[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 15, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H547-H548]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             TRUMP SHUTDOWN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, this weekend, the Republican leader, Mr. 
McCarthy, went on ``Face the Nation'' and said the following: ``It is 
unacceptable that 800,000 U.S. employees are not being paid.'' He 
didn't add, but he should have, that 440,000 of them are being made to 
work while they are not paid.
  But I agree that it is unacceptable that 800,000 U.S. folks are shut 
out. It is unacceptable that Republicans and Donald Trump would shut 
down the government and deny paychecks to 800,000 Americans because 
they couldn't get congressional approval for an expensive and 
ineffective border wall, even when they controlled all levers of 
government.
  Let me repeat that. They didn't get it done when they controlled all 
levers of government.
  The Republican leader went on to say: ``You know what we're arguing 
over? One-tenth of 1 percent of the Federal budget.''
  He is dead wrong on that. This isn't about a wall, or healthcare, or 
the debt limit, or spending levels. It is about whether it is 
appropriate policy for a President to threaten shutdowns and take the 
country hostage to get what he wants.
  It is malfeasant and malevolent to hold 800,000 Americans and, 
indeed, the millions they serve hostage to the demands of a President 
who, days before he shut down the government, told us that is exactly 
what he intended to do.
  That is why House Democrats, joined by several Republicans, passed 
six of the seven remaining appropriations bills for fiscal year 2019, 
all of which had bipartisan support in the Senate, and a continuing 
resolution to reopen the Department of Homeland Security on the first 
day of the new Congress.
  It is also why, last week, House Democrats passed, on an individual 
basis, four of those same appropriations bills to reopen portions of 
government that the Senate approved by a vote of 92-6, over 90 percent, 
almost 95 percent of the Senators.
  Our colleague from Oklahoma (Mr. Cole) was concerned that these were 
not products of the House. He is right. So vote to open up a government 
with a CR, which you will have an opportunity to do three times, my 
Republican colleagues. Let's conclude the appropriations process by 
passing bills agreed upon by the House and the Senate.
  What we have been saying all along is: Reopen the people's 
government. Shutting it down is an illegitimate, immoral act.
  I disagree with the Republican leader's characterization of 
Democrats' position as taking a stand for a certain level of funding.
  Just give us X amount of money for a wall, Republicans and the 
President say, and the shutdown will end.
  This is not about a wall. It is about trying to gain an end by 
threat, rather than by democratic debate. One side cannot, must not, 
continue to threaten shutdowns to get its way in a democracy.
  Our research does not show us another democracy in the world that 
shuts itself down. That is not how the system should work.
  If Donald Trump is permitted to bully the American people and their 
representatives into giving him whatever he wants, does anyone think, 
for a second, we won't be right back here in a few weeks, or a few 
months, with yet another shutdown over the next item on the President's 
wish list?
  Give me more tax cuts for the wealthy, or I will shut down the 
government, he will say. Cut Medicare and Social Security, or I will 
default on the debt.
  This is about more than money to build a wall on our border. It is 
about whether to firm up the wall around our democracy.
  We need to end this shutdown now, reopen the government first, and 
discuss, rationally, how best to secure our borders, an objective many 
of us have voted to do over the years, with substantial increases in 
our investment in security at all of our borders.
  The only beneficiaries, very frankly, of this shutdown are Russia, 
China, Iran, and our other enemies and those who would like to see us 
fail. If this

[[Page H548]]

shutdown continues, it will further weaken us on trade, on national 
security, on protecting our interests around the world, and in serving 
our people here at home. And it will continue harming our economy, 
which has already lost nearly as much in GDP as the President wants for 
his wall.
  Mr. Speaker, if Leader McCarthy truly finds it unacceptable for this 
shutdown to continue, I ask him and all my Republican colleagues to 
join us in urging Senator McConnell, who has called shutdowns ``failed 
policy,'' and President Trump to end it by taking up the bills the 
House has already passed to do so.
  Mr. President, open our government for the people.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from 
engaging in personalities toward the President.

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