[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 204 (Tuesday, December 19, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H15098]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   LET US AGREE ON A BALANCED BUDGET

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, this is a tragically historic 
time, because the Republicans for the first time in history have shut 
down the United States Government two times in 1 year. There are faces 
to this shutdown. As I listen to the cries in my district in Houston, 
various Federal offices that serve the American people shut down, doors 
closed, but yet there are also faces behind those who work in those 
offices, with families on the brink of Christmas and in the midst of 
Hanukkah.
  All Americans are suffering. And then I might ask about the mother 
who lives in the Houston area, unemployed, without any support systems, 
an 8-month-old who has respiratory problems, a 5-year-old with heart 
problems, and an 8-year-old with a brain tumor. That mother needs 
Medicaid, yet on the backs of those children and that mother, this 
Republican Congress wants to balance the budget.
  Oh, we all want to balance the budget. The Democrats have stood their 
ground on that. The Democratic helped craft and pass a resolution that 
allowed this Government to remain open, signed on November 19, that 
said we would balance the budget, protecting Medicaid, education, 
Medicare, agriculture, national defense, and the veterans.
  Where are the Republican members who would come to the table to pass 
a clean continuing resolution. This is a season to be joyous. This is a 
season to stand for the American people. Let us get a budget that we 
can all agree with.

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