[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 121 (Wednesday, July 30, 2014)]
[House]
[Page H7047]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    HOUSE DEMOCRATS' ECONOMIC AGENDA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Connecticut (Ms. Esty) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. ESTY. Mr. Speaker, this past Saturday, I held my Congress on Your 
Corner at the Litchfield Public Library, and there, I had conversations 
with folks young and old, and we talked about what matters to them and 
to their families, and I heard about their concerns with the pressing 
issues facing our country right now.
  How can Washington jump-start our economy again? When will we rebuild 
our aging bridges and roads? What is Congress doing about our broken 
immigration system?
  Here we are, 2 days before the Speaker's August recess, and there is 
a vote to sue the President. Yes, that is right, we are wasting time 
and taxpayer money voting on politically-motivated attacks against the 
President, rather than this House taking action to help the American 
people.
  Mr. Speaker, we should be debating a long-term, sustainable solution 
to fund the dwindling highway trust fund, fix our infrastructure, and 
create jobs. We should work together to fix our broken immigration 
system and to address the humanitarian crisis at the border, and we 
should vote to enact Make It In America legislation that supports good-
paying jobs right here at home.
  Mr. Speaker, moms in my district and across this country ask me every 
day: When will this House allow a vote on commonsense gun violence 
prevention? Coming from a State that is working to regain jobs that 
were lost during the recession, I believe that we should cancel this 
recess to extend emergency unemployment for jobseekers in my State of 
Connecticut and all across America.
  No; instead, we are wasting time and taxpayer money on a frivolous 
lawsuit, rather than working together--working together--to stop 
corporate tax inversions or close tax loopholes for companies that are 
shipping our jobs overseas.
  The folks I listened to in Litchfield last Saturday morning deserve 
better. The American people deserve better. It is time to put 
partisanship aside and to put middle class families first. We should 
cancel recess. We should stay here and work together on policies to 
jump-start our economy and get the job done for all of the people we 
represent.

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