[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 1 (Wednesday, January 3, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H10]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 REPUBLICANS HOLDING GOVERNMENT HOSTAGE

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, when I was home in New Jersey the last week 
and in my district office, I received many calls on a regular basis 
from Government employees, some of whom were almost in tears because 
they have not been able to pay their rent, pay their mortgage, 
creditors are calling upon them, and there really was not a great deal 
we could do.
  I naively expected when I came here today that because the Senate had 
moved a continuing resolution that would reopen the Government, and 
because the President supported it, that we would take that continuing 
resolution up today, but we did not.
  The only thing I can say is that finally we know where the blame is. 
The blame is with the House Republican leadership and those Republicans 
that they represent here in the House who want to keep the Government 
shut down, who want to hold the American people, the Government workers 
and the taxpayers who are paying for services they should be getting, 
hostage to their own ideology about what the budget priorities should 
be.
  I have said from the very beginning that is not the way to operate.

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