[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 136 (Friday, October 4, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H6237-H6238]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         FUNDING THE GOVERNMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Louisiana (Mr. Scalise) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to address the 
House and talk about the things we're doing here in this House to 
continue to fund government and keep the government open. If you look 
at what has been going on the last couple weeks, Mr. Speaker, you have 
seen more than four bills passed by the House of Representatives to 
fund all of government. You've seen us send bills over to the Senate to 
keep government open. But what you've also seen, Mr. Speaker, is the 
President of the United States and the leader of the Senate refusing to 
take up the bills because they're not getting everything they want. The 
Senate President, Harry Reid, said he's not going to budge an inch--not 
an inch--from his position. He'd rather shut the government down than 
to move one inch. President Obama said he won't negotiate. He refuses 
to negotiate with Republicans unless they give him everything he wants. 
He won't budge an inch. So what we've done in the House, Mr. Speaker, 
during that time is say: You know what? We're going to put a lot of 
options on the table because we do believe we ought to fund government 
properly. We ought to address the problems facing our country and get 
our economy moving again, and address all the problems that the 
President's health care law is facing.
  But we also know that we live in a democracy, and when you've got 
divided government, Mr. Speaker, that means both sides ultimately have 
to come together. That's what our laws actually demand. And yet you've 
got a President saying it's my way or the highway; if I don't get 
everything I want, I won't budge. And then you've got Republicans 
saying: Let's pass bills to keep things going; let's actually negotiate 
and work out our differences.
  I think the American people are realizing that, Mr. Speaker. They're 
seeing the unreasonable approach of President Obama. If you look at 
what has happened in the House the last few days, you're actually 
seeing a groundswell not just of Republican ideas to keep government 
funded. We passed a bill to fund veterans. Shouldn't we all, while 
we've got all of these other disagreements on government--there are 
actually areas where Democrats and Republicans agree. You don't hear a 
lot about it, Mr. Speaker, but there are a number of those.
  So we've started putting those ideas on the table and saying we have 
some real disagreements over health care policy, but shouldn't we at 
least fund our veterans? Shouldn't we at least fund cancer treatment 
for those patients that are struggling through cancer that aren't 
looking at this from a Republican or Democrat issue; they just want 
their treatment? And so we passed a bill, and it got bipartisan votes 
in the House. It was not a partisan vote. A lot of Democrats joined 
with Republicans to say let's at least fund cancer treatment while 
we're negotiating these other differences. And the Senate majority 
leader's answer was: Why would we want to do that? How shameful, Mr. 
Speaker, that you would have the Senate majority leader saying he would 
rather hold them hostage unless he gets everything he wants. Nobody 
gets everything they want in a democracy. And so we continue to pass 
bills to address these problems.
  We passed bills to fund our National Guard troops. Again, large 
bipartisan votes--a growing number, by the way, of Democrat votes that 
have been joining with Republicans--to take a reasonable approach to 
this, because again, ``my way or the highway'' is not how you govern in 
a democracy. You send those bills over to fund our veterans and to fund 
our National Guard and to fund cancer patients. And you literally, on a 
party-line vote, have the Senate leader saying he's going to kill those 
bills until he gets everything he wants, and is forcing every Democrat 
in the Senate to vote with him, to play some kind of partisan game. 
That's not how our democracy works, Mr. Speaker.
  And where's the President's leadership on this? You should see the 
President standing up and saying stop these games; stop punishing 
people; stop taking hostages. And yet he's so afraid to stare down the 
Senate majority leader that he sits on the sidelines and continues just 
to throw rocks at people instead of getting in the fray and saying, as 
all adults in a room, let's get together and work out our differences. 
The President continues to say he won't budge an inch.
  And so today, Mr. Speaker, we're going to continue moving forward in 
the House. As a tropical storm enters the Gulf of Mexico, we're going 
to take up a bill that says we ought to fund our emergency response in 
FEMA. Shouldn't again we at least be able to put partisan differences 
on the side on other issues that are unrelated and say at least we 
ought to take care and respond to disasters. That bill will be on the 
floor. And I'll predict, Mr. Speaker, that you'll see broad bipartisan 
support to vote that bill out of the House and pass it over to the 
Senate. Maybe, just maybe, let's all hold out encouragement that the 
Senate majority leader will finally put his partisan differences on the 
side and say let's at least agree to do that. Don't hold hostages.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, when you look at what the President has been 
doing with these monuments, punishing the American people. The World 
War II Memorial is a great example of the greatness of America, the 
Greatest Generation, a tribute to those men and women who risked 
everything. You had heroes in their 20s that stormed the beaches of 
Normandy. They stared down the enemy. They didn't blink. Of course,

[[Page H6238]]

they came earlier this week to the World War II Memorial to see the 
memorial that was built in their honor, and they're faced with 
Obamacades blocking off that memorial. I'm glad they stared it down, 
they didn't blink, and they took that memorial.
  Mr. President, tear down those Obamacades. Let our veterans into the 
World War II Memorial.

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