[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 141 (Tuesday, September 29, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H6311-H6312]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           BIPARTISAN BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Costa) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, this Congress is making a habit, 
unfortunately, of acting in crisis mode, which is irresponsible and 
does a disservice to the fate and the trust that the American public 
has placed in us as their elected representatives, and this has a 
direct bearing on our economy. The Pope spoke to the need for us to 
come together and negotiate bipartisan solutions for the many 
challenges facing the United States and the world.
  The first and most pressing issue is to fund government. Thankfully, 
tomorrow the House is expected to vote

[[Page H6312]]

on a short-term continuing resolution to do just that. I hope my 
colleagues will vote in favor of a clean continuing resolution to avert 
a government shutdown. There is no justification to shut down 
government. Yes, we have our differences. We negotiate that in a budget 
process.
  However, we know that this is a short-term fix and that a real 
solution to fixing our Nation's very real and very serious budget 
problems is in producing a long-term budget, and we should do that in 
December.
  Instead of moving from one crisis to another crisis, we must get back 
to the work of governing responsibly. Responsible governance requires 
that we come together, work hard, compromise on a bipartisan budget 
that will not result in poorly thought-out, across-the-board spending 
cuts, more commonly known as sequestration.
  Failing to govern responsibly and compromise will negatively impact 
industries so vital to America. That includes our agriculture economy, 
which provides the food that we eat on America's dinner table. It 
includes manufacturing and service industries that provide goods and 
services that we trade.
  Finally, it will severely impact some programs that support our 
Nation's future, like health care, education, public safety, and 
research and development, costing billions of dollars and thousands of 
jobs.
  In addition to negotiating a bipartisan budget agreement, we need to 
address the impacts of sequestration and the Congress must address the 
debt ceiling this December without fanfare that could further throw our 
economy into chaos.
  If the United States were to default on its loans or fail to live up 
to our promises to those of retirement age, it would send our economy 
in a downward spiral just at the time that we are finally recovering 
from this Great Recession.
  Unfortunately, not all the areas of the United States are feeling the 
recovery's effects equally. In the San Joaquin Valley that I represent, 
many of my constituents are still feeling the effects of the recession, 
in addition to the unnecessary impacts of our failure to invest in 
infrastructure, our water infrastructure that we terribly need to 
invest in as well as our transportation infrastructure.
  Vital programs, like the Ex-Im Bank, the highway trust fund, the Land 
and Water Conservation Fund, have either expired or will soon expire. 
The Export-Import Bank's charter which was created has sustained 1\1/2\ 
million private sector jobs and expired June 30.
  By refusing to bring up the reauthorization of the Bank for a vote, 
American jobs are being threatened and Congress is undermining the 
ability of American businesses to compete in a global market.
  The highway trust fund is set to expire on October 29. Our Nation's 
roads, bridges, highways, and railroads are out of date and are in dire 
need of repair. I have never seen a bridge or road that is Republican 
or Democrat. This is just investing in America.
  A long-term transportation bill was last passed by Congress in 2009. 
Since then, Congress has had 34 short-term patches. That is simply 
irresponsible. This not only puts American's safety at risk, but 
completely undermines our ability to create and sustain American jobs 
by investing in our infrastructure.
  Congress must act to work on a bipartisan basis to reauthorize these 
programs and countless other Federal programs that are set to expire 
not only this week, but in December, when we address long-term funding 
for the next fiscal year. Otherwise, there will be another threat to 
shut down government in December. It is irresponsible.
  Last week Pope Francis reminded us of our responsibilities, the 
better angels in all of us. He said, ``A good political leader is one 
who, with the interests of all in mind, seizes the moment in a spirit 
of openness and pragmatism. A good political leader always opts to 
initiate processes rather than simply possessing spaces.''

                              {time}  1030

  Therefore, the question we should be asking: Are we simply possessing 
spaces or are we trying to find together the common good for the common 
man, as Pope Francis suggested?
  I hope his spiritual guidance will allow us to work together to do 
what we were sent here to do, which is the people's work. That is what 
we were sent here to do on behalf of all Americans.

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