[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 26 (Thursday, February 17, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S887-S888]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. BOXER (for herself, Mr. Casey, Mr. Tester, Mr. Manchin, 
        Mr. Warner, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Bennet, and Mr. Nelson of Nebraska):
  S. 388. A bill to prohibit Members of Congress and the President from 
receiving pay during Government shutdowns; to the Committee on Homeland 
Security and Governmental Affairs.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I send a bill to the desk on behalf of 
myself and Senators Casey, Tester, Manchin, Warner, and Wyden.
  I want to explain it. I hope we will see action on this bill in the 
near future because we are on very delicate ground right now as we try 
to resolve the budget issues before us.
  We have two sides to the legislative branch--the House and the 
Senate. I think we have very different approaches to this deficit 
problem which is quite real. Both sides should be respectful of each 
other. But the messages I am getting via the media in terms of the 
language being used on the other side is: We don't really much care 
what the Senate thinks. It is kind of ``our way or the highway'' type 
of rhetoric.
  The problem with this is that the type of cuts that are coming from 
the House side, from our Republican friends over there, a columnist 
tells us will cost 800,000 jobs to this Nation. Mr. President, 800,000 
jobs will be lost if we do not make some changes to what they have 
done.
  As someone from a State that has a very tough economic climate and 
trying to climb out of this recession, that is just extreme. It is just 
extreme.
  Are we willing to make cuts? Yes. It is my belief both sides have to 
sit down and work this out. We believe there are cuts to be made. They 
have come out with cuts. We need to work together. But here is what 
troubles me, and this is why I introduce this legislation. What 
troubles me is there seems to be more and more threats of a government 
shutdown. In the early days of the new House leadership we did not hear 
that. Now we are hearing it.
  In Politico, one of the headlines recently said: ``McConnell won't 
take shutdown off the table.'' That refers to our Republican leader.
  In Reuters, Republican majority leader Eric Cantor ``refused . . . to 
rule out the possibility of a government shutdown.''
  Republican Senator Mike Lee said: ``The 1995 government shutdown was 
just an inconvenience.''
  I have to tell you, it is a lot more than an inconvenience when 
senior citizens cannot get help getting their Social Security or 
veterans on disability cannot get their help. Hospitals close down. 
Projects shut down. These are real people out there. A lot of 
contractors in the private sector rely on the government operating, 
such as road projects, bridges being repaired, and the rest. It is 
radical to say that a government shutdown is an inconvenience. It is a 
failure. A government shutdown is a failure of those of us who are here 
to act like adults and resolve our differences.
  CNN said:

       Top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee said he's not 
     ruling out the possibility of a government shutdown.

  The way Speaker Boehner spoke today had, to me, kind of a ``take it 
or leave it'' tone to it.
  I have to tell you, that budget over there not only threatens 800,000 
jobs, but they legislated on appropriations. They legislated on an 
appropriations bill. They decided that women should not have access to 
a full range of reproductive health care. They are bringing in the 
issue of abortion on a budget bill. I think the issue of a woman's 
right to choose and her reproductive health care and getting Pap 
screenings and cancer screenings is important, and we should debate 
that. If people want to repeal Roe v. Wade, let's debate that here.
  What they have done with the Clean Air Act--and I know my friend 
sitting in the chair cares so much about this issue. The Clean Air Act 
was brought to us by Richard Nixon. It had bipartisan support.
  What they do is prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from 
enforcing the Clean Air Act as it relates to carbon pollution--
pollution that is dangerous for our families, that endangers the lives 
and health of our families. That is what the Bush administration said 
when they were in charge, let alone the Obama administration.
  Rather than bringing to the floor a bill to repeal the Clean Air 
Act--I

[[Page S888]]

would welcome that debate, and I know my friend would as well--they do 
this through the back door and tell the Environmental Protection Agency 
they cannot protect us from pollution.
  That is not what the American people expect to be in a simple budget 
document. We have to cut some programs. Let's cut some programs. Let's 
not change abortion law on it. Let's not bring up how to repeal the 
Clean Air Act on it. Let's not eviscerate law settlements. They have 
done a range of things which require debate. I would love to put these 
questions to the American people. I can tell you that people in my home 
State think government has no business in the issue of a woman's 
health. Stay away. That is what they say. We will make up our own 
minds. Some of us are pro-choice, some of us are not, but don't tell us 
what to believe. That is the thought of the majority of the people in 
my State. They do not want Big Brother and the government telling 
people what to do. Yet they put it on a budget bill. That doesn't make 
any sense.

  Let me tell you, the people in my State want clean air. In all the 
years I have been in office--and the President and I have been around a 
while and holding different offices--not one of my constituents has 
ever came up to me and said: Barbara, we need dirty air. The air is too 
clean. The water is too pure. The lakes are too pristine. The beaches 
are gorgeous. No. They want us to make sure we protect them from 
pollution so their kids can breathe the air and not get asthma. So our 
friends on the other side have these gargantuan cuts, and in addition 
to these cuts--which will cost us, according to Senator Inouye, 800,000 
jobs--800,000 jobs--they have legislated issues that are contentious 
and don't belong on a budget bill.
  Here is the deal. I am worried they might say to us: It is our way or 
the highway. I am worried about that. That is what I am starting to 
hear. They may lead us into a government shutdown if we fail to act 
like adults and resolve this and keep the contentious issues off the 
budget and cut reasonably and sensibly so we don't cause more 
unemployment. If we can figure that out and meet each other halfway and 
everything else you do when you compromise, we will be fine. But if 
that isn't the case, I wish to be sure Members of Congress suffer just 
as much as any Federal employee. So I have written this bill, with my 
colleagues, to say that in the event of a government shutdown or a 
failure to lift the debt ceiling and we start defaulting on our 
commitments, Members of Congress will not get paid because Members of 
Congress don't deserve to be paid if we can't act like adults and 
negotiate this.
  I am so tired of the hypocrisy I have seen. I know it is a strong 
word, and I am not leveling it at any particular individual, but I have 
to tell you, there are Members of the House who said ObamaCare is 
terrible, but then they took it for themselves. So what price are they 
paying? They vote no on health care for everybody else, but they keep 
government health care. It is wrong. A lot of them are sleeping in 
their offices. Tell me one other person who is allowed to sleep in the 
office of their corporation they work for. As far as I know, there is 
nobody. They do not pay any rent. They sleep in their offices.
  So they do all these things: They do not help the housing crisis. 
They sleep in their offices. They would not vote for health care, but 
they take government health care. Now they might shut down the 
government. Yet while Federal employees will not get paid, they will 
get paid--no way, wrong, not fair. They have to pay a price for all 
their extremism.
  So I hope we will pass this bill and send it over to the House and 
the House can decide if they think this is right. This is what I would 
like to take to the American people. Because if they shut down the 
government or they fail to raise the debt ceiling and we start to 
default and they pay no price, it is not fair. We cannot stamp our feet 
and say: It is the way I want it or I am taking my marbles and I am 
going home--or my teddy bear or my blanket or whatever. You can't do 
that.
  This is the greatest country in the world. As my friend, Senator 
Sanders, who is in the chair, so beautifully said last night on a news 
show--and it was so well done--the middle class is hurting. Real income 
is going down. As we look at these budget cuts, we have to think about 
that. I am thinking a lot about it, and I am seeing hundreds of 
thousands of jobs being lost by the middle class, not by the wealthy 
few. They are not going to be touched by this.
  So this is a very simple bill. I will read what it says:

       Members of Congress and the President shall not receive 
     basic pay for any period in which there is more than a 24-
     hour lapse in appropriations for any Federal agency or 
     department as a result of a failure to enact a regular 
     appropriations bill or a continuing resolution, or if the 
     Federal Government is unable to make payments or meet 
     obligations because the debt limit has been reached.

  So simple. So I am calling on my colleagues on the other side of the 
aisle to take the option of a government shutdown off the table. I hope 
this legislation will nudge them in that direction. Let them think 
about what it is like not to get paid. Because if they shut down the 
Federal Government, a whole lot of folks would not get paid. A lot of 
people in the private sector would not get paid and a lot of people on 
pensions would not get paid. The only people who would be exempted, 
pretty much, are Members of Congress, and we have to put an end to that 
dichotomy.
  I thank the Chair for all his leadership on behalf of the middle 
class and the working poor and I think the hypocrisy has to end. I feel 
we have to come to this floor and start telling the American people the 
truth. The truth is: The cuts over there on the other side are going to 
hurt the middle class. They are extreme. They have added language that 
doesn't belong on a budget bill. Even though they said they were about 
jobs, jobs, jobs, and maybe they were--how to lose another 800,000 
jobs, maybe that is what they meant--nobody thought the first thing 
they would do is come in and attach abortion language and family 
planning language and eviscerate the EPA's ability to clean up carbon 
pollution on a budget bill. So we have to start letting the American 
people know because they are busy and they do not get to read all the 
ins and outs of what happens here. We have to put it in straightforward 
language.
  Today is a very good day in the Senate. We have been brought 
together, and a lot of that credit goes to Senator Rockefeller and 
Senator Hutchison. I am proud to serve on their committee. We are doing 
a good job and working together. We have worked out our problems. We 
had problems with new flights out of National, and no one thought we 
could resolve it. But we were happy to work together--Republicans, 
Democrats, people from the East and the West and the Midwest--and we 
showed we can do something here today. As a result, we are about to 
pass a very good bill.
  My own bill of rights is in this bill, and I am thrilled about that. 
It was a Boxer-Snowe bill. It has been incorporated in here. It says if 
you get stuck on an airline, you should be able to expect that you will 
have water and nourishment and that the toilets will not be overflowing 
and that if the plane is stuck for 3 hours, you should be able to have 
the option to get off that flight.
  So listen, there are good things we can do. We have proven it here 
today. But I am getting increasingly nervous about the threats of a 
government shutdown. I think if Members know it isn't just pain that is 
going to be inflicted on someone else but they will have pain inflicted 
on themselves and their families as well, maybe they will take that 
option off the table.
                                 ______