[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 114 (Thursday, July 14, 2016)]
[House]
[Page H4975]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 DOING THE WORK OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

  (Mr. HOYER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, normally, I would be having a colloquy with 
the majority leader about the schedule for the week to come, but there 
is no schedule for the week to come, and there is no schedule for 6 
weeks thereafter. We were scheduled to meet tomorrow to do the business 
of the American people. We will not meet that schedule, and we will not 
meet the schedule of doing the business of America for those who are 
concerned about the epidemic of gun violence in America, not even the 
small but meaningful and important steps of making sure that, if you 
can't fly, you can't buy a gun, to make sure that the background checks 
are universal and comprehensive so that dangerous people do not get 
guns.
  We will not do the business of those who are confronting being bitten 
by a mosquito and having the risk of having a child who is deeply 
disabled, nor will we do the business of those thousands of children in 
Flint, Michigan, and of the people in Flint, Michigan, who still, 2 
years later, do not have clean water to drink.
  Mr. Speaker, my colleagues and I sit here, ready to do the business 
of our country. We sit here, ready to address those critical public 
health issues that confront our country--of gun violence, of Zika, of 
Flint, and of water that is not drinkable and that will damage our 
children.
  Mr. Speaker, the American people will see that there is a party here 
that is willing to work and protect them every day; so my colleagues 
will, one after another, express their own views as to what this House 
ought to be doing.
  We ought not to have taken a walk on the American people. We ought to 
be sitting here, doing the work of the American people. Yes, we will go 
to a convention, and we will tell them that we are going to protect 
them, that we are going to make their lives better. We can do so right 
here, right now.

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