[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 2 (Thursday, January 4, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H150-H151]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      LET US REOPEN THE GOVERNMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from North Dakota [Mr. Pomeroy] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POMEROY. Mr. Speaker, while I always appreciate the opportunity 
to participate in House debate, the format for this afternoon's 
participation comes not in the context of legislative activity geared 
at actually addressing the crisis that faces this Government today with 
the ongoing shutdown, day 20. No, regrettably, the only occasion for my 
ability to participate in debate this afternoon comes in the form of 
special orders, open format time for speeches, because no legislative 
business is presently occurring on the floor of the House.
  How can this possibly be that no legislative business is occurring 
while the Government is shut down, and none other than the Senate 
majority leader, Bob Dole, has led an effort and passed it unanimously 
through the Senate to reopen the Government? Senator Dole said some 
very interesting things as that effort succeeded in the Senate. I am 
going to point to this chart, ``Enough is enough. I do not see any 
sense in what we have been doing. I would hope that we would have quick 
action in the House. People have been gone from their jobs long 
enough.''
  In this morning's Washington Post, his quotes contain further 
elaboration, and again this is the Republican leader in the Senate 
talking about the shutdown, ``It is not as through Clinton is wincing 
every day because the Government is shut down. It is not having any 
impact. If we had a point to make, we made it.''
  He goes on to say, again, Senator Dole goes on to say, ``I know it is 
sort of macho and all that stuff regarding the shutdown and the 
standoff and the crisis, but there are human beings out there who are 
suffering. There are not many rich people working for the Federal 
Government. They have mortgages to pay, they have vacation plans, they 
have all kinds of plans. They have illnesses.''
  Well, Senator Dole is precisely correct, and this has raised holy 
hell with Federal workers all over the country.
  But I do not want to just leave the impression that this is about the 
problems this irresponsible shutdown has caused Federal employees, 
because it has gone much, much further than that. The House Republican 
leaders, who have caused this shutdown, have told furloughed workers, 
``do not worry, you will be paid.'' Now, we know they have a cash flow 
crisis right now in the meantime, but they have been assured they will 
be paid for the days they are not working presently.

  Now, there are a lot of other people who are not working today as a 
result of the shutdown who will not be paid. Every employee of a 
private contractor who is out of business because of this shutdown will 
expect no retroactive paycheck. We all know stories. I will tell you 
about being in Bismarck just a couple of days ago, Bismarck, ND, and 
there in the coffee shop was a person 

[[Page H151]]
absolutely in a quiet room, no one there, no one there, because there 
were very few employees in the building. Now, that person works for a 
private contractor. They were there, but others have been laid off, as 
many, many employees of private contractors have been laid off all over 
the country.
  There is no provision for addressing these people. They are simply 
out of luck.
  Then we get to another very important category, veterans' health 
care. Imagine if you were lying in a hospital bed critically needing 
medical care, but also acutely aware that those providing the care were 
not being paid.
  Now, my office checked with the Director of the VA center in Fargo, 
ND, and he told us that the sick count is going up; fewer and fewer 
employees actually coming in under these circumstances. He said they 
are calling in sick, and he is worrying about filling his rotations.
  Imagine the concern for the veteran, the hospitalized veterans in our 
VA system watching this inactivity in the House today and wondering 
what kind of health care they will get tomorrow, whether the person 
providing the medical services they so desperately require, doing it 
without pay, will even show up tomorrow to give the care that is 
critically needed.
  Another major area is housing. You know, many, many housing loans are 
supported by an FHA guarantee or a VA guarantee. These programs process 
every single day 2,500 mortgages for FHA and an additional 1,000 for 
the VA system all over the country. You have got people who have 
counted on moving, counted on closing real estate deals and getting 
into their new locations, maybe some of them have even abandoned or 
made plans to abandon the apartments in which they are presently 
residing, contemplating timely loan closure, and guess what, the 
Federal Government is shut down because House Republicans do not agree 
with Bob Dole that we need to reopen this Government, and they are out 
of luck.
  Another dimension, there are people struggling with bills, veterans 
qualifying for these low-interest veterans' loans they want to 
refinance. There has been a favorable turn in interest rates. They want 
to refinance. They are up against the wall in terms of monthly cash 
flow, but guess what, Government shutdown, applications stacking up, 
nothing being processed, no refinancing, stick with that high interest 
rate.
  The passport dimension of this has raised heck all over the country; 
unemployment applications; SBA loans. The list goes on and on and on, 
and that is why Senator Dole told his colleagues in the Senate, 
``Enough is enough.''
  I say to my colleagues in the House, enough is enough. Let us reopen 
this Government.

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