[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 139 (Tuesday, October 8, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7277-S7280]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I appreciate the remarks of our
distinguished majority leader. He has probably the most frustrating job
there is because he has continuously brought up and passed bills to get
us out of this and reopen the government, and he is blocked by the
Republican leadership in the other body.
Today marks the 8th day of this unnecessary government shutdown, more
than 192 hours since the world saw the doors to the United States
Government closed for this embarrassing and needless shutdown. While
the Republicans in the House have the ability to end this shutdown
right now--before noon today--they refuse to pass the clean continuing
resolution approved by the Senate.
I have joined other Senators in coming to the floor to speak about
the pervasive impact of the shutdown, and there isn't a single family
in Vermont or in America--Republican, Democratic, or Independent--that
this shutdown hasn't affected. All these families have been affected,
but now we face cascading worsening effects to come the longer this
senseless shutdown continues. I have joined the chorus of voices urging
the relatively few in the House of Representatives holding up this
process to put an end to this political act of destruction. It might
allow them to send out bumper stickers and raise money from their
supporters, but it is not helping the country.
If the human toll of the impact--if a Vermonter is not able to buy a
home, or children turned away from potentially life-saving clinical
trials, or the parents of our fallen soldiers who won't receive death
benefits to pay for their funerals--and that is not an exaggeration. We
have always had a program, when one of our soldiers dies overseas in
combat, there are benefits established so the family can at least be
there when the casket returns at Dover Air Force Base and to provide
for the funeral. Even that is cut out. We send our soldiers to war. We
tell them we are there to take care of their families if something
happens. Now, because of a small group of tea party Republicans, we say
we can't even take care of their families when they die in the service
of the country. For shame if that happens.
If all of these examples don't motivate them to do the right thing,
maybe I can speak their language for a moment and point to the fiscal
cost of this Republican shutdown. The estimated cost per hour of the
Republican shutdown--that the government remains shut down--is $12.5
million. That is $300 million a day wasted or nearly $1.6 billion per
week. And what do the American people get for that? They get to watch
fake budget conferences, staged photo ops, and the very Members
shutting down the government and running to every single TV camera they
can find. Over the last 8 days we have spent more than $2 billion for
the government to not work, not function, and not serve the American
people.
Can you imagine the actual good that could have been done with that
$2 billion that was just wasted? And that figure only covers the cost
of work and services the government can't perform because 800,000
Federal workers are furloughed. It doesn't take into account the ripple
effects throughout our overall economy.
Where are the deficit hawks who claim we don't have enough money to
provide SNAP benefits to hungry Americans in the farm bill? Where are
the Members who shamefully held up disaster relief after Tropical Storm
Irene and Hurricane Sandy, while insisting that spending be offset?
Surely, they would want to put a stop to the shutdown to end this
wasteful government spending. Yet here we are, waiting for the
Republican leadership in the House of Representatives to pass the clean
continuing resolution and put an end to this shutdown.
Instead of passing a clean Senate-passed continuing resolution
pending in the House--based on budget levels that, as the leader
pointed out, Republicans themselves wanted--the proposals being offered
by House Republicans would actually expand the deficit.
First, the House proposed we repeal the Affordable Care Act because
of claims it is harmful to our economy. But if we repeal it, we would
actually accelerate the health care cost spiral and boost the Federal
deficit by $109 billion. They don't tell people they are voting to add
another $109 billion to our deficit. Then they suggest we repeal just a
portion of the Affordable Care Act, but add $30 billion to the deficit
for which they don't want any offsets. Where were the Members in the
House who attacked appropriations bills and insisted on cuts to funding
for law enforcement officers, disaster preparedness, and medical
research? Where were the Members who insisted the devastating costs of
sequestration must remain in place because we simply can't afford to
spend and must reduce the deficit, no matter what it does to law
enforcement or medical research or disaster preparedness?
They ditched their principles, and now they have forced a government
shutdown which is costing more than if we had stayed open because of
the money wasted. It appears the only time the House is willing to
compromise is when it comes to adding to the deficit in order to
prevent access to affordable health insurance for millions of
Americans.
We are here right now because the Republican leadership in the House
refuses to act. They could end the shutdown right now and make this the
last day we spend $300 million on nothing. Yet there is this faction
within the majority of the House that has now brought the government of
the United States to a halt, wasting hundreds of millions of dollars
each day, day after day, and they will not relent. They talk about the
Affordable Care Act, which, if we have children in college, allows them
to be on our insurance policy. They want to do away with that, but they
don't have any alternative. The Affordable Care Act allows a member of
your family with a preexisting health condition--heart, cancer,
whatever--to get insurance. They want to do away with that. They have
no plan of their own.
I want to get back to work for Vermonters. I want help for the
Vermont company who can't start their new business because the
certificate is sitting on a desk at the Department of Treasury's
Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau but nobody is there to sign
it--I want pregnant Vermonters and new moms going without meals and
whose babies are going to go hungry because they are unable to get
healthy food and baby formula without the WIC benefits they are
supposed to have access to--I want to see them fed. I want to see our
farmers have the ability to continue to work as they do every single
day and know the farm bill has been passed.
Let's stop the sloganeering here. Let's stop rushing to the TV
cameras. Let's actually do what is best for America. Wouldn't that be a
wonderful step in the right direction?
Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a
quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
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the quorum call be rescinded and I be allowed to speak for up to 12
minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator is recognized.
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, we are in the eighth day of a completely
unnecessary partial government shutdown. Last week there was an
official at the White House who said they were winning the shutdown
debate and they were not concerned about how long the shutdown lasts.
Well, there may be Democrats and folks at the White House who are
content with the current situation, but Republicans remain focused on
finding a solution to reopen the government.
The Republicans have offered multiple solutions to fund the
government and will continue to work to find common ground while
providing ObamaCare relief for middle-class Americans. Middle-class
Americans deserve the same relief from ObamaCare the Democrats have
already given themselves and big business. Senate Democrats even had
the opportunity to give the same 1-year relief from ObamaCare to their
constituents that President Obama has already given to big business.
We believe this is an issue of basic fairness. We believe this law
should be delayed--not just for big businesses and not just for the
favored constituencies but for all Americans because of the harmful
impact it is having.
In fact, there is bipartisan support for giving individuals and
families relief. A colleague of ours on the other side of the aisle--a
Senate Democrat--recently said a delay for individuals would be very
reasonable and sensible. There have been a number of votes in the House
where Democrats have voted with Republicans in support of providing
that delay to middle-class Americans.
With regard to where we are right now, we have a near-term issue and
we have a slightly longer term issue. The near-term issue has an awful
lot of folks increasingly concerned about the impact the government
shutdown is having on people across this country. The House of
Representatives has passed nine bills that have been sent to the Senate
which are sitting here at the desk that would provide funding for some
of these programs and services which impact people across this country
that could be picked up today and passed by unanimous consent. And, by
the way, many of those have passed with bipartisan support.
As recently as Saturday the House passed a bill that would provide
back pay for Federal workers. There were 189 Democrats in the House of
Representatives who voted in support of that bill. There have been up
to 57 Democrats in the House of Representatives who have voted to give
pay to our National Guard and Reserve, the same thing we have done for
our active-duty military. They have also voted to provide relief to our
national parks so they can open again. They have voted to provide
funding for the National Institutes of Health so that those lifesaving
medicines can continue to be provided. They have voted to provide
funding for FEMA so FEMA can respond to the natural disasters that are
occurring across the country.
There are nine bills sitting at the desk of the Senate that could be
picked up and passed today by unanimous consent. There wouldn't be a
single Republican that I know of who would object to any of those
measures being passed that would provide funding and relief in support
of the services and programs which impact people across the country.
The House will pick up a couple of more bills today. They will do one
that funds Head Start and will then send it over here, so that will be
the tenth bill that will be sitting at the Senate. They will pass a
bill that funds Impact Aid, something which is very important to the
people I represent in South Dakota. That will be the 11th bill that
will be sitting at the desk in the Senate awaiting action. As I said,
they could all be passed by unanimous consent. There would not be a
single Republican that I know of who would be opposed to any of those
being moved forward.
It is not a question of addressing the funding concerns and making
sure the programs and services which impact people across this country
are being funded; that can be done. It has been done by the House, and
those items have moved over here to the Senate. All that is necessary
is for the majority leader to come over, pick them up, ask for
unanimous consent to pass them, and those items would pass.
I see the near-term issue as being one that is very easy to solve,
and all that it entails is for the leadership in the Senate to pick up
those bills and pass them.
The other issue I mentioned that is a little bit longer term, but not
much, because it is about 9 days away, is we are going to hit the debt
limit, which means the United States of America will no longer have
borrowing authority. We will hit up against the amount we are able to
borrow on our credit card to fund the services of our government. There
is a request obviously to increase the debt limit to allow the Federal
Government to borrow more money. I have had private conversations with
members of the administration's team. They said they would like to see
a debt limit increase that would take us through the next election--
through November of 2014. To do that we would be looking somewhere in
the trillion-dollar range. It strikes me that--and I think it is
something supported by the American people--if we are going to have a
debate about increasing the debt limit, we ought to do something about
the debt. I think that is a sensible position to take. By a 2-to-1
margin, polls show the American people believe if we are going to raise
the debt limit, we ought to do something to fix and address the debt.
What we are simply saying is: Let's sit down and have a discussion
about things we can do that will put us on a different and sustainable
fiscal trajectory for this country that won't saddle future generations
of Americans with massive amounts--trillions and trillions of dollars--
of additional debt. That issue is looming out there and it is not very
far away. We don't have a lot of time to deal with that. It is not, as
I said, as immediate as the government shutdown, which can be addressed
by the majority of the Senate. I think the debt limit is going to
require both parties here in Congress and the President and his team to
get together and figure out what it is we can do that would not only
raise the debt limit--the amount we can borrow--but address the
underlying fundamental problem, and that is the fact that we have a $17
trillion debt.
There has been a lot said about things that various Senators have
said in the past on the floor and in the course of these various
debates we have had about debt limit increases, and I wanted to point
out that the President of the United States, President Obama, when he
was here in 2006, said raising the debt limit is a failure of
leadership. He said it is a failure of leadership and described it as
unpatriotic. Unpatriotic--failure of leadership to raise the debt
limit.
Now he is saying he wants a clean debt limit increase--no
negotiation, period. No negotiation on the debt limit. Well, at the
time when he said that raising the debt limit was a leadership failure,
the total Federal debt was $8.3 trillion. Today it is $16.8 trillion,
$16.9 trillion. So the Federal debt, literally, is double what it was
when the current President said back in 2006, as a Member of this
Chamber in the Senate, that raising the debt limit would be a failure
of leadership. Now it is twice that amount. It was $8.3 trillion in
2006, and now we are going on $17 trillion.
It seems to me the President of the United States--who described
raising the debt limit in 2006 when the debt was half of what it is
today as a leadership failure--ought to be willing to exercise some
leadership and engage himself in a process that would allow us to sit
down and talk about what we can do to get this debt under control.
There is a series of spending reforms that have been put forward by
many of my colleagues on this side of the aisle that would deal with
the out-of-control spending, particularly on what we call the mandatory
spending part of the budget, those entitlement programs that currently
are on an unsustainable path. We would like to try and get that
spending under control. There are a number of other things that have
been proposed that, frankly, would be good for the economy.
One of the best ways to get our fiscal house in order is to get the
economy growing and expanding at a faster rate. When the economy is
growing and expanding, more people are working,
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more people are investing, more people are paying taxes, and government
revenues go up. When we have an economy growing at 3 to 4 percent
instead of an economy growing at 1 to 2 percent, which is what we have
today, the result is a dramatic increase in the amount of tax revenue
that comes into the Federal Treasury.
When they are talking about raising the debt limit, we should look at
what we can do in association with that discussion to actually reduce
the debt. One would be to put spending reforms in place, and the other
would be growing and expanding the economy.
One of the things that has been proposed that would grow the economy
is tax reform. I happen to believe, and I think a lot of us do, that
the best thing we can do to get the economy growing at a faster rate is
to reform our Tax Code in a way that makes us more competitive in the
global marketplace. That would mean reducing the tax on business, which
is the highest in the world. The United States has the highest
corporate tax rate in the entire world.
Lowering marginal income tax rates, broadening the tax base, doing
away with many of the loopholes, deductions, exemptions, and
preferences that are in the Tax Code today that benefit particular
constituencies and going to a broader based tax base, but one that has
marginal rates that are significantly lower than where they are today--
I think that would dramatically unleash economic growth in this country
and get people back to work so they can pay taxes and get government
revenues up.
In the context of raising the debt limit, we ought to do something
about the debt, and as I said, that is fairly straightforward.
One of the ideas that has been put forward here is that we need a
clean debt limit increase; we can't have any discussion or negotiation
about this. If we look at history, it has been the case that many of
the big accomplishments, if you will, when it comes to deficit
reduction, when it comes to fiscal plans being put into place, occurred
in the context of increasing the debt limit. In fact, throughout our
history, going back to 1978, the debt limit has been raised 53 times in
those 35 years. Of those 53 debt limit increases, 27, or more than
half, were done around other policy considerations and policy
discussions and legislation that was put forward to address issues--in
many cases to address the out-of-control spending and debt we have in
this country.
For 35 years now, with 53 debt limit increases, more than half have
involved discussion of other matters. In fact, some of the biggest
accomplishments we can point to in the history of the last 30 years
occurred at a time when we had both sides trying to figure out a path
forward for dealing with fiscal imbalances our country faced.
The Gramm-Rudman-Hollings legislation passed in 1985, the Budget Acts
in 1990 and 1993 and 1997, and more recently in 2011. All occurred in
the context of a debt limit increase. So there is ample precedent in
history for doing big things that are good for the country and good for
future generations around the debt limit increase. It defies history to
suggest we cannot come to the table and cannot negotiate in the context
of a debt limit increase.
As I look at these issues that are converging on us now and what they
mean for our children and our grandchildren and for future generations,
it seems to me that taking a position of we will not negotiate,
period--which is essentially what the President has said and what has
been echoed here by the Senate majority--is not only wrong in terms of
what we need to do to fix the debt and to get our country on a more
sustainable fiscal path, but it is also completely at odds with what we
know to be the case throughout our history. We can do better by the
American people. We should do better by the American people. It
requires leadership.
The President of the United States, President Obama, as Senator Obama
back in 2006, said at that time that raising the debt limit would be a
leadership failure and described it as unpatriotic. Here we are these
many years later, with double--double--the amount of debt we had back
when he made that statement.
This situation we are in today cries out for leadership. It cries out
for leadership from the President and from those of us in Congress. I
hope we can find our way to get together, to sit down, to negotiate, to
come up with solutions that are good for the future of this country
that would deal not just with raising the borrowing limit so we can
borrow more money to fund government, but to address the underlying
problem, and that is the fact that we have a $17 trillion debt that
continues to grow at $600 billion, $700 billion a year.
We continue to have a chronically high unemployment rate. We continue
to have a labor force, a workforce that is at historically low levels;
in other words, the number of people who are working today as a
percentage of those who could work is at the lowest level it has been
in 35 years. We have a sluggish economy that is growing in the 1- to 2-
percent range. Take-home pay for most Americans has gone down since the
President took office by about $3,700.
We need to get middle-class Americans back to work, middle-class
Americans earning more, being able to provide for their families,
increasing family household income and take-home pay in this country,
and the way to do that is to get the economy growing and expanding.
The other way to do that, I would argue, is to get spending here in
Washington under control so we are not out there borrowing more and
more money all the time, so that more and more of our country's assets
and resources can be deployed toward things that will yield a return,
that will put more people to work, that will grow the economy, and
expand the standard of living and the quality of life for people across
this country. Time is short. The clock is running. Time is a-wasting.
We need to get this done.
In the near term we need to bring up the nine bills sitting here in
the Senate that were passed by the House. That would put funding for a
lot of these services and programs that impact people--which has been
expressed so many times by my colleagues on the other side of the
aisle--back in place.
Secondly, let's get together--the President, Democrats, and
Republicans here in Washington, DC--to talk about not only raising the
debt limit but what we are going to do to address the underlying debt.
Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I note the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Schatz). The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mrs. HAGAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Ms. HAGAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to
10 minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mrs. HAGAN. Mr. President, I rise to address the negative impact this
government shutdown is having on my home State of North Carolina. It is
a shame that some in Congress are playing political games with the most
basic function of keeping our government open. I did not get elected to
shut down the government. With each minute that goes by, more and more
North Carolinians are feeling the impact of this irresponsible
shutdown.
North Carolina is proud to be home to almost 1 million veterans. But
as of this spring, we are also home to one of the worst VA disability
claims backlogs in the country. We have pushed to have senior VA
personnel dispatched to North Carolina. More caseworkers have been
added. After a lot of attention and work, we were finally beginning to
see the needle move in the right direction.
Claims were being processed faster, which means veterans were getting
the benefits they deserved faster. But as of today, the Winston-Salem
regional office is closed to the public. With claim processors
furloughed and just a skeleton staff operation inside, this government
shutdown threatens to reverse the progress we have made in addressing
that backlog. So I ask, is it worth shutting down the government over a
political game when veterans get caught in this crossfire? No.
In my home State we are also proud of the 11 national parks that are
not simply just beautiful places in our country and in our State but
also important drivers of our tourism economy.
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As families flock to enjoy these affordable destinations, they stop
at our local small businesses, they eat at our restaurants, and they
stay in our hotels. In 2011, out-of-State tourists to national parks in
North Carolina spent $720 million during these trips, which supported
nearly 12,000 jobs.
I do not know how many of my colleagues have been fortunate enough to
visit western North Carolina at this time of the year. But right now
the fall leaves are turning and western North Carolina is opening its
arms to welcome tourists from around the country and from around the
world who come to see this beautiful landscape.
On the other side of the State, in the east, we have Cape Hatteras
National Seashore and Cape Lookout. They are both closed. October is
the most popular surf-fishing month of the year. But with beach access
closed our fishermen cannot get to the fishing areas.
With parks from out west all the way to down east closed, we fear too
many families will decide to cancel their vacations. So I ask, is it
worth shutting down the government over political games when our small
business owners who support our economy will be the ones to shoulder
this burden? No.
In my home State we are proud that our university system includes a
number of distinguished research institutions that are on the cutting
edge of new technologies and therapies that will make our world better.
NIH supports roughly 20,000 jobs in North Carolina. But the NIH will
not take any action on grant applications or awards or admit new
patients to clinical trials while our government is shut down.
So I ask, is it worth putting medical advances and thousands of jobs
at risk just to play a tired political game? No. I could go on and on.
While new vaccines are still being delivered, the CDC is not able to
track flu cases as usual. They cannot support State and local partners
who help monitor infectious diseases.
The FDA is not able to support the majority of its food safety
activities. Pell grants and direct student loans could be delayed for
14 million American students. School districts, colleges, and job
training centers could face major cashflow problems without money for
Federal programs and grants coming in the door.
Our research universities, in addition to doing this cutting-edge
research that benefits our entire country, are huge employers. Some of
them receive tens of millions of dollars a month in reimbursement for
work already performed for the Federal Government. Without those funds
coming in the door, these universities can be put in an incredibly
difficult position with respect to managing their expenses--not to
mention the time lost in Congress when we should be talking about how
to continue repairing our economy; we should be talking about how to
improve job training programs; we should be talking about growing
manufacturing in our country. But instead, we are just manufacturing
crisis after crisis after another. There is no reason we cannot end
this shutdown.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution. The Senate has passed a
responsible bill that keeps the government running at currently reduced
spending levels. The House of Representatives could pass that bill
today. This shutdown could end within a matter of hours. Then we could
have the time and space to come together on a long-term, balanced, and
bipartisan plan to finally put our fiscal house in order. Instead, the
other side of the Capitol insists on sending us bills that they know
have zero chance of passing or becoming law over here just to stage a
political stunt.
But political stunts will not process VA claims. Political stunts
will not help restaurant owners in western North Carolina make payroll
while the national parks are closed. Political stunts will not get this
government reopened for business. I urge my colleagues in the House of
Representatives to stop playing this partisan game, take up the Senate-
passed bill, end this government shutdown.
I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Heitkamp). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
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