[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 1 (Wednesday, January 3, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H66-H67]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Taylor of North Carolina). Under a 
previous order of the House, the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Bonior] 
is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, over a year ago the House Republicans 
promised us a revolution, but what they did not tell us is that they 
were going to take hostages.
  But here we are. We are into day 19 of this Government shutdown. 
Federal workers and their families all across America and beyond are 
being held hostage. Meals on Wheels, a program for our seniors, that is 
being threatened. Small businesses are losing income because of SBA 
problems with the Small Business Administration, and private-sector 
employees are being laid off because of the Government shutdown, from 
cleaning up Superfund sites, and other environmental catastrophes, and 
the people who have got the contract to do those cleanups are being 
laid off.
  Half a million people are working today not knowing if they are going 
to get paid. And we have got about 260,000 Federal workers who are not 
on the job.
  Medicare and unemployment claims are not even being processed. So if 
you worked hard and you were laid off, how do you think those people 
from AT&T feel when they picked up the paper and read that 40,000, 13 
percent of their work force, are going to be laid off? And then you 
turn the paper and you go to page 2, and there is the Federal 
Government not even going to process your unemployment claims.
  Environmental waste cleanups, nursing home inspections are being 
interrupted, and in one case a foreign government is threatening 
literally to shut off the lights at the U.S. Embassy because we have 
not been paying our bills. Forty million dollars a day down the drain, 
all because a small band of extremist Republicans in this House cannot 
get their way, so they are going to close it all down, all because a 
small band of extremist Republicans who do not represent the majority 
of America, in fact, they do not represent the majority in Congress, 
they do not even represent the majority in this House, are trying to 
force their will on the American people. These are people who do not 
like the Government, and they do not like the people who work for the 
Government. That is who we are talking about here.
  You know, who are the people who work for the Government? They are 
our men and women in uniforms, our troops overseas who are guarding our 
embassies all over the world, they are the police that are protecting 
the men and the women and the children of this country, protecting them 
in their neighborhoods. They are the teachers who are teaching our 
young people. They are the people at the Department of Education who 
are processing Pell grants so your kids can get a higher education, so 
they have an opportunity to live in this great country and make a 
living for themselves. They are people who work in our national parks, 
who provide this wondrous enjoyment of one of the great gifts not only 
in this country but in the world. These are the people that are being 
affected.

  The Senate Majority Leader, the Republican, Mr. Dole, was right, 
``Enough is enough.'' He is fed up with the antics of what is happening 
on this side of the aisle.
  People have been gone from their jobs long enough. It is time that 
the House Republicans stop messing around with other people's lives. 
End this shutdown and open this Government.
  Mr. HEFNER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. BONIOR. I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina. 
  
[[Page H67]]

  Mr. HEFNER. Mr. Speaker, shutting down the Government, harming 
innocent people, it is just not Government workers that are being 
inconvenienced, it is the elderly, it is children, it is our veterans, 
it is our veterans' hospitals.
  If we opened this Government tomorrow, it would have absolutely no 
effect on negotiations that are going on on the budget. They could 
still trash the President. They could still have their negotiations, 
and you could go ahead with the business. There are a lot of people 
that are being inconvenienced and a lot of people are being devastated 
because of the shutdown of the Government. It is not just Government 
employees that are being inconvenienced, it is elderly, children, 
students, small business.
  Mr. BONIOR. You are absolutely right.
  Mr. HEFNER. Enough is enough. We need to open this Government and put 
people back to work and do the business of America that people sent us 
here to do and that the Federal employees were hired to do to go about 
doing the business of America.
  Mr. BONIOR. The gentleman is absolutely right.
  You know, when we had these impasses before, we would move forward. 
We would move forward, and we would do our negotiations, and we did not 
lay off and close the Government down and cause the inconveniences and 
the heartaches that are happening all across America.
  I thank my colleagues for their attention this evening.

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