[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 49 (Wednesday, April 6, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H2392-H2398]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         NO APPROPRIATED FUNDS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 5, 2011, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Carter) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. CARTER. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
  These are interesting times we live in, and as we sit here this 
evening, we have a lot of things that are kind of up in the air about 
what's going to happen to our country and about what's going to happen 
to our ability to fund the government for the rest of our time. 
Unfortunately, we don't have answers to that question. I wish we did, 
but we don't. Yet there are some things that are happening that we 
ought to talk about because the American people are concerned about 
what's going on. In some ways, they're confused.
  As we sit here today, we are looking at the possibility on Friday 
night, at midnight, of there being no more appropriated funds for the 
operation of the government. Some people call that shutting down the 
government, but that's the real term. We have no appropriated funds 
that are available for the operation of the government.
  There's already the blame game going on up here. This blame game is 
confusing to most Americans, so I think it's kind of important that we 
start off by trying to explain what's going on up here. I'm going to 
give you a quick synopsis of what I think has gone on recently.
  Let's start off with the fact that the Republicans fully funded the 
troops and the rest of the Federal Government through FY 2011, which 
would be the 1st of October of this year, with H.R. 1 in March. The 
Democrats refused that submission. The Republicans are ready again this 
week with a submission, that we will do today, to fully fund our troops 
through FY 2011, and we're ready to come back next week to debate the 
rest of the budget. It seems we're hearing a message that the Democrats 
will refuse. The House and Senate Republicans have a bill, H.R. 1297, 
that simply guarantees that our troops get their pay without any budget 
agreement. So far, the Democrats have refused. That's a bill that was 
put together by Congressman Louie Gohmert and Congressman Jack 
Kingston.
  So I guess we can say that--or I would at least offer this as a 
submission--it seems that the Democrats want to hold our fighting men 
and women's pay hostage so that they can continue their runaway Federal 
spending, because, really, the debate here in this House today and in 
the Senate, which is down the way from us, is:
  Are we going to continue to spend like drunken sailors, as usual, or 
are we going to take a hard look at what this government is doing, and 
are we going to turn this ship of state to a ship of state that is 
moving in the direction of saving the American people from this runaway 
spending?
  The President has submitted to us a budget proposal which carries in 
it almost $1.5 trillion of deficit spending. What this House is trying 
to do is to change the mood and the attitude of where this Congress 
sits on the issue of spending, and it's time for us to take a long, 
hard look. I would argue, if people could have taken the time and 
watched the debate when we sent our first submission over to the 
Senate, which was H.R. 1, they would have seen an extensive debate that 
went on for hours and hours and hours on the floor of this House, with 
both sides participating, as to what we would and would not submit in 
the way of cutting certain amounts of spending, and there were 
multiple, multiple votes.

                              {time}  1930

  This was after this same idea had been vetted in other forms, like 
our committee system. And yet when it was sent to the Senate it was 
dead on arrival, and the only thing they could offer as an alternative 
to the submission we gave them was $6 billion worth of cuts, which they 
even voted down.

[[Page H2393]]

They didn't even pass that. They weren't even willing to take their 
meager little $6 billion versus our $60-plus billion that we proposed 
to them.
  And everybody says, Where is the give-and-take? Why don't you work 
together, Congress? What's wrong with you people? Well, when one side 
does a whole bunch of work, sends it over to the other side, they say 
they don't like it, they reject it, and we wait and we wait and we wait 
and we wait for them to submit something back so we can discuss it, 
well, we've been waiting a long time now and we still haven't gotten it 
back. And we've gone through two short-term CRs to give them the 
opportunity to go vote on some things in the Senate. I know they're 
slow. I mean, we all know they're slow, but we don't even see the 
Democrat majority in the Senate even trying to bring things to the 
floor for a vote on giving us an idea where they would stand on cutting 
spending.
  Now, they love to do press releases out of smoke-filled rooms and 
come back from White House meetings with the President and tell us, Oh, 
we've got this deal--which our side certainly didn't agree to. And 
actually doing this so-called ``democracy'' inside of the press instead 
of doing it by sitting down across the table or passing a bill that we 
can look at and examine and see if we can't work out that bill and 
maybe get the comfort to do something under normal course of business 
here has not been available. Senator Reid just says, Dead on arrival. 
Dead on arrival. Keep trying. Dead on arrival.
  And what that requires is for the House Members to--first off, what 
they're really looking for us to do is to give up our principles 
because of threats of this government closing down. I want to make it 
very clear, I have heard this ever since this debate started. The 
leadership of the Republicans in the House of Representatives has 
stated consistently, every time John Boehner steps up to the 
microphone, we do not want to shut down the government. And I will tell 
you, if people are listening with a tight ear, they will find out that 
any conversation about shutting down the government has always 
originated from the other side of the aisle where the Democrats tell 
us, Watch out, they're going to shut down the government. Watch out, 
they're going to shut down the government. And we're saying, No, we're 
not. We're trying to get you to respond to us and let us know what you 
think is the right thing for us to do to try to do something about this 
overwhelming debt, this overwhelming deficit, this gigantic leap in the 
debt that we're going to face in the future.
  Just look at this chart. And you've seen it before. It's been here. 
I've had it here twice. Here's 2010. So 2011 is about right there. Look 
at 2051. Look, 300 percent plus. And right now we are bouncing around 
100 percent here. That was during the Second World War, and this is 
where we've been ever since the Second World War. But all of a sudden, 
with the projections that President Obama has given us as to what he 
perceives is the right path for America, bam, that red line goes up and 
that red block comes there, and that's what our children and 
grandchildren are going to have to deal with. And we honestly believe 
that that takes this country and changes the very nature of what makes 
America great because it wipes out any opportunity that possibly our 
children and our grandchildren can look forward to when they are 
overwhelmed with debt.
  Have you ever heard the debate that goes on among college parents and 
among college students when they graduate from college these days and 
they're faced with $100,000 or $200,000 worth of debt to pay for these 
expensive college educations we've got out there; and they've borrowed 
all the money and how they are overwhelmed with debt to the point where 
they look at the salaries that are being offered them and they say, 
Holy cow. If this is what my revenues are going to be, my income is 
going to be, I will never pay off this student loan. I know that I 
heard it from hundreds of kids because I used to teach Sunday school at 
that age. And they came back from college saying, I can't believe I've 
got this much debt to pay off before I even start making a living. 
Well, that's meager compared to what this Congress, if we don't change 
the way we do business, is going to do to our children and our 
grandchildren. College debt is going to look like a walk in the park 
compared to that kind of accelerated debt that's going to be placed on 
every human being that calls themselves an American.
  This is frightening. It's more frightening when you think what this 
Congress really needs to be about--and is about over here on our side, 
and I would hope on the other side, too--is finding jobs for the 
American people.
  Now, what do the job creators think when they see this? People who 
run businesses, small businesses or large, they look at the projected 
future of the economy and they make decisions as to why they hire 
people for very simple reasons. You hire someone to advance your 
business. You don't hire them because you're a nice guy. You don't hire 
them because somebody gives you an incentive to hire them. You hire 
them because ultimately they are going to improve your productivity or 
your bottom line. That's why labor is infused into anything that people 
do. Most people who start out with their small business, it's all them 
and maybe their family. And then when they hire that first employee, 
they don't hire them just because they like that kid across the street. 
They hire them because that first employee is going to make their 
business do better.
  Now, if they're looking at the accumulated debt being put upon them 
by this government and they look at what projected debt they have to 
deal with, what they have to handle, where they think their revenues 
are going to be, what solutions there are going to be for this debt in 
the way of tax increases, they have to say, Whoa. Until somebody gets a 
handle on this stuff, we're looking at a world that I'm not sure I want 
to hire anybody else in.
  This is not rocket science, this is very simple. You hire to prosper. 
If you're afraid prosperity is not going to be a result of the hiring, 
you don't hire.
  I would argue--and I think it's an argument that's made by many, many 
economists and many, many editorial writers--that the fear of the 
unknown and the known that you think you see by the way the government 
is proceeding keeps a lot of people from hiring other folks. I think 
that's common sense. I think anybody that knows anything about business 
can realize that. So this looms over everybody.
  I saw a cartoon up here in Washington. Many of you may have seen it. 
It was a gigantic elephant's behind sitting on a scale, and it had 
written across the back of it, ``National Debt.'' And then on the very 
top of the backside of that elephant was a Band-Aid about the size that 
would wrap around my little finger stuck on there, and it had an arrow 
right there that said, ``Spending Cuts.''
  The reality is what the Republicans have proposed in terms of 
spending cuts as they relate to the gigantic mess that we're in is just 
that teeny, weensy little Band-Aid. And yet, this very meager proposal 
of changing the way we spend money has been rejected out of hand by the 
Harry Reid Democrats over in the Senate and by our colleagues in the 
House. And it is on every submission that we've made, on every attempt 
we've made to negotiate, on every time we have said, so and so, how 
about you all getting together and come up with an alternative? And 
it's just, no, you're dead on arrival. We'll talk at the White House 
behind closed doors or we'll talk in smoke-filled rooms or whatever--
smoke-filled rooms probably dates me a little bit, but there are still 
some smokers around here.

                              {time}  1940

  Okay. Now, where are we tonight? I think where we are tonight, I am 
optimistic about where we are tonight. And the world may be sitting out 
there pessimistic, but I'm optimistic because, first and foremost, I 
honestly believe that we're going to do everything at least in our 
power to try to get us to come up with a solution for this small 
spending cut bill of $60-plus billion that we put forward, which, 
compared to that elephant's behind, is nothing. And we're going to get 
it done before we run out of time and we run out of appropriations and 
the government starts to wind down.
  But I'm more optimistic than that, because I am very optimistic that 
the fact that Paul Ryan and the Budget

[[Page H2394]]

Committee of this House have put forward a proposal that is like you 
ought to have the Hallelujah Chorus in the background when they 
introduced it, singing ``Hallelujah.'' Because it was finally a budget 
that wasn't the same old budget--how can we jack every spending level 
up, and how can we figure out a way to raise some taxes to make that 
work? No. It's a budget that says this budget is going to be about 
prosperity and preserving the America we love for our generations to 
come.
  If that's not something as we come up on this deadline--which should 
make us nervous, and it makes me nervous. But the big picture is our 
Budget Committee has put a revolutionary budget out for discussion. And 
that budget is worth joy on behalf of the American people, because what 
it does is it says to the people around us that there are some good 
ideas we ought to try.
  I'm joined with many of my colleagues here today, and I want to give 
them all an opportunity to talk. So let me finish up at least this 
short part of talking here and let some other folks talk.
  Today where we are is a very simple place. Are we going to fund our 
Department of Defense and make sure our troops get paid or are we going 
to be so--with miniscule cuts and then continue this debate so we could 
probably try to get a resolution next week, or are we going to reject 
out of hand--as now Harry Reid is making public statements to say and 
the President, in Atlanta, supposedly said he would veto this 
proposal--reject out of hand to say we want our troops to suffer and we 
don't care whether they're getting shot at. We don't care. We're ready 
to let them get shot at and do without pay, men and women who have been 
risking their lives for over 10 years so that we can stand in this 
Chamber and talk. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves to even consider 
not doing something.
  All of us ought to be wanting to do something to make sure that those 
folks get their paychecks so their spouses and children back home don't 
suffer while they suffer the possibility of being killed or maimed on 
our behalf. And that's what this vote, this day and tomorrow, is all 
about.
  The deadline is Friday night at midnight. We're asking our Senators 
to reconsider rejecting out of hand what we are sending over and 
consider it in light of that momma back home with a child on her hip, 
telling the creditors, We have no money to pay you. And I'm sorry my 
husband can't talk to you. He's over in Afghanistan, in the mountains, 
trying to stay alive. Or he's flying missions into Libya, trying to 
stay alive. So I think we really need to know that's where we are in 
time, and the other is stuff we're going to be talking about.
  Whoever would like to step up, grab the microphone, and let's talk.
  My friend from Virginia, step up. Tell us what you've got to say.
  Mr. WITTMAN. Well, thank you, Representative Carter. I thank you and 
Representative Gohmert for your leadership in putting forth a bill to 
make sure we address this issue of military pay for our men and women 
in uniform.

  And, you know, Mr. Speaker, we shouldn't even be here tonight. We 
should be having before us a spending decision that doesn't call into 
question whether or not we can pay our men and women in uniform. Now, 
that's absolutely reprehensible. You know, it's clear that this 
spending discussion needs to be focused, and it needs to be focused on 
making sure that we're getting our troops paid, bottom line, period.
  I had the opportunity a couple weeks ago to travel to Afghanistan, 
and I had the privilege there to visit with a young man who's a 
lieutenant colonel in the Air Force. And I had met his family earlier 
in the little town of Pocosin. And I was there for a pancake breakfast 
one morning there at a middle school, and I had a chance to see his 
family there, and I talked to his wife, and I met his children. And 
they told me that their father was deployed downrange. And I asked 
where he was, and they gave me the information. And I said, Well, 
listen. I'm going to be going there soon. I want to make sure that I 
have a chance to visit him.
  So I was able to go downrange and visit this fine lieutenant colonel. 
He's doing a great job for this Nation. They are under very trying 
conditions there in Afghanistan. I had a chance to thank him for his 
service and had a chance to also, when I got back, to call his wife and 
to thank her and her family for their sacrifice and for them staying 
back home here in anxiety as their father and husband served downrange.
  And folks, I cannot imagine being in a situation to look that 
lieutenant colonel in the eye and say, You know something? Thank you 
for your service. Thank you for your sacrifice. But we don't think 
enough about what you're doing to even have the backbone to stand and 
make sure that you get paid.
  You know, how do you look at their family, that mother who's at home, 
those children whose father and husband are downrange being deployed, 
and look them in the eye and say, Hey, listen, thanks for your 
sacrifice, but, by the way, we're not going to be able to make a 
decision up here to make sure that you get the paycheck that supports 
your family in the weeks to come? I mean, I cannot imagine how we are 
letting ourselves get to that point.
  Mr. Speaker, there is a lack of fortitude to make sure that we get 
this done and get it done now. Just as Representative Carter said, the 
time is now. This needs to get done. We have a deadline of Friday. This 
Congress needs to act, get this done.
  And also, as you pointed out, we have a spending problem here. It is 
clear that spending is absolutely out of control. As Mr. Carter said, 
clearly there is a spending issue we need to address. We're on an 
unsustainable path. This has to be done. This decision has to be done 
on time.
  The American people expect leadership out of this Congress. They 
expect leadership out of both sides. As the Speaker said, we can't 
continue to negotiate with ourselves. We have to have folks on the 
other side of the aisle that are willing and able to say yes, we're 
going to get these things done; there's at least a counterproposal, 
instead of saying no, no, no. There has to be more to this than ``no.''
  Our goal is to cut spending and reduce the size of government. It's 
not to shut it down. I know you hear out there people say, oh, you 
know, they want to shut it down. They want to shut it down. That's the 
last thing we want to do. We don't want to shut it down. We want to 
make sure that our military gets paid. That's the bottom line. And we 
have to get this thing done as soon as possible.
  My question is: Is Congress in Washington, D.C., so out of touch that 
we don't get it, that we don't get what the American people have sent 
us here to do, what they want us to accomplish? Do they expect from us 
that we're going to forgo a budget and not ensure that our military 
families get paid? I think that's not the case.
  They want to make sure we act, and I want to make sure that we act 
and make sure that we get things done. And I think we ought to bypass 
the 72-hour review rule and get this done out of respect for our men 
and women in uniform.
  Again, I want to thank my colleagues, Mr. Carter and Mr. Gohmert, for 
their leadership in bringing this bill forward to ensure that our 
military get their pay.

                              {time}  1950

  I am a proud cosponsor of that act because I think it is the 
responsible way to go about getting things done. I was also eager to 
join 80 of my colleagues in signing a letter to Senator Majority Leader 
Harry Reid to let him know that this needs to get done: We need to pay 
our men and women in uniform.
  You know, in my district, in what we call America's first district, 
we have a proud tradition of military there, with seven military 
installations and a number of people there that serve this country and 
are now retired or in active duty. We have a great military presence 
there.
  I got a call the other day from a mother in Stafford County. And she 
said, ``My husband is an active duty military officer. And if I 
understand the news correctly, if this budget isn't passed by April 8, 
2011, the military will be expected to work and will not be paid until 
the budget has been passed. My family will struggle. And I am concerned 
about how I am going to

[[Page H2395]]

pay my mortgage and feed my family. If the military is asked to work 
without pay, you will be causing severe stress on our families. As a 
spouse who has endured my husband's deployment in Iraq four times, I 
know the thought of not getting paid would be making me sick. I also 
know that I would not be able to talk to my husband about this concern 
because I wouldn't want him to worry. Please work hard and pass the 
budget. I am counting on you.''
  Folks, there are so many people out there that are counting on us, 
counting on Congress to stand up and do what is needed to be done to 
make sure that our military families get paid, to make sure that we 
adopt a budget, to make sure that we get this country on the right 
track to reduce spending. The time has come for us to get that done.
  You know, our military members out there do a fantastic job for this 
country. It is unconscionable to even think about them worrying about 
not getting paid, or for folks downrange to be thinking about what's 
happening here in Washington rather than being able to focus on their 
mission downrange. Folks, we need to get this done. Our military 
families serve this Nation with honor, with distinction, and without 
question. And they are there performing flawlessly. They don't have to, 
I think, be expected to have that uncertainty about what's going to 
happen here in the future.
  So I want to make sure that this bill gets done and that we take away 
any worry from our military families or folks serving downrange. Our 
military families need to be worrying about the everyday necessities of 
life, and not have to worry about getting paid and to make sure they 
can meet those necessities. And our men and women downrange need to be 
focusing on the mission that they have at hand.
  Just as Mr. Carter said, our military and their families have been to 
war now for almost 10 years, some of them on their fifth, sixth, and 
seventh deployments. You know, we need to keep in mind the sacrifices 
that those families make and know the great job that they are doing, 
the hard work that they put forward. It's time for us to show the same 
resolve here and get this budget done and make sure that we without 
question assure that our military families are paid, that our men and 
women that serve downrange get the respect that they deserve from this 
body here in Congress.
  So Mr. Carter, I thank you for your leadership. Mr. Gohmert, I thank 
him for his leadership in making sure that this is first and foremost 
in our minds about ensuring that our military gets paid.
  With that, Mr. Carter, I yield back.
  Mr. CARTER. And I thank you very much for those comments. I want to 
point out that I have here the Ensuring Pay for Our Military Act of 
2011. Mr. Gohmert is the cosponsor of this, along with Jack Kingston. I 
was worried about Louie. He was here a minute ago. He left. I am going 
to recognize Kristi Noem to discuss with me, and I will yield whatever 
time she needs, and then we will get Mr. Gohmert for a minute and hear 
what he has to say.
  Mrs. NOEM. I appreciate that, and thank the gentleman for yielding to 
me.
  I am one of the new Members of Congress that has first come here 
tonight, this is the first opportunity I have had to give a Special 
Order. And I cannot think of a better reason to be here tonight than to 
make sure that our military men and women have the opportunity to 
receive pay for their hard work and for their service to our country.
  I think it's extremely important that we focus on all of the 
important things that this Congress is doing and the important things 
that this Republican Conference in the House is doing, because we 
recognized that from the very beginning we took every action possible 
to ensure that our military could get paid. We started with our first 
bill that addressed the spending problems that this country has, H.R. 
1. We brought it to the House floor. We changed the way that this House 
does business by having an open process on the House floor. Hundreds of 
amendments were offered. And that bill ensured that paying our military 
was a priority from us. It got the job done. It did the work that the 
previous Congress did not do.

  The previous Congress did not choose to make that a priority. They 
did not choose to wrap up the business of fiscal year 2011. They left 
that for us to do. Then they left us in a big hole as far as the debt 
that this country is accumulating. We came in as the adults at the 
table.
  When our President talks about having adult conversations addressing 
the spending in this country and addressing the budget resolution that 
we need to come to, the only ones who have been doing that from the 
very beginning have been the Republicans in the House. We came with 
H.R. 1, with real spending cuts that would put us on a much better 
path, that funded our military. Because we wanted to take care of them. 
We recognized that their families were at home while their spouses and 
family members were at war, and they were trying to make ends meet 
while that was going on.
  I will tell you that I feel that the Democrats are holding our troops 
hostage, that they truly are. Because they choose to do that so they 
can spend more money. They choose to hold them hostage and their pay 
hostage because they want to help this country accumulate more debt. 
And it's unacceptable. You know, we voted to fully fund their pay, to 
fund our troops through fiscal year 2011 through H.R. 1, and we are 
still dedicated to that, and still pursuing that because it's a very 
high priority for us.
  I will tell you that the Department of Defense is allowed to continue 
operations without appropriations because of its authority to protect 
the national security. But I will also tell you the military personnel 
are scheduled to receive their paychecks on April 15. Now, if this 
government truly does shut down, if it truly does shut down tomorrow 
night, they will only receive 1 week's pay instead of the 2 that they 
are owed. And that is not right.
  When you look at people who are at war overseas, standing on that 
wall so we can sleep safely in our beds at night and we are telling 
them we are not going to pay them for doing that, then that is truly a 
travesty, and a travesty that we should not allow to happen. And if 
this shutdown were to continue and to continue on and on and they would 
not be paid, we cannot do that to their families.
  People talk about the debt that this country accumulates. And they 
recognize the fact that it is a big deficit, that it continues to 
accumulate. The way that I talk about it back home in South Dakota is 
that months ago, when I was making the analogy and talking about the 
fact that our country borrows 40 cents out of every dollar that it 
spends, well just in the few short months since I was talking about 
that back in October and November, now it's we borrow 42 cents out of 
every dollar. I used to tell my son you owe $42,000. You are 
responsible for that. That's the amount of our Federal debt that you 
are responsible for. Well, just in a few short months now he is 
responsible for almost $46,000. You know, that boy is 8 years old. That 
boy is 8 years old, and he owes that kind of money because of the 
irresponsibility of this government and because of the irresponsibility 
of the previous Congress and the Congresses before that that did not 
get this spending under control.
  That's what we are trying to address today. And that's why we are 
making sure we are addressing the spending cuts, we are being much more 
responsible in what we are proposing, and we are also making it a 
priority to make sure that our military gets funded. You know, I think 
that it is absolutely discouraging to see that we are even having to 
pursue the priority of funding our military during these times, and 
that it is being held hostage literally through these discussions that 
have gone on. It doesn't seem reasonable or fair to ask our military 
men and women to have to worry about the types of situations that they 
would be put in.
  Many of them live paycheck to paycheck just like a lot of families 
are during this recession in America right now. They are having a tough 
time. How do they make their car payment? How do they make their 
housing payment? When they are out there standing and serving our 
country, we are telling their families that we are putting their 
ability to even pay their bills in jeopardy.
  Then you look at the situation that we are accumulating more and more

[[Page H2396]]

debt in this country. That is only going to lead to higher inflation. 
It's only going to devalue the dollar. I was talking to someone last 
week about what that really means. When you talk to people on the 
street about what does it mean when the dollar is devalued? Well, what 
that means is that maybe that loaf of bread that that military wife 
needs to go buy next week when she only has half of a paycheck, well, 
someday instead of costing her $2 it will cost her $4. Maybe it will 
cost her $6.
  So we are telling her not only are we putting you in the situation 
where you are going to be faced with high inflation, that you are going 
to be faced with a dollar that's not worth as much as it used to be 
because people in Washington, D.C. couldn't have some discipline in 
their spending habits, couldn't make the tough decisions; well, on top 
of all of that, then we are going to keep your spouse's pay. On top of 
that we're not going to pay him even though he is risking his life for 
our country. It absolutely is wrong. And it absolutely needs to stop.
  Mortgages don't stop. Bills don't stop. Car payments don't stop. How 
do we expect these men and women to continue paying for their everyday 
living expenses when they have no paycheck? In South Dakota we have an 
Air Force base, Ellsworth Air Force Base.

                              {time}  2000

  We have 1,000 civilians that work there and over 3,000 military 
personnel. Those people are extremely special to me. Not all of them 
grew up in South Dakota, but they are all living there in South Dakota, 
and they are all serving this country. And I think that a government 
shutdown not only affects these individuals, but it also is going to 
impact that local economy where they are trying to raise their children 
and raise their families.
  Two Ellsworth Air Force Base B-1 bombers were recently involved in 
the Libyan military strikes. Missions like Odyssey Dawn are likely to 
continue whether the government shuts down or not. These missions are 
risky, they are costly, they are vital for our national security.
  Doesn't it seem unreasonable that the Democrats here in Washington, 
D.C., would put those servicemen and -women in harm's way to protect 
our freedoms and then not compensate them for the work that they have 
done simply because they want to spend more money and they want to put 
this country further into debt?
  These are all the reasons why I have fought on every CR to make sure 
our military men and women get paid, why we are continuing to do that, 
and I thank you for bringing this bill. It is critical if for no other 
reason I have had family members that have served, I have had friends 
that have served, friends that have been overseas and have stood on 
that line so that we could continue to live the kind of freedom and 
have the kind of liberty that we have in this country today.
  But even if I didn't, I am an American; and I recognize the 
importance of having them there to protect us and to protect our 
future, and I am grateful every single day for the sacrifice and 
service that they offer to us. It is completely inappropriate for us to 
play politics with military pay.
  We owe these men and women at least some financial stability in 
return for all of their service that they provide to us, to our 
children and to our country.
  Mr. CARTER. Thank you, Congresswoman.
  I want to say that I agree with everything you have to say. As you 
were speaking, I was thinking our soldiers are not asking for somebody 
to excuse their mortgage, not asking for somebody to come bail them 
out. They are just asking to be paid for the dangerous blood, sweat and 
tears work that they are doing right as we speak today.
  Right now, somebody is being fired on somewhere in the world in an 
American uniform. It's a frightening thing to think about, but it's 
true, and they just want to have the paycheck they earned. And their 
families back home want to be able to stay current on their bills, and 
they are not asking for these grandiose bailouts that this body has 
become famous for. They are just saying, give me my paycheck.
  Now, this is not hard stuff. I want to recognize my good friend from 
Texas, Congressman Gohmert. He was the author of this bill. I think we 
got it done well.
  Soldiers, might even be some of mine, Fort Hood.
  You started the ball rolling. We have been talking about this for a 
long time. If we are getting close to this deadline, we have got to get 
the soldiers paid.
  I want to recognize Louie Gohmert, who introduced this, along with 
Jack Kingston. I joined with them on this.
  Now our leadership is offering an alternative submission, which would 
fund the entire DOD, which is an even better idea because of all the 
contract authority and all the things that go on that get hurt by not 
having an appropriations finished up with. And we are hopeful, although 
we are hearing signals, that it's going to be dead on arrival, and they 
are not going to tell us what they want us to do.
  I will submit this to you, and then I will let you comment, Louie, 
and that is, I would submit, if anybody is shutting down the 
government, it's the Democrats in the Senate, not the Republicans in 
the House.
  I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert).
  Mr. GOHMERT. Thank you.
  Your comments also point to another aspect, not only your caring 
about America, caring about those that are fighting for us and your 
desire to fight for those here in Washington who are fighting for us, 
but it also shows a great deal about your humility, because you and I 
both know you have been working on this issue just every bit as long 
and as hard as I have, and yet you are giving Jack and me great credit 
and I appreciate that.
  But the truth is you have done every bit as much work, perhaps more, 
as Jack and I have and the cosponsors we have here.
  But, you know, things here in Washington obviously don't get done in 
a vacuum, and it means so much when we have people like Kristi, Rob, 
Nan, folks that are out here. We got over 100, I am not sure how many 
over 100 now, cosponsors on the bill. These are people that want to 
make sure that the military is not used as pawns in this game.

  A lot of us haven't been thrilled about the short-term CRs, but it 
does point out one thing, that the leadership of the Republicans in the 
House are committed and have paid the price of being criticized by 
people like me for doing short-term CRs. They are so committed to 
trying to do everything they can, especially Speaker Boehner. He has 
really gone as far as humanly possible to do all that he could to avoid 
a shutdown, making it clear he doesn't want that.
  Some folks have been critical that he needed to stand up and be ready 
to do so. He has made it clear he doesn't want one; he doesn't believe 
it's good for America.
  And so I know my friend from Round Rock, Texas, sitting in Georgetown 
as a judge for so many years, often looked at things like I do, as 
another former district judge. You look at evidence to bear things out.
  Who is at fault? The American people are going to be looking around. 
Who is at fault?
  Well, you look at what's happened, and the evidence is quite clear. 
You have a group here, a majority in the House that has done absolutely 
everything possible to try to placate the Senate.
  We passed lots of bills, trying to get the funding done. And why was 
that? Well, the evidence is clear. The Democratic majority last year 
refused to do what was required and pass a budget. No budget passed, no 
appropriation to fund things.
  Why? You can only speculate about that. It was an election year. 
Perhaps there was concern that if people really saw the total amount 
that they were going to be appropriating in all these areas that it 
might have even been worse in the election in November.
  The people saw through, and the majority switched here in the House. 
So here we are with these bills that have been filed, pushing another 
bill this week here in the House. In response, there has been nothing 
passed in the Senate.
  People that know the rules know that the Senators, any one of them--
and of course it would have to be a Democrat that would have any chance

[[Page H2397]]

of getting something passed, because the Democrats under Harry Reid are 
in the majority, so a Democrat, any Democrat down there, could take the 
bill, the bills that we have done, the CRs that we have done. They 
could take those and do as they did in ObamaCare.
  You know, that was, boy, here again, it's the military.
  The ObamaCare bill was a bill to assist with a tax credit for first-
time homebuyers who were veterans. And what did the Senate do with that 
bill? Since it had to originate in the House under the Constitution, 
they took it, and in their bill they said they are taking the first-
time homebuyer bill for veterans, stripping out every word and 
substituting, therefore, about 2,700 or 2,800 pages of their ObamaCare 
bill.
  Well now, if they don't agree with what we have done, they could have 
taken any one of these CRs that we passed and said we don't like it; 
it's dead on arrival. They could have taken those, stripped out every 
word just like they did for the veterans, to count every word that 
helped the veterans and substituted, therefor, their disastrous bill in 
ObamaCare.
  They could have done that with their own CR, what they were going to 
fund, what they wanted to see happen. Not one person down there in the 
majority of the Senate has taken the leadership to do that.
  Some have said, well, why isn't the White House involved in what's 
going on in the Senate? Why aren't they showing some leadership down 
there?
  I heard someone say, well, that's the White House. It's a separate 
branch.
  The Vice President of the country is and has been the President of 
the Senate. He has not only a vested interest; he is the presiding 
officer of the Senate.
  We have heard over and over from this President that Joe Biden is 
going to make sure things are done right. And yet what did he do when 
the going got tough? Maybe he is tough because he got going to Russia, 
and he disappeared.

                              {time}  2010

  When the going got tough for the President, he went to Brazil and 
played golf and then issued an order from down in South America sending 
troops into battle. And we had a former President Bush who quit playing 
golf. He said it just didn't feel right to know our troops were in 
harm's way and I would be out on some golf course.
  This President not only doesn't have a problem playing golf with 
people in harm's way, he takes time out of his golf round to send more 
people into Libya into harm's way. And to be assured today that, hey, 
we really are going to get around to turning everything over to NATO, 
and it won't be us--my friends, 65 percent of NATO is American 
military. It's not a lot of comfort to me. But the least we could do is 
to make sure that our military, and that includes Reserves, and so that 
the military knows it includes all pay, all allowances, you're not 
going to miss anything if the Senate will just do right by them. We 
have a standalone bill that could be passed in the next day or two. It 
is House bill 1297. It could be done.
  But as my friend from Round Rock has pointed out, our leadership, 
Speaker Boehner, has brought a CR for 1 week. He didn't want to do 
that. We know he didn't. But he was concerned about the military. And 
it funds all aspects of the military through the end of the year. Then 
we have this fallback bill that if the Senate is doing as they're 
indicating--oh, it's dead on arrival. We're not even going to pick it 
up and put our ideas and pass it through the Senate--then obviously the 
evidence is clear, Judge. It seems to me the evidence is all in, and 
it's very clear: They want a shutdown. They think they win politically 
by forcing a shutdown and then blaming the Republicans in the House. 
It's not only not the Republicans in the House's fault. It's also 
clearly them playing games with our military, with the vital function 
in this country, and it isn't right.
  I thank you for yielding. I do thank you so much. I know we've got 
several of our critical key sponsors here on the House floor. And I am 
so grateful for the leadership. We're talking freshmen. We're talking 
people that haven't been here all that long, and yet they have grabbed 
this issue and have shown such leadership. I appreciate you so much. 
Thank you, Judge.
  Mr. CARTER. Reclaiming my time. Let me point out, as Mr. Gohmert 
said, those of us who sat in a courtroom for years, in my case almost 
21 years, you want to look at the evidence to see what the evidence 
shows. And just very quickly, the evidence shows first: How do we get 
to a shutdown for failing to fund the government? Well, you start with 
last year when the Democrats were in charge of the House, the Senate, 
and the Presidency. They passed no budget and not one single 
appropriations bill, although I'm on the Appropriations Committee. They 
certainly could have. They just chose not to. They chose not to.
  They chose the date that they would have a CR go into the next term 
of Congress when it had already lost and knew how many of these 
wonderful people were going to be here replacing them the next time 
they showed up in the House, so they put this thing all the way to 
March, which they knew was going to put us under a tremendous amount of 
pressure to get something to do to fund the government. And we made 
diligent attempts to fund the government. And it didn't even last long 
enough for Harry Reid to say ``dead on arrival'' when it got to the 
Senate.
  So let's see. They didn't do their job. They didn't do their budget. 
They set up the CR deadline. We met the CR deadline with a way to fund 
the government for the rest of the year for all departments. They 
rejected it out of hand without even coming back with any alternative 
of any substance. They offered a $6 billion cut and spending as usual 
under the Obama budget. And then now we've given two extensions to try 
to talk, and each time dead silence. No comment. If there's a comment, 
it's to the press. But to us, they're treating us like a stepchild. And 
then they're wanting to shut down the government when we say, at least 
let's protect our soldiers. Let's take care of our troops.
  Before we've even got it over there tomorrow, Harry Reid and the 
President have both made a statement tonight. ``Dead on arrival,'' 
Harry Reid says. The President says, ``I will veto it.'' He would veto 
funds--that's what he supposedly said in Georgia. Now I may be out of 
school, I didn't hear it, but I was told he did, that he said, I won't 
accept what Mr. Boehner is going to send to us. I will reject it.
  That's the bill that funds our troops. I think we've got other great 
people.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Judge, would you yield for a question?
  Mr. CARTER. Yes.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Since we know it would do no good for a Republican in 
the Senate to take a CR and bring it to the floor of the Senate, or 
file it, but we also know that any Democrat in the majority down there 
could do that and at least try to get over some Democrats, Judge 
Carter, what does it tell you that not a single person in the majority 
has bothered to usher forth and file a CR of any kind to respond or to 
take ours? modify it? What does it tell you?

  Mr. CARTER. It tells me that they are marching in route step to the 
commands of the majority leader, Harry Reid. And unfortunately, we 
didn't get elected to march route step in that fashion. We got elected, 
Senators included, to make decisions that are good for the American 
people.
  Scott, my friend from Virginia, I will recognize you for the amount 
of time you need. We have 9 minutes.
  Mr. RIGELL. Thank you so much. I appreciate the gentleman yielding, 
Judge Carter, for your leadership on this topic and also 
Representatives Gohmert and Kingston for their leadership on this.
  I will say this: As the son of an Iwo Jima veteran and as the proud 
father of a third-generation marine, it is deeply troubling to me that 
we are even having to discuss how and if our men and women in uniform 
are going to be compensated.
  A failure of leadership, Mr. Speaker, has left us in this precarious 
position, and it is deeply troubling to me that we are having to 
address it tonight, the confusion that's out there. Just today, the 
White House said that military personnel would not be paid.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, this is failed leadership. How could it possibly be 
that the message from our Commander in

[[Page H2398]]

Chief is that it's very likely if this shutdown occurs that our men and 
women in uniform would not be compensated?
  This week, a senior Department of Defense official said that our 
troops would be paid for a week but not for 2 weeks. Just yesterday, 
the Pentagon spokesman said that the Department had not issued any 
direction to the services about implementing a shutdown. And he really 
skirted the question of how a shutdown would affect the pay of our 
servicemembers.
  Mr. Speaker, this lack of clarity is not only unnecessary, it's 
unconscionable. Brave men and women--Americans--are around the globe, 
and they are putting their lives at risk fighting for our freedom and 
our way of life. I just got back from a trip to Afghanistan, and it's 
just unbelievable to think that a young corporal in Helmand province 
would have to speak or somehow communicate to his wife about whether he 
is going to get paid or not.
  Our men and women in uniform deserve our unwavering support from this 
Congress. If our military is not paid, Mr. Speaker, I believe that 
Members of Congress and the Commander in Chief should not be paid, not 
one nickel. My office gets calls every day from spouses of our 
military. They are concerned and understandably so.
  Let's be clear on this, Mr. Speaker. The genesis of this crisis that 
we're in is because the Democratic leadership last year had the 
Presidency, had the Senate and had the House, and failed to pass a 
budget. Not only was this a failure in leadership; I truly believe it's 
nothing less than an abdication of the responsibility that was 
entrusted to them by the American people.
  So here we are debating last year's budget. And as a result, we have 
this climate of uncertainty. And as an entrepreneur, I know that it's 
holding back job creation. As a result, we are operating under a 
continuing resolution which each and every service chief has said is 
hurting the readiness of our military.

                              {time}  2020

  I truly believe we are a nation at serious and increasing risk 
because of our failure to manage our finances properly. Indeed, that is 
why I ran for this office. I am proud to be a Republican tonight 
because we have proposed a path toward fiscal stability that would keep 
the government open.
  It has been pointed out, rightfully so, the Senate has failed to move 
on that proposal, preferring apparently to allow the government to 
close and not pay our men and women in uniform. That is not acceptable. 
We must achieve stability and funding. I stand ready to work with any 
Member on the opposite side of the aisle here, and I know my colleagues 
do as well.
  This is so important. We must do what is right. The Senate must act. 
I truly believe that the House has met its responsibilities, starting 
with H.R. 1. We have worked every day to resolve this. We must pass a 
defense appropriations bill for the sake of our troops and our national 
security.
  I encourage every American to let their Senators and our President 
know that they want our troops paid on time. I thank the gentleman for 
this time. I appreciate it.
  Mr. CARTER. Reclaiming my time, I now yield to the gentlewoman from 
New York (Ms. Hayworth).
  Ms. HAYWORTH. I thank you for your commitment and dedication. I have 
the privilege of serving the 19th Congressional District in New York, 
and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point is in my district. We have 
sent, as we all know, thousands of young men and women to join and to 
sustain the long gray line. Their talents and their commitment are made 
to our Nation in order to defend us from threats from without. We owe 
them that same dedication and commitment and sacrifice and discipline 
here in the Congress, in the House, and in the Senate. And our 
President owes it to them and to the children of America whose future 
is at risk from within.
  We were elected in that great wave in November 2010 because the 
American people told us we could no longer afford to continue on a path 
of enormous deficits and mounting debt. It is difficult to do what we 
are called on to do, and that presumably is why the Senate has so 
resisted the lead that we have offered them with the passage of a 
continuing resolution to compensate for a budget that was never passed 
for this fiscal year by the 111th Congress. It is difficult to say no 
to certain types of spending that have become the usual mode of 
behavior by the Federal Government, but that is what we are called on 
to do.
  And what we do pales in comparison with what the men and women who 
put themselves in harm's way around the world must do every day. What 
they sacrifice must be emulated by us in this small way. We must join 
together in the House, and we must be joined by the Senate to pass this 
bill that will fund our troops through the end of fiscal year 2011 and 
will allow us the time that we need to bring everyone together, to 
bring the Senate and the President on board so that they too will have 
that discipline that they need so that we can do what is right for 
America's future and so that we can get on to thinking, as we must, 
about the budget for 2012 and beyond.
  I thank you, Judge Carter, for your leadership in ensuring that our 
troops are properly cared for and for your leadership in this enormous 
and crucial fight for our Nation's future.
  Mr. CARTER. I don't know how much time is left, but I yield to my 
good friend, the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Black).
  Mrs. BLACK. Mr. Speaker, I stand here tonight as a daughter, a wife, 
and a mother of veterans; and I am an ardent supporter of our Nation's 
military. These brave men and women can never be thanked enough for 
their service to our country, and this Congress must do everything that 
we can to stand up for those who defend America. That is why I urge my 
colleagues to protect the military paychecks and to ensure that if the 
government shutdown were to occur, that the members of our Armed Forces 
and their families will receive their salaries on time.
  This is not an issue that we can play politics with, and my 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle who seek to use these 
paychecks of our military as part of their plan to force a government 
shutdown should absolutely be ashamed of themselves. Military families 
have already sacrificed so much for this country. Back in Tennessee, 
there are families who are worried right now about whether their loved 
ones are safe overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places even 
around the country, and they are praying for their safe return home. 
Those military families should not, under any circumstances, have to 
worry about when and where the next paycheck is coming from.
  Mr. CARTER. I apologize for the short time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

                          ____________________