a devastating impact on local economies that depend upon hunters and anglers throughout our entire country. there are 240 congressional districts that are home to national wildlife refuges. that's all the way across the country. this is an issue today and will be until we do away with this shutdown and open the government back up. every state. every state has at least one refuge which allows hunting. so today, hunters are supposed to be lined up at places like he tuly lake national wildlife refuge, and the kern national wildlife refuge in my state of california. but because of the shutdown, all have been canceled. some duck hunters will be able to pursue their opening day on non-refuge land but without hunting pressure on the refuges, their hunting will be shut down, closed or at least truncated to some extent. in addition -- and this is a very important issue that i think everyone needs to pay attention to. most of the access for california's disabled water foul hunters is -- waterfowl hunters is found on our state's national wildlife refuge system. with the refuge closed, disabled hunters, including many, many wounded warriors will simply have no option for waterfowling. and in two weeksing all the waterfowl hunting areas will be open. so if we don't end in -- send this shutdown, millions of sperts men and women will be shut out from their refuges. it's not just hunters and anglers affected by the closure of wildlife refuges. hunting in kale is big business. in 2012 alone, hunters and anglers generated more than $1 billion in retail sales and they created and sustained at least 20,000 jobs in california alone. i've heard from folks who own businesses around these refuges, restaurants, gas stations, a family owned hotel and motel that rely on the business generated by hunters. some local lodges and motels have seen every one of their reservations for this weekend and the following week to be canceled. they were supposed to be fully booked. next week is supposed to be their busiest week of the year and now because of this fabricated shutdown, they'll have empty beds. curb's outlet a sports fwoods store, he said he expected to have a big season for sales. instead he anticipate -- anticipates losing $6,000 a day every day the refuges are close and may have to take out a loan to keep his small business open. hunting fwoids in the region are losing $800 to $1,000 a day every day the refuge stays closed. and just over the border, the wild goose hotel could have booked up all their hotel rooms several times over because the demand is so high for this weekend and next week but according to fran lyn, their manager, out of their 13 rooms and two cabins, they have one room that will be occupied. these businesses that rely on the next few weeks of hunting season to keep them in business for the rest of the year are in a hurt. and they can't make up for the loss. this first week is their big week each year and it will be lost. lost forever. california hunters want and need access to our national refuges. it's time for the house majority to put the interests of our nation ahead of the interests of the tea party. and end this needless and reckless government shutdown which is having an impact on millions of sports men and women around our country along with federal employees who are being furlougheding folks waiting on veterans' benefits, the folks waiting for cancer research and treatment, and the closure of our national parks. this manufactured shutdown is costing us $12 million an hour. please bring back the clean c.r. to the floor for a vote so we can open our government. all it takes is one vote, put it on the floor and democrats and republicans will provide a strong, bipartisan vote to pass it, to open our government, to get people back to work. i yield back. mr. defazio: i thank my colleague, mike thompson is the two-time chairman of the congressional sportsman caucus nd inducted into the water fowlers hall of fame. he knows about this unnecessary shutdown on hunters and related businesses in northern california and southern oregon. with that, i would yield time to my colleague from washington .tate ms. delbene: impacts on supports men and women who can't access public lands. they have made clear today this is a serious problem costing our country mill yops of dollars and not able to access the great out doors. in my state of washington there are 11 wildlife refuges that can't hunt or fish. they are closed due to the shut youp. but not only reck creational users, but commercial fishermen will be seriously hurt in the coming weeks if this shutdown does not end. fishermen from washington state are in dutch harbor, alaska getting ready for the king crab season. these are the same fishermen and boats that you see on "the deadliest catch." . the staff at the national marine fishery service have been furloughed. no one is available to issue the rules and quoteos for boats and processors that will permit our commercial fisherers to work. worth ing sea fishery is millions of dollars and because of inaction in congress the fishing fleet, the captains, crews and processers stand to lose millions. we are facing a fishing cliff unless congress acts before the season is scheduled to start. if the season does not start on time, the cost to industry is significant. a delay could mean they will miss out to exporting to the asian holiday market when demand is at its highest. missing the asian market when in its peak demand means prices decrease as much as 20% to 30%, ich means millions in lost value. in addition to the potential loss of millions of dollars, the effects of the shutdown will be felt in other ways. shing boats incur costs of $1,000 a day while sitting tied to the docks, mooreage fee fs, fuel and food to feed the crew cost money. processors will have empty facilities. this still has to be housed and fed so processers will be faced with housing, cost for electricity and more while not bringing in needed revenue. every day this shutdown continues we are hurting the fishing industry without knowing when the season will start, these businesses have no visibility to plan. if we delay the start of the crabbing season by a few days we risk costing the entire industry millions of dollars in lost market value. this is scrun acceptable. our fishermen deserve better than this and their families and the processers and suppliers that rely on the king crab season all deserve better than this. it's clear this shutdown is hurting people, businesses and our economy. it's time to end it and get to work on passing a long-term budget that will grow our economy, reduce our deficit and responsibly create jobs. i urge all of my colleagues to work together and do the the job the american people sent us here to do. end the brinchingsmanship and do the responsible thing and open the government. mr. defazio: the gentlelady yields back. i thank her for her statements and her concern for the washington crab fleet and others who have been impacted by this manufactured crisis. i find it particularly bizarre now that this all started with a radical tea party minority on the republican side and i wonder what their supporters and constituents who seem to hate all things government are thinking about the fact that we are now paying federal employees to stay home and not provide critical services like opening the crabbing season in the state of alaska. i would also note that the west coast ground fish trawl surveys have been suspended. the ships, the five ships that are out there doing the survey were called back to port. all of the noaa employees were sent home but they will be paid later sometime. but they aren't doing the critical work we need for those commercial fisheries. with that, i yield to my colleagues from the state of california, mr. garamendi, such time as he may consume. mr. garamendi: thank you, mr. speaker and mr. defazio and thank you for pointing out the foolishness, the nonsense and the hypocrisy of what's going on here. my colleague, mike thompson, with whom i share a good portion of northern california, very eloquently pointed out a real problem. when the duck hunters can't hunt, we've got a problem. opening day, how many days to opening day? zero. supposed to open today. mr. thompson pointed out that the refuges are closed up in the northern state of california. how about elk hunters? elk hunters out there, opening day, today. the refuges are closed and a good portion of the federal forests also are unavailable. et's see long horn hunting supposed to start today, none of the refuges. they're closed. if you are a fishermen and want to fish in the refuges, don't go today. they're closed. and of course, the hunters. i think i'll leave this one up here. these are folks that really get agitated and every reason to be agitated. this is nonsense. i really want to take a few moments to explain to the american public what is actually happening here. we came up on this shutdown presumably because we couldn't agree to a budget. house of representatives passed a budget in march. the senate passed one in late march, early april. the senate asked for a conference committee. they appointed conferees and speaker boehner to this moment or until two days ago, refused to appoint conferees. only after the government shut down that he relented and appointed conferees after the blowup. you want to go to conference? why didn't you go to conference in april, may, june, july, ugust, even early september? why, mr. speaker? why didn't you appoint conferees when we had the time to negotiate? why did you wait until after hunters couldn't go to the refuges? i don't understand. oh, but you have a solution. the speaker has a solution. we will open up individual parts of the government based upon at mr. defazio calls the whackamo theory of government. when something happens, we'll find a solution, says the speaker. how brilliant. what did we do? well, we'll open some of the national monuments. not all of them. not going to open the fish and wildlife refuges so the hunters can hunt, but open up the world war ii memorial and maybe some of the smithsonian facilities here in washington. oh, but there's a problem. that's got to go through the senate and that's got to have the presidential signature. and that's not going to happen. so what's going on here? what's happening? the american public is saying, what are you guys doing? well, we're not doing our job. mr. speaker, you're not letting us do our job. we actually have a solution. it's called a continuing resolution, a c.r. and that's not a medical procedure. a continuing resolution is actually a process that's been used over 110 times since the first day of president clinton's -- yeah, i said it, president clinton, back in 1993. 110 times we have used continuing resolutions to get past these unnegotiable periods. but this time, they added a little deal to it, there will be a continuing resolution when you repeal the affordable health care act, when you delay it, repeal part of it, when you change it. it hadn't been done in the past, but here we are. so where are we now with the whackamo theory? does the american public know what these are? these are 11 of the appropriation bills. each one very lengthy. more than 500 to 1,000 different items in each one of the appropriation bills. funding individual parts of government. one item at a time. it's a big government. it's a multi-trillion dollar government and does a lot of government things like refuges, so people can go hunting, so that people can fish, so there are national parks, camping grounds. the national forests all across this nation, camping grounds shut down. no one is camping there this weekend. these are the appropriation bills. probably 5,000 or more individual items. and what has got to be one of the most foolish and stupid actions, we're going to fund the government one item at a time. yeah. hello, america. this is the republican solution to the shutdown. we're going to fund the american government one item at a time. let's see, this is day four of the shutdown. ok. fouro date, we have funded specific parts of the american government. well, excuse me, i'm wrong. the house of representatives has voted to fund four of the thousands of different parts of the american government. four of them. let me see, at this rate, it will be 2020 before the american government is up and running. how stupid is that, when we have a solution available to us, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, listen. we have a solution available to us. it's called a continuing resolution. it's passed the senate. it doesn't have all the things you may want, like terminating the affordable health care act, which is in effect, modifying it, defunding it, god knows what else you may want. it's just what is known as a clean continuing resolution that all of government, not one item at a time. but all of government. and at what level? at the same level that it has been funded for the last 12 months. not more funding, not less funding, but a whole lot less funding than i think is necessary, but nonetheless, continues the funding of government at the same level as the last 12 months for the next month and a half. and then we go through this again with another manufactured crisis. i wonder what the hunters are thinking of us. mr. speaker, these men and women want to go hunting. go men and women want to fishing, camping. they want to go to the national parks. they want to recreate. they want america operating. mr. speaker, please. please end this foolishness. ronald reagan went to berlin and he said mr. gorbachev, take down this wall. mr. speaker, open up this government. open up this government. you have the power. all you need to do is bring to the floor the continuing resolution to fund the government at the very same level that it has been funded the last 12 months, continue on for another six weeks so that we can establish what apparently you want, a conference committee and negotiate as we should do all the time. negotiate a resolution to this manufactured, unness, stupid, dysfunctional crisis. mr. speaker, open up this government. i yield back my time. mr. defazio: i thank mr. defazio: i thank the gentleman. the gentleman is correct, there's a time sensitivity to this. many small businesses are dependent on the critical weeks of opening season for their -- essentially like christmas for retailers, the opening of hunting season for waterfowl and other species is for people who provide, you know, lodging and other services, guiding in those areas. and you are keeping them from working and you're depriving them of their livelihoods. in nevada, duck season opens october 12. swan, october 12. deer october 12. that's nevada. that date is pretty soon. arizona, turkey, october 4. well, we're there. big horn sheep, october 4. on any federal -- any of these wildlife refuges that will not be allowed. but the bizarre thing is some republicans are saying this is about the deficit, so they're going to pay federal employees to not work, to make a point about the deficit, they're going to cause businesses to lose money on which they won't pay taxes because it's about the deficit, or, well, then there's others of them who say it's about obamacare. i wish the majority could make up mind. but one thing is clear. i've been here 27 years. i believe 27 years, i may be off by one. i believe two times in 27 years under both republicans and democrats have we gotten all the appropriations bills passed by the beginning of the fiscal year on october 1. two times in 27 years. but we didn't shut down the government every time that happens. we adopted a very simple continuing resolution, let's say, let's continue to funed government -- to fund government, not send people home and pay them. let's continue to fund government and have them work, same cost, and you know, we'll do it for four weeks, six weeks, to force people to the bargaining table. sometimes at last year's level, sometimes slightly enhanced, other times reduced. we're willing to do that. we've offered to do that, we brought that up numerous times, we're not allowed to bring it up explicitly but on votes on rules and the republicans won't allow a simple majority vote on temporary funding of government. they allowed a vote today which was unanimous to pay people not to work but they won't allow a vote on paying people to work over a short period of time. with that, i yield such time as he may consume to my colleague from california. >> one of the previous speakers asked the question, how stupid is all this? i'd like to quantify that. you can put numbers on it. in my home state of california, i'll tell you how stupid it is. hunters who won't be able to hunt this week, they're responsible for about $400,000 in revenue. mr. thompson: retail sales from hunting is $1 billion. salaries and wages, $760 million. jobs, 21,000 of them. ate and local taxes, about $155 million. federal taxes about $175 million. that's how stupid this is. if you want more proof, look at the impact on the private sector. for those of you who don't like the government, for those of you who believe that we need to close down the government, because everything can be done and should be done by the private sector, you're killing private sector businesses right now. we've talked about the impact on folks who are going to have to take out a loan to keep their sporting good store open during the busiest time of the year. we talked about folks who have mo tells and lodges who can't rent a room that -- at a time that would otherwise be their most productive time in their business sickle. those are private sector business owners. and they employ private sector employees. who are going to be sent home. unlike the bill that you just brought to the floor that was passed, those private sector employees who were sent home will not be sent home with full pay and benefits. they get paid when they work. the idea, mr. defazio mentioned it a couple of times, that we furlough federal workers and then pay them for not doing a job, while at the same time 're closing down the facilities that they're employeed to keep open and to manage is just -- it's baffling to me. look at the store owners. look at the private sector businesses who are being hammered by this manufactured closure of the federal government. gas station owners. all the teem we talked about, bird watchers, fishers, hunters, they're driving to these refuge they put gas in their gas tank. those gas sales are gone. they buy groceries. they buy groceries to eat in the cabins they would otherwise rent in the camp scythes that they would otherwise has been tate. those sales are gone. sporting fwoods. they buy all the stuff that they use to hunt, fish, or bird watch. not only are those sales gone, but for all of us who depend upon the money that's raised by the dingell -- dingell-johnson provision, the assessment that sportsmen and women put on their own purchases that go into funding all the wildlife refuges and all the places that are near and dear to sports men and women that money goes away. all of the motels that would otherwise be full, that money goes away. the sales tax goes away. nd these are -- in most parts, rural businesses in rural areas. so that's different than the city and the businesses in the city. they don't have other folks coming in and spending in their area. this is as the ranking member stated their christmas holiday. this is when folks come to their area to spend their money, to recreate, hunt, and fesh. they depend upon this. so we've created a system, it's set up, manufactured, fabricated, doesn't have to be this way, to penalize these folks who do nothing but work hard and provide opportunities for folks to recreate. in addition to that, you heard the impact it's having on the fishery the commercial fisheries and the sports fisheries. it's absolutely outrageous that we're allowing this to happen when with one vote, one vote of the compromise bill from the senate, and i say compromise because not only is it a clean c.r. we've been hearing about, remember the compromise was to bring that down@lower funding level, a funding level that a lot of folks on our side of the aisle have a real hard time with. and that's brought down to that rate, it can be put on the floor, voted out, these businesses will be able to do business. these employees will be able to come back to work both the federal employees as well as the state employees, and let me not -- let me not remind you of the wounded warriors who aren't going to be able to recreate this weekend and this week because of until manufactured closedown of the federal government. let's bring people back to work. let's get fwoning on this. i yield back to the ranking ember. >> would the gentleman from oregon yield? mr. defaws yoke spends on the top ex. we're talking about low -- mr. defazio: depends on the topic. we're talking about locking hunters and fishermen out of wildlife areas, and the fact that it's the christmas season essentially for many of these lodges and local businesses have been shutdown. i'm not sure what the gentleman wishes to address, i yield briefly but if we're going off top exor get onto something else, i have to reclaim. i know the gentleman for years, i'd be happy to yield. mr. barton: i thank the gentleman from oregon. i'm not going to be demagoguic. i respect the comments from the gentleman from oregon and the gentleman from california. i was going to pay the gentleman from california a compliment. mr. defazio: oh, well, good. mr. barton: i just wanted the country to know that these are serious issues and there are differences of opinion, based on philosophy. but there are not personality conflicts. the gentleman from california was gracious enough several months ago to invite me into his home for a meal he makes a delicious grilled chicken and it is quite the -- and he is quite the chef. i wanted to thank him and if -- at the appropriate time, after the gentleman from california and the gentleman from oregon have made their components, if they'd like to enter into a little bit of honest policy debate, i'd be happy to do that, but i know it's the gentleman from oregon's time and i don't want to take away from that. mr. defazio: i thank my colleague and thank him for those tempered remarks and the kind remarks about the gentleman from california. i'd like to talk about a couple of other impacts, some in the interior budget, some in another budget we haven't touched yet. as mike was talking el quebtly about the impact, these impacts are falling most on rural residents and on rural small businesses. areas that are for the most port still pretty darn depressed in this country. a lot of my rural areas are still seeing -- they're well into double digit unemployment. i was talking to the chief of the forest service, a different budget, one that hasn't got onen the republican radar screen yet, though i was talking to a republican leader who said they may yet do whack-a-mole on this one to try to fix it. the chief of the forester is vess has an obligation when timber is sold to a private party to have forest service employees monitor those sales. he has not found a way to declare those employees as essential. and as of monday, is going to end somewhere between 400 and 500 active timber sales, many people won't be able to operate depending on where the sale is, and incurring obviously penalties on the federal government because he does not have the staff to go out and monitor those sales. i don't yet know about the bureau of land management timber sales. they are a fairly unique thing they happen on statutorily unique lands of the oregon and california lands in oregon. we've been in touch with the b.l.m. but don't yet have an answer how they'll handle it. much of the recent work from -- much of the restoration work from recent fires is not considered emergency. any responsible timber salvage that might happen is not even being considered and we're losing critical time there where those activities might be conducted. this morning, we did get, you know, the world war ii memorial reopened, only for honor flights, world war ii veterans, i believe, maybe other veteran, i'm not sure of the cat goresest tab learned. there were two rangers there this morning. i encountered a problem. i was there to greet a large contingent from oregon, wonderful people, who put their lives on the line, you know, but we, we're looking at a group here who are fairly elderly and the adjacent bathrooms are not open. i went and asked the rangers if they could give me the key and they said, we don't have the key. that's maintenance. so we placed a call to the park service looking for the -- whoever is the highest ranking person not being paid to stay home, and got a fellow who is in charge of at least the world war ii memorial and some other fwrounds and he said, i am prohibited from doing that. i don't have that authority. you know, i have now called the white house to ask them. i mean, come on. restrooms for very elderly men and women who put their lives on the line, saved the country from the horrors of world war ii and we can't open bathroom facilities? i'll go down and volunteer to refill the toilet paper rolls and clean up at night, you know if we do that. i think other people i know would do that. so you know, we've just got to end this. it just became so bizarre today that congress voted unanimously to pay a majority of the federal work force to stay home and not provide public services to make what point? let's just go ahead with a continuing resolution that doesn't change anything. we can adopt the lower levels of spending the republicans have advocated for. why can't we do that for four or six weeks? open up the refuges, so that business can flow again to those areas because these hunting seasons are ephemeral, as is, you know, as are these timber sales and other things. there's another impact. student conservation association of the interior department has been shut down. so again, hundreds of interns sent home who were providing public services and then also in the other budget, agriculture, the job corps has been shut down. thousands of young, at-risk people have been sent home. i don't know how many of my colleagues have ever gone to a job corps. it's an inspiring thing. these kids are learning skillsle these are high at-risk, many have been in trouble, kids. thear getting skills and getting jobs. they want to be there. they're working hard. they've been sent home. some of them don't have a home to go to. with that, i yield to my olleague from california. mr. thompson: i yield to texas for the compliment. you are always happy in my home. i suggest if we do more of that we can get cooperation on things that are important to the country. mr. defazio, i just wanted to comment on your issue you raised in regard to the world war ii memorial and the veterans who came out to get a glimpse of that, many of whom have never seen it before, some of whom never been to washington before but they did in fact serve our country admirably and bravely, heroically. they won world war ii. as a combat veteran myself, i can tell you that i still get goose bumps when i hear about and sometimes even talk about what has become the greatest generation. i think it's important for all of us to note that they're referred to as the greatest generation for a couple of reasons. one, and most obviously, they did an heroic job when they won world war ii. there's no question about that. it was just an unbelievably feat and the sacrifices they made were horrendous and it's something we will all appreciate forever. and they won that war. but they're also referred to as the greatest generation because after winning that war, they came home to the greatest nation in the world and they built this great nation and they built this great nation r emp -- everyone, not for ones they liked, not the programs they liked. we can stipulate there are programs in the federal government we may not think are number one programs. there are programs that we'd like to see changes to. the fact of the matter is, as my colleague from california pointed out, if you start passing program by program, we've seen what happened. day five of the shutdown, we passed -- we passed four programs and only partially. it is absolutely ludicrous to think we can do this. we need to remember and honor that greatest generation, and we need to bring this budget that funds all of government, a government for all americans, not just the americans who are affected by the headline today, not just the americans who want to visit a memorial that's closed and we hear about it in the paper, not just an american who needs a medical procedure but that entity is closed so we're going to fund that one in the 11th hour. we need to fund government. we need to open government, get it back to work so we can be the greatest nation and we should do that, we should do it quickly. you know, this -- i've said it a couple of times. this is a manufactured crisis, a manufactured crisis and nobody, nobody we represent at home in anybody's district believes that we should operate in chaos. and that's exactly what we're doing right now. talk to any of your business owners back home. they don't want to operate in chaos. go to your universities, go to your small businesses, big businesses, schools, nobody wants to operate on chaos. we want to minimize chaos. the trains need to leave the station on time, as they say, and the way to do that is to bring this budget to the floor -- this continuing resolution to the floor. one vote, we open up government and then we can get down to negotiating any changes we might have. you know, you were successful in your plan, the 80 members on the other side of the aisle signed the letter to my friend, speaker john boehner, to shut down the government. you were successful. now let's open it back up, let's bring these federal employees back to work who -- and i'll repeat what the ranking member said -- federal employees that have been furloughed, their home, they're not working, they're not keeping the world war ii back open, they are not keeping the wildlife refuges open, they are not at their jobs, yet we are paying them, according to the bill that the majority just brought to the floor and that was passed. it's silly, it's ridiculous. this whole thing has gone on too long. bring the c.r. to the floor, let's get it voted on and it will get strong bipartisan support and let's open the government and then get down to the work that we were sent here to do. i yield back. mr. defazio: i'd like to correct one thing the gentleman said. as i understand it, we are not paying them. we will pay them. you know, for working today. they'll get a hamburger on tuesday sometime, maybe, perhaps. but for a lot of people, that's a hardship. a lot of federal workers are of modest means. i'll point to our capitol hill police here. some of them had plans for very long period of time. they can't get sick. they are not being paid. they will be paid. they'll get a hamburger on tuesday, maybe, sometime, depending how long this whole thing drags on this. this has risen to a point of absurdity. it started out to stop obamacare from going into effect on october 1. it went into effect. it then became chipping away at obamacare in ways that the president would never sign a bill to do. but i heard just earlier today from the gentleman from this is all about the debt and deficit. if it's all about the debt and deficit, this is pretty easy. let's bring up the continuing resolution that would actually reduce spending from current levels, continue government for six weeks while we sit down and negotiate how we're going to deal with longer term structural problems in our economy dealing meaningfully with our debt and deficit. that seems pretty darn simple to me. seems to me we're pretty close to agreement there. but unfortunately i think there's 30, 40 republicans whose agenda is still to stop or repeal obamacare. so i believe the gentleman that spoke today is probably speaking out of school and not speaking from them. what he says and i believe what a majority of republicans want to do, you could get democrats to agree to -- in a minute -- bring up the continuing resolution. we are not very happy with the further reduction in spending levels across the board. we will do it for six weeks. with that i'll yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the entleman yields back his time. under the speaker's announced policy of january 3, 2013, the gentleman from texas, mr. barton, is recognized for 60 minutes. mr. barton: i thank the gentleman from florida. mr. speaker, for the last hour the minority in the house, the democrat party, has had the right to speak to the american people in their leadership's special hour. i think the gentleman from oregon and the gentleman from california did a good job presenting the side of the story as they viewed it. having said that, mr. speaker, the late paul harvey had a radio program for many, many years that many of us listened to and in that radio program he would tell us the rest of the story. well, mr. speaker, for the next hour, those of us on the majority side, the republican side, most of us from texas, although we're going to have some friends from michigan and perhaps from florida, too, we're going to tell you the other part of the story, the rest of the story. we are going to start by continuing this mantra from the minority side that we ought to bring up the continuing resolution, the clean continuing resolution or c.r. from the other body, the senate , and life would be perfect. there is one tiny small problem with that. and that is, mr. speaker, that that continuing resolution funds the discretionary part of something that is technically -- legally called the affordable care act but most people in the united states are now calling it obamacare. mr. speaker, obamacare is a entitlement. it's not just a federal program. a change is fundamentally the way we practice medicine in the united states of america. it changes fundamentally the rights of americans. mr. speaker, obamacare mandates, forces every american, they have to have health insurance whether they want it or whether they need it. right taken away, right, freedom, you know, heretofore we've said, people have a right to choose whether they want health insurance or not and now we are saying at the federal level they have to have it. that's not a trivial right to take away from the american people. mr. speaker, the affordable care act, obamacare, mandates that every employer that has at least 50 employees must provide health insurance. now, heretofore health insurance had been considered a fringe benefit. some employers provided it. some employers did not. now, according to the affordable care act, or obamacare, you have to provide health insurance. what that's done, mr. speaker, has caused many small businesses to reduce their work force, to change their work hours. many employees that were full -time, 40-hour employees have become part-time, 20-hour employees. again, a huge change in the way americans have conducted their business. mr. speaker, there are many mandates in the affordable care act or obamacare that relate to how you practice medicine. many health care practitioners have told me in my district that they're going to not practice. they're going to retire. they're not going to put up with all the mandates. they're not going to put up with all of the paperwork. again, something that is fundamentally changing the nited states of america. and mr. speaker, in the affordable care act or obamacare, there are all kinds of mandates on what has to be included in insurance, how the insurance companies have to provide it, what the premiums they can charge. because of this, mr. speaker, many insurance companies have raised their premiums. many insurance companies have hanged their policies. again, a fundamental change. so, mr. speaker, when our friends in the minority side said, just bring up a clean c.r. and vote for it, they don't point out that that clean c.r. includes funding for obamacare. it is, again, a fundamental change, falmt -- a fundamental change, mr. speaker. and most of us on the republican side, the majority side, don't want that. we want the freedom to choose. i would ask my friends on the minority side, if obamacare is so great, why does it have to be mandatory? let's make it voluntary. republicans happen to support many of the things in it. we support coverage for pre-existing conditions. we support allowing young adults to stay on their parents' insurance until they reach the age of 25 or 26. we support the concept, the public exchanges, in the republican alternative when obamacare was passed, we had something called co-ops. not exactly like these health exchanges but certainly similar. so again, if this act is so good and so great and everybody loves it, let's make it voluntary. how about making it voluntary for a year and just deciding if .hat -- let the people choose if these health exchanges are great, people are going to flock to them. if all these mandates are really worthwhile, make them voluntary and based on free choice in the market, most of those will be accepted and implemented. so that might be an alternative at some point in time to consider. take all the mandates away, leave the structure of the law and let the american people choose whether they wish to participate. so anyway, mr. speaker, there is another side to this story. in the next 50 minutes, 55 minutes, the texas delegation on the republican side, with some help from our friends in other states, we're going to tell you the other side of the story. with that i would like to yield to mr. weber, congressman weber from friendswood, texas, such time as he may consume. mr. weber: i thank the gentleman, and i thank the speaker. you know, it's interesting, we see in 2010, the other side of the aisle, the d's, had no oblem passing this humungous takeover of health care. funny, they had no problem that the republicans were against it. they had no problem that americans, the majority of americans were against it, and, mr. speaker, they had no problem that the majority of the business community was against it. . they had no problem that there wasn't any bipartisanship involved. and now they have no problem blaming others as a result of this government shutdown of this failed legislation, not ready for primetime hostile takeover of almost a sixth of the economy. in short, the other side has no problem. i fwess that's right. now, the affordable care act is the american people's problem. and yet they continue to blame us. they continue to demagogue and say, it's all about us. we have a president who will not negotiate. he will negotiate with terrorists, he will get his foreign policy from the russian president putin, but he will not come to the house of representatives and negotiate. they want -- the majority leader in the senate and the executive in the white house wants this house of representatives, the republicans, to unconditionally surrender and roll over and forget that it is the american public that has the problem. this huge entitlement that the gentleman from texas was just alluding to, this is our method of getting negotiations going about fixing that problem. interestingly enough, today, we heard his speeches on the floor of the house. the analogy of the republicans' attempt to go ahead and fund those crucial parts of the government while they play their game they bring up a game analogy called whack-a-mole. they say our policy a a-- is akin to whack-a-mole. mr. speaker,s the first time i recall in recorded history that someone has actually made a mole hill out of a mountain. a whack-a-mole analogy. i would submit that the unaffordable care act, as i like to call it is a lot larger than the 900-pound gorilla in the room and our colleagues on the other side are ignoring the 900-pound gorilla and paying attention to moles. that proverbial mole hill. that's so interesting. in some of their comments today, they have been decrying the fact that hunters in their own states may not get to hunt. well that seems peculiar to me. the party who is in favor of gun control, who seems to be anti-second amendment right in my opinion, all of a sudden are interested in hunters' rights. as mr. rogers from the old tv how used to say, can you spell hypocrisy? sure you can. it's very interesting to me, mr. speaker, that at this juncture in the game, that all of a sudden they're interested in those rights that heretofore they've had no interest in and somehow it's the republicans' fault. i will remind my colleagues on the other side of the aisle as well as the american people that of the last 17 shutdowns in the last 30 years, 15 of those shutdowns occurred when a democratic majority was in control of this house of representatives. you never heard the terms terrorist, holding a gun to the head, refusing to negotiate, you never heard that back then. but because of this affordable care act, as my -- as the gentleman from texas has already eloquently stated, is a huge mandate, because this seems to be their signature desire to make americans have health insurance, signature legislation, now we're hearing that all of a sudden they're in favor of these other things. well, mr. speaker, on march 23, 2010, when president obama signed that hostile takeover of the health care into law, we have seen key promise after key promise made to the american people broken. the president said the affordable care act is designed to make it easier for younger americans to obtain and maintain health insurance. that was a quote. i'm from texas. we believe in being truthful with people. in texas, you get in trouble for making those kinds of false statements. we still believe in truth, justice, and the american way, even though we're from texas. in reality, if obamacare is implemented in texas, health insurance premiums on the individual market will see an increase. of 53% for young males and an increase of 11% for young females. that doesn't sound like such an affordable deal. to top that off, those who live in texas could see premiums increase of up to 43% in the in idual market and 23% the small group market. promise number two, broken. president said, quote, if you like your current health care plan, you'll be able to keep it. end quote. promise number two. broken. the fact is, obamacare incentivizes, as the gentleman from texas stated, the employers to drop coverage to avert taxes and fees, that would be imposed on those small businesses and large businesses if they were to continue to provide their employees coverage. home depot, u.p.s., to name a few have dropped tens of thousands of covered employees from their plans. just at the outset of this. according to the c.b.o., seven million people will lose their employer-sponsored coverage, nearly double the previous estimate of four million. in 2012, the texas state comptroller, susan combs and her office surveyed members of the national federation of endependent businesses and received replies from over 900 texas businesses. large and small. 3.4% of report, only those business owners believed that the president's health care would be good for their business. in fact, fines and penalties paid by those same texas businesses with more than 50 employers were fiscal year 2010 through 2019, those fines were estimated at $9. billion, with a b, dollars. not only have there been broken promises, there have been major delays of the law. it is simply not ready for primetime and the truth of the matter is, folks, it will probably never be. as more and more americans get that, they understand how imperative it is, imperative it is that we make changes in that law. in fact, since the law has been in place, there have been 22 actions to defund, revise, or repeal parts of that over-burdensome law. to the other side, i would say this -- let's use the president's words. knock it off. and move on. 59% of american people want this law defunded. why does the president and the majority leader keep ignoring the american taxpayers? in my district, i have constituents sharing their heart wrenching stories about the negative impact obamacare has already had on their family. there's been hundreds of responses. take susan gaye from beaumont. lost d, quote, they their overtime. we're now still frightened he may use his jobs as -- he may lose his job as he works for a small businessman locally in beaumont. susan, i hear you. the republicans hear you. we're fighting for you, fighting if for your husband and co-workest and millions of others that have already been negatively impacted. by the president's takeover of the health care system. folks your house republicans are making every effort to get rid of this law. we have introduce red placement bills to empower the individuals, and make affordable health care more accessible for everyone. folks there is a better way. it is high time that the president and the senate get onboard with us in the us -- in the house if they truly want to help and listen to the american people. i'm randy weber and i'm proud to be a texan. i yield back. mr. barton: thank you, congressman weber. before i yield to my friend from far north texas, mr. benishek of the first district of michigan, i want to read into the record a comment that i received on my facebook page. now most of these comments are from texans, some of them are not. i'm not sure the location of this gentleman. mr. dave gus jr., this is a facebook page comment received yesterday or this morning. and i quote, just got a letter from my provider that my policy will end and i need to purchase a new one. when i called and asked why i was -- and asked why, i was told that my current policy does not meet the required coverage for obamacare because it has no prenatal coverage. i am a male. the new policy will cost me $500 a month, the old one i had was $200 a month. and we have a number of these stories, mr. speaker. that i'll be putting into the record as this special order continues. but now i would like to yield to the gentleman from the first district of michigan, congressman benishek, such time as he may consume. mr. benishek: thank you. i want to thank my colleague from texas, i feel a great affinity for my texas colleagues, i'm an avid fan of western swing, especially bob wills. you know, i don't know how we end up in a shutdown. i never wanted to have a shutdown. i wanted to reach a compromise with the senate and you know, have business go on. the problem is that in the house, we passed four different pieces of legislation that would have prevented a shutdown. i mean, i can see, for example, the first thing we sent to the senate was a plan to fund the government and defund obamacare. ok, i can understand, the senate isn't going to maybe significantly budge on that. but maybe we would get out of the senate some votes. maybe some democrat senators would vote for it. it would kind of support -- see what kind of support we would have on the democrat side in the senate. then we sent to the senate a piece of legislation which simply delayed the president's health care law for a year. the president had already delayed components of his law for some people or for some time, so let's try this. maybe we would get democrats' votes in the senate to support that. those two propositions, they weren't even voted on, they were tabled in the senate. they voted to table them, not have any debate about the merits of those two proposals. so then we sent to the senate a proposal not to defund the president's health care law but to continue to fund the health care law but cheage the law so that it affected all americans the same. the president by executive order has changed his own law. contrary to the law, he wrote an executive order to change the nature of the law so that employers were exempted from the mandate. in other words, the law mandates that employers provide insurance for their employees or suffer a fine. the law also demands that individuals buy insurance or suffer a fine. the president saw fit to change the law so that major employers don't have to pay a fine. delay the enforcement of that part of the law for a year. despite the fact that the law doesn't go for that. and when is the president allowed to change a law by edict? by his signature? we change laws in this country by statute. should we allow a president to hange the law at his whim? another aspect where the president cheaged the law heck cheaged the law to give special privileges to members of congress, that the members of congress who have to go to the exchange would be afforded a subsidy. unlike any else who has to go to the exchange. so how is the president changing the law to give special privileges to congress something that the american people should be for? i think that the american people want the law to apply to everyone the same. the third thing we asked for from the senate was simply change the law so that the law applies to the congress, the president, the vice president, the same as it does to every other american. and to afford individuals the same delay in the law that the president granted to his big manufacturers, some of his favorite unions, not all unions got it, why not all americans? that's what we asked for in the senate, not even to defund the president's health care law but simply to make the law abide with all americans and not -- how is it we've become a country where the law applies only to certain people? that the president, by a wren statement, can exempt certain people from the law? is that what this country is becoming? is that the united states of america? that we grew up in? i don't think so. i think that what we asked for, fund odd ba ma cair and change the law to apply to everyone, was certainly a reasonable compromise from our initial piece of legislation. and they tabled that. and our fourth effort to keep the government open was simply ask the senate to come talk to us. so if you won't agree to make the law the same for everyone, we will at least come to us -- at least come to us and talk about what you will accept. and that's why we're in this impasse we are today. you know, we've taken steps to reopen the government. we passed targeted pieces of legislation that will fund critical portions of our government, fema, national parks, w.i.c., veterans' affairs, the national institutes of health, the national guard. we even passed legislation that furloughed employees will be paid once the shutdown ends. the sentiment of the administration has given exceptions to their allies, big businesses and some unions. why shouldn't the american people be given the same kind of treatment? you know, we have heard a lot about a clean c.r.. i don't know. i don't see how it's so clean when it allows the president to change the law by edict. i don't see that as a clean piece of legislation. i think that's a piece of legislation that allows unfairness in the law to ontinue. and to me it's unclear. and i'd like to talk to the senate to come to some sort of agreement, but it just strikes as really, really disingenuous to call what they're calling a clean c.r. when in reality the law of the president that changes the law at his whim. i think the administration, the senate certainly should come to the bargaining table and talk to the house. i mean, the power of the purse. we have the power of the purse. shouldn't our consideration be taken into account? shouldn't we have conversations to make sure that, you know, the country stays open? so i just wanted to explain to you, mr. speaker, and to those listening how i feel and why we're here. and i would ask your support in that, and i'll yield back the balance of my time. mr. barton: i thank the gentleman from michigan. before i yield to the gentleman from florida, i want to read two more comments into the record from my facebook page. he first one is from a kevin h ussey, h-u-s-s-e-y, it's doubled my premiums. simply put, how is that affordable? schmoody engel, comments, my mother is facing her hours cut or being laid up altogether, not to mention her company is dropping health insurance for part-time employees altogether. again, these are comments from folks on my facebook page. but i'd also like to point out that my wife, terri barton, is the marketing director for ennis research medical center in our hometown of ennis, and it's her job to get the hospital ready, to implement obamacare. i have texted her this morning and asked her how that's going, and she has replied that the counselors are all trained and they're ready to help if people call in wanting to sign up. ennis regional medical center is a certified application center, but as of so far, very few people have called and tried to sign up. and that's on the front lines, ennis regional medical center is a hospital approximately i think 60 or 70 beds in a town of approximately 18,000 people in the suburbs of dallas and fort worth, texas. it is on the front lines of obamacare as we implement it if we do implement it. and with that i would like to yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from florida, congressman yoho. mr. yoho: i thank my colleague from texas, and i appreciate you wearing our stripes on your tie today. that's apropos. mr. speaker, i'd like to address all of my colleagues, both republicans and democrats, but more importantly, the american people. hold ey are the ones that us accountable and we were sent here to represent the people. i represent approximately 700,000 citizens in florida's third congressional district. one of the things i ran on was preventing the affordable care act from being implemented, and i have voted to do all in my power to prevent this ill-conceived legislative malpractice of a bill from being a burden to the american citizens i represent. i also ran on the rule of law and the adherence to the constitution. so when i hear my colleagues on the left -- excuse me -- to this side of the chamber say the republicans want to shut down the government, i find it somewhat disingenuous. i'm voting the majority of the people i represent instructed me to do as have my colleagues. since we are the house, the people's house, we are the voice of the people. so when my democratic colleagues say that republicans want to shut down the government, keep in mind that it's the voice of the people that we represent whose voice you are hearing. that's the way a representative republic works. another issue that belittles this body and lowers our approval rating, i read the other day, the american people equal to or less than a root canal is the drama, the theatrics and the name calling. no one on this side, as is true of your side wants children, veterans, widows to starve or to be deprived of health care. we as you will take care of the needy, the truly needy. the name calling, i have to admit, seems to imnate one side more than the other side. i heard childest angry words like terrorist, jihadists, and moles and rd whaca it was a pivotal point in this country from a tyrannical government under the rule of law by the king of england, and i'm so thankful that the colonists at this time rose up -- rose up in opposition to a minimal tax placed upon all the tea sold into america. that led to the boston tea party. so it's ironic -- so isn't it ironic that after 237 years we have created a government that not only says you must pay the tax but you also must buy our tea, can you say the affordable care act? so is it any wonder that today there is a new tea party in america with a mindset of limited government, fiscal responsibility, free enterprise, personal responsibility in the constitution? the tea party is a movement. it was a spontaneous movement that happened throughout this country. there's no national leader. there is no national headquarters. the american people said they were tired of washington and the gridlock and politics as usual and that led us to where we are at today and they said, like i did, i had enough. now, as far as shutting down the government, nobody i know wants to shut down the government. because in the shutdown, who pays? the american people pay. therefore, it would behoove us to keep the government up and running for the benefit of these people and for this great country. the republicans have offered at four different times c.r. legislation that represented the voice of our constituents to keep the government open. two of those offers were outright rejected by the president himself and the leader of the senate, mr. reid. we worked through last saturday up here until 2:00 in the morning and passed more legislation to resolve this issue and compromise. we did not hear back from either side, the president or mr. reid, that many of us from on the senate steps on the capitol asking for a chance to sit at the table, just to negotiate in conference to stop this gridlock and get america back to work again. again, silence from the president and mr. reid. we did not hear from the president or mr. reid until monday afternoon. their answer was no negotiation, which translates to our way or the highway. on one other point to clarify is for the house-senate to go to conference over the budget. yet, the senate didn't offer a budget for over the last four years, but now all of a sudden it's a problem if we don't go to conference. again, one side is being disingenuous over the american people. a budget doesn't fund the government. a budget is a wish list of the house of representatives, of the senate and the president. appropriations are what funds this government, and the house has passed four appropriations bills, and the senate has failed to bring those up by approval of the senate and then send over to the president to sign. so, again, america, you're being fed misinformation. that is why this government is shut down. the american people need to hear the other side of the story. they need to hear that we amend r bills, the c.r. bills four times from the house. to negotiate with the senate, they need to know that we asked to go to conference to settle our differences the way differences have been resolved in this esteemed body since its inception. mr. speaker, let's add an air of dignity to this damaged body. let's end the name calling. let's end the bickering. let's go to conference on a continuing resolution, hash out our differences and get this government up and running again and let's focus on the insuing tsunami that's coming called our debt ceiling. this is a time for us not to be republicans or democrats. this is a time for us to be americans. it's what the american people expect. it's what the american people deserve, and it's what i came to washington to do and i thank my gentleman from texas. mr. barton: i thank the gentleman from florida. i want to read a couple more comments from my facebook page that have come in in the last days. this is from a gentleman named richard, since obamacare, my insurance rates have gone through the roof. every teacher i know have seen their monthly insurance rates increase by more than $200 to $300 per month. one teacher's went up by $400. mr. anthony from arlington, texas, writes -- my rates have increased 15% a year for over the last three years. last year my deductibles went up 20% and 50% respectively. there's been nothing affordable for my health care in the last three years. i have less coverage and it costs me more, and even if i wanted to cancel it, i'm better off paying the high prices because i get hit with a penalty tax if i cancel. i get fighting mad just thinking about the mess of legislation that was passed so that we could find out what's in it. with that i'd yield to the gentleman from the 11th istrict of texas, mr. mike conaway. mr. conaway: mr. speaker, as we all know, this affordable care act or obamacare or as most of the folks in district 11 will refer to the unaffordable health care act was passed in this house by the slimmest of margins in march of 2010, and then passed without frankly one republican vote. it was also passed in the senate by parliamentary tricks that were used to avoid the 60-vote issue once they lost the -- ted kennedy's seat to scott brown and it eliminated their ability to cram it through there. again, without one republican vote to make that happen. so while our colleagues on the other side may say this is currently the law of the land, that was 3 1/2 years ago. today, poll after poll is showing that the american people are expressing themselves that they do not want this bill and the underlying requirements and costs associated with it crammed down their throat. much like those now infamous words of speaker pelosi when she said that we were going to have to pass this bill before we know what's in it, the american people will have to suffer through this flawed rollout in order to understand what's in it before they know what they don't like before implementation of this deal. mr. speaker, we had to resort to a government shutdown, quite frankly, to try to get this president's attention and harry reid to force them to come to the table. it's almost unconscionable to hold the american people through their government hostage like that but that's exactly what this president and harry reid have wanted to do. we have time and time again, as has been recanted on this floor today, try to find common ground with this -- with this president and the speaker -- and the majority leader in the senate to come to agreement on those parts of funding the government that are unrelated to the implementation of the affordable care act. areas in which we thought we could agree. one of the first ones was the bill that passed unanimously in the house to fund the federal -- the department of defense and the related contractors while this shutdown is going on so that they would not be impacted by it. we then sent a series of bills across this house floor which we've gotten good bipartisan support. we've had 25 democrats agree with us on continuing the funding of pediatric research. we had 23 democrats with us that we should reopen our parks and memorials. we had democrats agree with us that veterans' benefits should not be impacted. 36 democrats agree that national guard and army reserve should be paid for their monthly training. we've had 23 democrats to join us on disaster relief. and just today we had 189, 100% of those voting, democrats agree to pay furloughed federal employees once this conflict with the white house and senate is over. and 184 agreed that the federal government should continue to provide religious services to our armed forces while this is going on. in addition to these efforts, he house passed -- it was u.c. and passed by the president. this president and harry reid have had a checkered pattern of supporting some issues that we thought we had common ground on but not supporting others. including harry reid's comment with reference to children with cancer as to why would we want to continue this funding during this time frame. analogies are always difference but this one fits, cold war, soviets built a war separating east germany from west germany but we are in another cold war with this president and harry reid in the senate. this is a cold war that they are also building a wall of, but they are flat out refusing to negotiate with house republicans except when it benefits a constituency that they believe it important to them, they are building a wall of hardheadness and stiff-neckedness, if that's a word, but that is a wall that they are refusing to listen to the american people and to paraphrase those wonderful words of ronald reagan when he was speaking to gorbachev, i would use those same comments to this president and majority leader reid. mr. president, tear down this wall of stiff-neck he hadness and turn down this wall of not negotiating with the house republicans. tear down that wall to get this government back to operating and we can deal with a bill and now law that majority of americans do not want. and i yield back. mr. barton: i thank the gentleman and before i yield to the congressman from the 4th district, mr. hall, let me read a few more comments into the record from my facebook page. this is from a kevin jones. it hasn't hurt me yet, but it will. i don't want medical insurance, don't want it. i pay my own way. i'm able to negotiate some nice discounts on my medical bills. obamacare will be just another tax on me. this is from a lady named theresa stone, i had a job that i did well but because i was expensive and getting old, turning 54 in january, to save money i was let go for bogus reasons. i'm collecting unemployment, but that ends in january. i lost my insurance when i lost my job. i can't afford my bills, house, food and insurance, so i'm uncovered. i will never sign up for obamacare ever. that's from theresa stone. i yield to the gentleman from from texas' 4th district, mr. ralph hall, a decorated world r ii veteran and in my opinion, the absolute nicest man in this congress, congressman hall for such time as he may consume. mr. hall: thank you for those comply mepts. you read them out just exactly like i wrote them for you. mr. speaker, i thank you, too, and thank you for being here when most everyone else is gone. obamacare was forced through the congress without a single republican vote. just think about that for a second, not one republican vote. i don't know if that's ever been done. i think charles krauthammer said it yesterday best and he said, i quote, from social security to medicare, medicaid never in the modern history of the country has major social legislation been enacted on a straight part-line vote. never. in every case there was significant reaching across the aisle and enhancing the law's legitimacy and endurance. obamacare which revolutionizes 1/6 of the economy, limits every aspect of medical practice and limits every citizen, passed without a single g.o.p. vote. mr. krauthammer is not alone in being concerned about this country. we are concerned not the members of this house, either body, or the senate, but the concern of everyone that has children or cares about children. jobs, talk about jobs. there are no jobs now whether you are educated or not educated. they don't look to a job. and by the time this president exits, they aren't going to find any employers. that's how serious this is. this is a real problem, mr. speaker and i'm afraid it's going to bankrupt the families and bankrupt businesses in the 4th congressional district, which was the third largest user of manufacturers in the entire united states congress, house or senate in 1911. i have not seen the words for 1912. we are forcing people to buy insurance that they can't afford. if they opt out, we fine them. what a train wreck. go ahead and go to the web site and sign up. reports from all over the country of gliches, contusion and frustration from those who have tried and we are hearing that the federal government will be shutting down the web site for repairs. you should think after three years after planning, you would be able to sign people up. this is clearly not the case and clearly not ready for prime time. i think this is the sign of things to come under mr. obamacare, mr. speaker. i'm concerned about data security in this system, given no government's track record i'm worried people's personal information would get out. all of us have good honest relationships with our doctor and don't need the government to get in the middle of that relationship. the push for obamacare was coverage for all americans and now according to the congressional budget office, 30 million will still not be covered in the year 2022. what is going on here? this is one giant tax. if you don't sign up, you get taxed. if you do sign up, your rates will go up as much as 400%. in closing, another push for obamacare was to bring down the cost of health care. according to the american action forum, health snurn rates for people ages 18-35 will go up substantially. premiums averaged about $62 a month and now the premium for these youngsters will be $187 a month. that's triple the cost. how is this helping? my constituents are opposed to this bad health care law. my mail is 100-1 against it. the folks on the other side of the aisle should listen to the majority of the americans and defund, delay or repeal obamacare. i yield back. mr. barton: i thank the gentleman from 4th district and point out to the speaker that yesterday congressman hall was one of the texas congressmen that went to the world war ii memorial to make sure our veterans from the honor flight were allowed to see it. i want to read one more into the record before i recognize the gentleman from texas, dr. burgess. this has come in as we have been doing this special order, mr. speaker. it says, hi, joe, keep up the good battle today. i'm tuned into c-span with a close eye. i received notice that my insurance will be doubling almost from $113 a month to $207 a month. i'm a 35, nonsmoking healthy female. whom i paying for. i have had enough. i'm frustrated. keep up the fight. kmp at ymp hoffman, minneapolis, minnesota. one more. efforts. express your i'm watching you right now on c-span. my wife and i received a certified letter from our insurance provider significance in a informing us that our plan is being dissolved effective january 1, 2014. i believe the president knew he was lying when he boldly proclaimed many times that if people like their insurance coverage, they could keep it, period. he knew or should have known full well that the affordable care act would cause many insurance plans to shut down and this has become the sad reality. i cannot trust anything the president or this administration says anymore. and that's from a gentleman named tim. with that, i yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman , dr. mike burgess. this was an email september to me from an american citizen. i was reading something that an american citizen wrote. it is not my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: members e reminded to engageing in permits with the president. mr. burgess: i thank mr. barton for bringing this to the house. this is significant that this is the texas hour. people look to texas for leadership. from an economic standpoint, xas enjoys an aaa rating and united states does not. the state of texas gained a nearly new residents. other times there have been vast expansions in population in a state. the rate of uninsurance has also increased, except in texas during that time period from 2009 to 2011. the rate of insurance went down. why is that? people were moving to texas because they could find a job and accompanying that job was employer-sponsored insurance. texas has a long history of utilizing the energy resources inherent in that state and texas has gone a long way towards redining our national energy policy and making a net exporter of energy rather than an importer. our purpose here today is to talk about the affordable care act and it has already been referenced, the other body passed this late on christmas eve in order to get out of town right before a snowstorm. the chairman of the finance committee this the other body, when talking to the secretary of health and human services said earlier, said, i'm worried that we are seeing a train wreck. i wanted to provide for members of the house of representatives what a train wreck looks like right before it happens. ladies and gentlemen, my colleagues, this is where we were last mopped night. two bearing down on each other. smoke out of their smoke stacks. this is a train wreck. a train wreck was fixing to happen and we were trying to do everything possible to prevent it. we had passed four bills and sent them to the senate, each one had been rejected. the last one in the spirit of compromise, let's just sit down and talk and the senate rejected that as well. when you think about the history, why has it been so hard to implement this? the reason it has been hard to implement this is because this was never intended to become law. the house of representatives never had a single hearing on what at the time was known as h.r. 3590. it was passed in the senate without a single republican vote, midnight hour on christmas eve and every senator thought, we'll get a chance to go to conference and fix it. we know there are problems, but we'll get a chance to fix this. but they didn't, because they lost their 60th vote in massachusetts and the senate majority leader told the speaker of the house at the time, there's nothing else i can do. i have put everything into it. i can't pass this again in the senate, because he lacked one vote. i ask people in this body on both sides of the aisle to think back, lyndon johnson was a member of this body and majority leader in the senate and was president. can you imagine lyndon johnson not passing the civil rights act because he lacked one vote? can you imagine lyndon johnson not passing medicare because he lacked one vote? no. he would have exercised senate leadership or presidential leadership, and he would have gotten that vote and he would have made it happen. both of those, by the way, passed with bipartisan majorities in both the house and the senate. so don't fault the house of representatives because of how bad this thing is. don't fault the house of representatives because the people of the united states do not like this thing. don't fault the house of representatives because they couldn't even get their piece correct with 3 1/2 years and billions and billions of dollars. why did the site crash the first couple of days? they knew it was coming and knew there would be great interest in this. amazon handles how many hits a day? facebook, certainly a nonessential site on the internet, how many transactions does it handle a day? how could they not be ready? this is the president's signature piece of legislation. i get criticized, saying republicans haven't tried to fix it. we have. we have passed seven pieces of legislation and the president has signed them. the president himself has laid portions of this law down, not to be enforced for whatever period of time he says. certainly people can't sign up for pre-existing coverage now. they have to wait until the first of the year. that has been closed since february 1 of this year. the employer mandate went away right before the fourth of july. reporting requirements suspended. the president has put more pieces of this law on hold than any member of this house could ever do. i appreciate so much the gentleman from texas holding this hour and i'm privileged to have been part of it. i wanted to remind people what a train wreck right before it happens. and i yield back. . mr. barton: could i inquire of the speaker how much time we have remaining in this special order? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman has nine minutes remaining. mr. barton: i thank the speaker. before i yield, i want to apologize to the house for eading into the record comments from citizens of the united states who are exercising their first amendment right. a of those citizens made disparaging remark to the president of the united states, and we understand that members ourselves cannot personalize these issues. some of our citizens that are commenting don't understand the rules. but i do and i want to apologize to the house because i do understand the rules. ith that i want to yield to -- congressman stockman four minutes. mr. stockman: thank you, mr. speaker. i'd like to recognize the fact that we're talking about things that impact our nation and i want to talk about our speaker who, as you know, or many of you know, i voted against and didn't want to be the speaker, but now today our speaker has been vilified after offering opportunity after opportunity to negotiate. the president on the other hand, said he's not willing to negotiate with our speaker. the speaker grew up in ohio, working class community, and has negotiated many times with the president. so it's most puzzling to me why now the stance of nonnegotiation. every time we had a shutdown, which i was here in the last shutdown, we negotiated. the president at that time, president clinton negotiated. all the shutdowns we always had negotiations. that's the way this body works is that we work on compromise. now, the president wrote a letter to this individual who's the head of iran. he's negotiating with the head of iran who wants to eliminate syria -- eliminate israel. he's willing to negotiate with him for nuclear weapons. the president also wants to negotiate with the head of syria. this individual gassed his own people, tore turd his own people and killed his own people. -- tortured his own people and killed his own people. i don't understand why he's willing to negotiate with him, but he is but he's not willing to negotiate with our speaker. next, the president is also willing to negotiate with the taliban. the taliban, the president ordered the release of several prisoners prior to even negotiations to get to, quote, get the negotiating starting, to start. again, let me remind the body that the speaker is not to be negotiated with, but the taliban is. now the president says, i'm willing to negotiate if you give up your position. well, that's not negotiation. there's been -- i'd like to show you, mr. speaker, some of the words that have been used against our speaker and the republican body. we have been called by this administration terrorists, an arc cysts, suicide bombers, blackmakers, fringe, extortionists, gangsters, extremists, bombs strapped to their hest, guns held to head. we are not talking about terrorists, but talking about the working class gentleman from ohio. i call on the president to tone down the rhetoric. i call on the president to respect this body and to negotiate in good faith. t's time to end the government shutdown and let's do it in a positive manner. i'd like to point out, too, while these names were hurled and insulted to the speaker, never once, never once has the speaker ever used that kind of terminology against our president. so i'd like to see this body turn down the rhetoric and get back to the business of negotiating and making compromise. it's the fair thing to do, it's the proper thing to do. and i just appeal to the nation and stop using this kind of rhetoric against people in this body. we deserve better, and with that i praise the gentleman from ennis, texas, for allowing me to speak to the body and to negotiate in fairness and we ask the president just to sit down. by the way, mr. speaker, we've appointed conferees to negotiate. to this date, they've never shown up on the other side. we can't negotiate unless there's someone else. anybody in the family knows, it takes a husband, wife or spouse or partner to make a deal. it takes two people. can't do it unilaterally. with that i yield back the balance of my time to the gentleman from ennis, texas. mr. barton: can i inquire how much time is remaining? the speaker pro tempore: jass had a two minutes remaining. mr. barton: thank you. i yield myself the rest of the time. mr. speaker, first of all, thank you for listening as we have this special order. we appreciate your courtesy. to my friends in the body, this is a serious issue. obamacare or the affordable care act, as i said at the start, is a huge new entitlement. at a minimum, we should have a real debate about it. as has been pointed out, it barely passed the house on a partisan vote. no republicans voting for it. and some democrats i think voted against it. i think it passed by one or two votes. it passed the senate only because they were able to get around the 60-vote requirement to end debate. so it is the law of the land, but it was passed with all democrat votes and no republican votes. and before it is fully implemented, i think it is worthy of a debate and it is worthy of the type of situation that's going on now. and as i said at the top of this special order, if the affordable care act is such a great thing, let's make it voluntary for the next year and let the american people choose whether they want to implement it as is currently structured. and if they don't, let's work together hopefully on a bipartisan basis, mr. speaker, to change it. no one wants the federal government to shut down, that's obvious. the republicans in the house are bringing bills to the floor on a daily basis to try to open up as much of the federal government as is possible. our friends on the democrat side some days are with us on that and some days are not. they were with us today on paying furloughed federal workers when they come back to work. hopefully next week they'll be with us on paying the veterans, opening the v.a., the national parks, funding cancer research and some of the things that earlier this week they were against. with that, mr. speaker, again, thank you for your courtesy and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair lays before the house n enrolled bill. the clerk: h.r. 3095, an act to ensure that any new or revised requirement providing for the screening, testing or treatment of individuals operating commercial motor vehicles for sleep disorders is adopted pursuant to a rulemaking proceeding and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 3, 2013, the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. gohmert, for 30 minutes. mr. gohmert: thank you, mr. speaker. information that came out after close of business yesterday, it was a report from cnbc about the 99% of obamacare applications that hit a wall. one report said, as few as out of 100 applications contained enough information to enroll the applicant in the plan. several insurance sources told cnbc on friday, some of the problems involve how the exchange's software collects and verifies applicant's data. it's extraordinary -- this is a quote -- it's extraordinary that these systems weren't ady, said one, c.e.o. of infogigs, which handles data integrity issues for many major insurers including wellpoint and cigna as well as multiple blue cross blue shield affiliates. experts said that if healthcare.gov success rate doesn't improve within the next month or so, federal officials could face a situation in january in which relatively large numbers of people believe they have coverage starting that month but whose enrollment applications have not been processed. it could be a public relations nightmare. insurance told his company that just one in 100 enrollment applicants being sent from the federal marketplace have provided sufficient verified information. the article goes on to point out, one insurer reported a better but still stunningly low rate of enrollment applications containing enough data to process coverage. it's about half of what we received, a source at that insurer said. we're getting incomplete data, about half the applications we haven't been able to process who used the word corrupted to describe the batch of applications received. so the article goes on to point out, what a huge problem. after 3 1/2 years to get ready for obamacare to be the law of the land, after repeated refusals to negotiate whatsoever on delaying anything except for what the president has signed in the way of exemption and waivers hundreds of times himself, as he and chief justice roberts completely rewrote the original obamacare bill, there have been refusal to allow everyone in america so stand on the same fair, level playingfield as supporters or friends of the president have gotten through their waivers and exemptions, including people in congress with main of us here in this body have refused to accept if americans don't get them as well. one person in the article said he blamed the exchange's software, which is allowing too many people to finish the process online without making sure they provide answers needed by the insurers processing the application. but the article also mentions, they're going to have to be people go back and try to get information from these individuals that did not complete the application process. it sounds like through no fault of their own. just for the impropriety of the software programs themselves. and it's not difficult to see hat a nightmare that will be as it opens wide the door for identity thieves to start making calls or sending emails telling people they did not adequately complete the process and they need this information or that information. it's going to be tough for people to know, am i sending information to the government or am i sending it to a proper contractor or am i sending my information to an identity thief? the process was not ready for prime time. and it's just going to get worse as we move toward january and the problems that are occurring. here's an article from dr. susan barry. and this was dated october 3, talking about secretary sebelius . the woman who is behind the controls of obamacare was unable to convince even one person from kansas, the state she used to govern, to sign up for it. though h.h.s., secretary kathleen sebelius is the former governor of kansas, representative tim huelskamp was informed by an insurance provider in his home state that none of the 365,000 uninsured people living there successfully signed up for insurance on the obamacare exchange on the first day. now, in the midst of all the chaos, all of the broken promises where people have lost their insurance, they have lost the coverage they had even when they keep their insurance, insurance prices have spiked for the vast majority of americans in this country. they did not get the $2,500 cheaper insurance the president promised. they either lost their insurance all together or it spiked dramatically. they didn't get to keep the doctor. we're hearing from those people constantly. and at the same time, when here in the house, we have centcom proposal myself after compromise before the shutdown occurred, down to the senate, which normally in a functioning senate would have the senate, if they didn't like what we proposed, send back an alternative. and at that point, after an alternative is passed in the senate, then the speaker can appoint negotiators, called conferees. the head of the majority in the senate, harry reid, could appoint negotiators and then come together and work out an agreement and then that comes to the house and senate for an up-or-down vote. straight up-or-down vote. but the senate was playing games. it is now clear that there was no intention of having any agreement that the conventional wisdom in this town for the last three years saying, gee, if there is a shutdown, then republicans will likely lose the majority in the next election, so whatever it takes to shut down the government, go ahead. that was borne out by the fact at the first 21 mainstream stories completely faulted the republicans, failing to point out the compromises that were sent down the hall. and the democrats' refusal to even entertain them. and then on the 4th, they said all right. all right. we're appointing conferees. just appoint people to sit down and talk about it. we could probably have this worked out by morning. but it was clear they wanted damage from a government shutdown. we've learned that as these telltale signs emerge and one park ranger was quoted as saying that it was disgusting but as park rangers, they had been instructed to make life as difficult as possible for people. we're getting stories in from around the country about how this abusive federal government that wants to tell you what health care you can have, what surgery you can have, who wants to supervise everything about your private life. they want every page of every medical record about you. they can get their grimey hands on so that bureaucrats can decide if you are doing something you don't like and jerk you around, as the i.r.s. has been caught doing now, as we have gotten reports from the eep -- e.p.a. being abusive. and we find case after case now since the shutdown of this government funding park rangers to go and create as much chaos for americans as much as possible. we have this administration where the buck stops with the commander in chief, who is -- has now made clear to catholic chaplains of the military that are independent contractors that are not to show up and conduct mass on sunday, and if you do, you may be arrested or subjected to discipline area -- disciplinary action. there was a time in this country where we believed in volunteerism, that no matter what happened, americans would step up and made sure that things that needed to happen actually got done. and now we have an abusive administration so, so intent on, as the park ranger said, making life as difficult as possible for people in such a mean-spirited way, they would go shut down facilities that don't take a dime of federal money just to hurt as many people as possible. and those same people that are calling those shots want to decide what you can have in the way of health care, mr. speaker. no thank you. i am opting out. i will pay the penalty. i am not going to have the government telling me what i can or cannot have. i'll pay the penalty. i'm waiving the subsidies. if americans can't have it, why should we in congress. that same spirit of entrepreneurism prevailed in 1995 when the grand canyon was actually shut down. it's amazing this administration had to try to pay for some kind of screen to put over the top of the grand canyon so commercial airliners can't fly down and look down and see god's creation. but in 1995, there was an agreement between the state, local government and the federal government to make sure that after it was initially closed, it reopened and stayed in local government people were able to allow americans who had scheduled their vacations, their travel time, allowed them to enjoy that. not this administration, oh, no. they are so intent on refusing across theen a delay board to be given to everyone as they have given to big business, to their cronies, that they are not going to allow any local government, private business, ates to reopen parks and things that have no business being shut. the stories are coming in of all kinds of places. there was no need to close. there was no need to spend money to barricade. but just to make life tough for americans, because this is how big government has grown. this is how big government has become how abusive big government has become. nd i can't help but draw a lernersion that since lois was punished for the abuses and lies that have now come to light, that others have said she got caught red-handed and we can be as abusive to people as we want. a story from october 4 that talks about how arizona governor brewer, local businesses, local governments are trying to get permission to fund the reopening of at least part of the grand canyon, but this federal government, like the park ranger said, want to make life as difficult, want to create as much misery as possible. i'll say this about the carter administration. i was in the united states army at fort beening for over half of the carter administration and we had a lot of misery as a result caused by the commander in chief then and there came something called the misery index to measure how miserable americans were under president carter, because we were having inflation, which is now coming under this administration because of the massive creation of money. you can't keep creating money and not cause inflation. that's coming. interest rates that keep being teased that they are about to go higher, we'll see. and the unemployment rate was massively high back in those days. but i'll say this about the carter administration, they didn't mean to cause that much misery. they really did not mean to cause that much misery. there was massive misery across the country back then, but at least that administration did not intend to make people that miserable. but reports continue to come in of the misery that this administration is inflicting, because they can, because they want everyone to succumb to what s been classified as chicago-style thuggery than having more to do with tactics of organized crime if you didn't go along with what they wanted, they made you suffer. and we're seeing that. i mean for goodness sakes, we passed a law before the shutdown. i have been pushing for a military pay bill for over 2 1/2 years and i'm grateful the speaker finally brought that to the floor. i'm grateful to michael coffman for doing that. and then the department of fense gets it, we were going to mitigate as much as we could to the senate's credit, they passed that before the shutdown. but then the department of fense, this administration chose to interpret it so much more narrowly than the law itself said, that they furloughed lots of people, just like the park rangers said, trying to make life as difficult as possible. said, well, we're going to take some time to read the legislation and let people suffer for a while and eventually we'll get around to deciding whether or not we think congress meant to do what they said they meant to do, and that is protect our country, provide for the common defense, make sure our military continued to get paid, along with every private contractor that supported them in any way, along with every civilian employee that supported them in their role. they apparently wanted to make life miserable. there's enough problems being created by obamacare and the overspending of this administration without creating things unnecessarily. here's a story from stephanie condon from cbs news about obamacare marketplaces raises data security concerns. that is continuing to be a concern and seems to be borne wreck,t this was a train it is a nightmare, and will continue to just get worse. then the "l.a. times" had a story, california exchange overstated its web traffic for obamacare launch that would be consistent with so many of the mainstream that are grabbed a hold of a young man who said he had signed up successfully, so he was interviewed by different media and then come to find out, actually, he is a paid computer hack who gets paid by organizing for america, president obama's obbying group that he funds. . . he's paid to go online and say things politically supportive of the president. turns out he had not actually obamacare.or here's a story from "the national review," zero enrolled in the new louisiana plan on obamacare's first day. one from "the weekly standard," october 3, the white house on a number of enrollees in obamacare, we don't have that data. a.p. reports, that pressure continues to mount to fix the health insurance exchanges. those continue to be a nightmare. and in the midst of all this, where you hadded franklin roosevelt say the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. we have john harwood with cnbc interview this week saying to the president, quote, wall street has been pretty calm about this, unquote. and the president said, quote, this time i think wall street should be concerned, unquote. so we have to fear the resident making people fear. there was an interesting online , at this week indicating the world war ii memorial on the mall in washington where veterans had been staging protests to keep it open, washington examiner's charlie speerling said seven officials were dispatched wednesday morning to set up a ring of barricades to block tourists from the memorial. that's two more security officers than the state department had in benghazi a year ago on the night of the terrorist attack that killed four, including the u.s. ambassador. well, as i keep going out to the memorial each day, make sure veterans are getting in that care to, i have noted there are more park service people out there than i have ever seen at the world war ii memorial. i've been there all day, all times of the day and night. i don't sleep that much when i'm in washington. although we come to find out our park rangers don't know the law. hey don't know the parking law properly. there are a lot of things they don't know. we find out they've been instructed to make life as difficult as they can for people. thank god there are some people that i have met and spoken with with the park service that care about the veterans. we have veterans that serve in the park service who just want people to enjoy their parks, ot to make things difficult. but i'm seeing more park serviceperson ell now than you ever seen at the world war ii memorial. across the seat you see mounted park service people on , rseback watching over things keeping an eye on the veterans. you know, those guys in wheelchairs from world war ii, they may make a run. they actually try to go down the sidewalk where they're not allowed. it is outrageous what this administration is doing. an article by mike flynn points out, the obama administration has decided to block access to public memorials on the national mall as a result of the government shutdown like its decision to end white house tours when the sequester cuts took effect. there is no rational reason for this. the park police, numberly in charge of monitoring these places, isn't even affected by the shutdown. they're shutting off access to these sites. it's gratuitous and petulent. another article about the obamacare privacy nightmare. shutting down the cemetery at normandy where people have spent so much, saved so much trying to get a family member there to see the graves they never saw of people who fell while serving with them at normandy. it's about as outrageous as it gets. for heaven's sake, yes, make life miserable for members of ngress, but for pete's sake, leave our veterans alone. let them enjoy their memorials. let them have their times of silence and meditation at their memorials, at their cemeteries. there are private entities, there are local governments, there are state governments wanting to keep these things , any but i can tell you administration that's so caloused that it would allow and -- caloused that would allow difficulty for its citizens when they have a tantrum and doesn't get what it wants is not somebody you want in charge of your health care. every american ought to be seeing this and ought to be saying loud and clear, let's hold up for at least a year on obamacare. you have done enough damage already. we couldn't want you controlling our health care. at least give us that break. we're here this weekend. would have been nice to be back in east texas. would have been nice to be at the events i was scheduled to be in, different places this weekend. ut we're here. i have no regrets. i just hope that the senate, mr. speaker, and the administration will decide that negotiating means more than calling a press conference and announcing that we're willing to work things out, because when the president announces we're going to work things out, we're willing and he calls the leaders of congress up to the white house so he can announce to in person that we're not negotiating, i just wanted to make that clear, you give us everything i want, you forget the constitution, forget your requirements that you appropriate the money, you go through, you have oversight, you make sure we're not wasting money, forget your obligations under that, give me all the money i had last year, don't put anything on it, just give it to me like i want it or we're not negotiating, that is not an administration you want in control of your health care. and mr. speaker, with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? the question is on the motion to adjourn. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the motion is adopted. accordingly, the house stands adjourned until noon on monday we are looking at an administration that seems to be unwilling to sit down and talk to us. we have a majority leader this. he would want to put the american people in front of that and enforce the pain on them. had 57 democrats that started bipartisan bills to relieve the plane. you have to ask yourself if it is so important to ease the pain for them, what about the best? sick children that need access to clinical trials? is it not as important to ease the pain of the shutdown for them? is it just the federal employees they think is important. we can work this out. have thought that the shutdown has been brought about by the president's unwillingness to sit down and talk with members of congress on the hill. this hasre to ask, been almost absent when it comes to working out our differences. we are going to stay focused on trying to ease the pain of this while we continue to ask both the president and senate majority leaders to sit down and talk. >> we never decided -- desired a shutdown. most americans do not realize that are final bill was to sit down and talk about our difference. earlier the president canceled his trip to asia. we are here this weekend. this can all and bear all the president has to do is sit down along with the senate democrats only can move forward. let's recap what has gone on this week. on wednesday, the house passed opening the national parts, funding the nih. on thursday the house passed funding the guard and reserves, funding our veterans. friday we passed the national was ever in recovery act. friday nutrition assistant for low income women and children. today we made sure all the federal employees in the military was able to have service on sunday. , wednesday, no roll call votes. thursday, no roll call votes. friday, no roll call votes. a nationalopt checkpoint. this has to stop. everyone hurts from the shutdown. whenever desired to shut down and we never asked to shut down. we continue to fund the government. for everyone to pick up the phone to work together and solve the problems. >> while senate democrats and the president refuse to negotiate with house republicans, we continue to do our work. fundast 12 bills that critical parts of the federal government. we have just passed a bill that will take care of the 800,000 federal employees that were furloughed. contrary to what the president and those in the white house believe, there are no winners when the federal government shut down. the house is not want to shut down. " my way or ther highway" mentality cannot be sustained. we look forward to working through our differences so that we can stop inflicting pain on hard-working americans. this is a great challenge we have. we really do not want to be here. we have to find a way to resolve our differences. it is important to say we have our negotiators. we are looking for the senate negotiators. they are not willing to sit down and negotiate. nextare willing to assign week as national chest week. they are willing to be able to say the will do with the trucker sleep apnea issues.

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