[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 140 (Wednesday, October 9, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H6428-H6429]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STOP THE RECKLESSNESS
(Ms. CHU asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute.)
Ms. CHU. Mr. Speaker, John Boehner says he doesn't have the votes to
pass a clean bill that would keep government open. Yet 198 Democrats
would vote for it; another 21 Republicans say they would, too. That's
more than the 217 votes needed to pass a bill. That's basic math. The
votes are there.
And yet so many people are suffering in this ninth day of the GOP
shutdown,
[[Page H6429]]
people like Leo Finn, who had been scheduled to start a clinical trial
at a cancer institute in Boston to battle his liver cancer, but last
week, he was told he couldn't because of the shutdown.
The National Institutes of Health has furloughed 73 percent of its
staff. Leo, a father of three, says:
Everyone talks about national parks, but the shutdown of
the NIH is starting to affect people's lives and whether
someone will survive a disease.
Now Leo's life is on hold.
It is time for Speaker Boehner to stop this recklessness. It is
wrong. It is shameful. Bring a clean bill up for a vote.
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