[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14732-14736]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS

  Mrs. MURRAY. I know many of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle 
are deeply frustrated this evening. Once again, with only a few hours 
left on the clock, House Republican brinkmanship has us struggling to 
avoid burdening our families and our economy with more dysfunction and 
uncertainty. This pattern is simply unacceptable, and some of us, 
Democrats and Republicans, have been trying for months to break it.
  When the Senate budget passed, I was hopeful that we could move to a 
bipartisan budget conference where Democrats and Republicans from the 
House and Senate could all come together, sit down, and try to work out 
our differences. Democrats tried to begin a budget conference 18 times. 
Many Senate Republicans agreed with us that we should continue 
negotiations and begin working toward that deal. Each time tea party 
Republicans and Republican leadership stood and said no. They made it 
very clear why: They believed they would have more leverage in a 
crisis--such as the one we are hours away from--than they had a few 
months ago when we were asking for orderly negotiations.
  Instead of working on a bipartisan budget that would strengthen our 
economy, tea party Republicans began manufacturing this crisis to 
defund the Affordable Care Act.
  This is a law, by the way, that is helping millions of Americans and 
beginning tomorrow, shutdown or no shutdown, is going to begin helping 
many more.
  Due to Republican refusal to come to the table, we are now scrambling 
to avoid a shutdown.
  I am confident the American people, including many in my home State, 
are looking at House Republicans and asking the same questions many of 
us are. They are asking: What are they thinking, and why would they 
hurt their own constituents simply to make a point?
  Even if tea party Republicans don't want to admit it, a government 
shutdown wouldn't just impact people in Washington, DC, it would be 
felt across the country. In my home State of Washington, the impacts 
could be severe. First, Washington State is home to tens of thousands 
of Federal employees who will be furloughed or stop getting paid. It is 
also home to one of our Nation's largest veterans communities. The VA 
has confirmed this week that if the shutdown goes long enough, 
disability and GI benefits will stop for veterans in places such as 
Tacoma, Everett, and Spokane due to some tea party Republicans in 
Washington, DC, who can't have their way.
  That is not all. If the tea party forces this government to shut 
down, our State's gorgeous national parks, such as Olympic National 
Park and Mount Rainier, will be closed to the public. Students at the 
University of Washington and Washington State University may not be 
able to access student loans to pay their tuition bills. Funds for 
important public health programs, such as WIC, would be cut for women 
and children who rely on them. Federal support for dozens of Head Start 
facilities in Seattle and across our State would be at risk.
  The good news is that none of this has to happen. We still have time, 
and the Senate has passed a shutdown-prevention bill that would avoid 
all of this harm. The Senate's short-term funding bill would keep the 
government open at current spending levels with no changes in policies 
while we continue to work on that important long-term budget bill.
  The Senate bill by no means is a long-term solution. It is not even 
close. But as we work to bridge the gap between the parties on budget 
issues, the absolute bare minimum Congress should be able to do, the 
very least we owe to our constituents is to not actively hurt them and 
sabotage the economy.
  Playing partisan games with a temporary stopgap continuing resolution 
is like trying to take away health care from millions of Americans. Tea 
party Republicans are doing exactly that. Many of their fellow 
Republicans believe this is an irresponsible and unworkable attitude. 
Many Republicans have spoken to discourage their own colleagues from 
waging this pointless, harmful fight over defunding the Affordable Care 
Act. They have agreed with Democrats that while we might not see eye to 
eye on everything, we don't have to abandon our basic 
responsibilities--like keeping the government open--in order to 
negotiate.
  We desperately need this type of commonsense bipartisanship because 
we have seen repeatedly that families across the political spectrum are 
sick of governing by crisis and the uncertainty that it creates in 
their lives. They are sick of gridlock in Washington, DC, that impacts 
everything from their childcare to their paycheck.
  Unfortunately, it seems as if the House Republicans haven't had quite 
enough yet. They seem to think this is some kind of game, that whoever 
is left holding the hot potato will be held responsible. Let me be very 
clear. The American people are a lot smarter than that. They know tea 
party Republicans have been pushing us toward this crisis for months. 
They are going to know why a shutdown happened should the tea party 
refuse to pass the Senate's clean continuing resolution to keep the 
government open.
  Allowing our government to shut down isn't in anyone's best 
interest--not Republicans, not Democrats, and above all, not the 
American people. So I would like to call on Speaker Boehner to take one 
simple step. I ask simply that he allow a vote on the Senate's clean 
continuing resolution. I truly believe that given the chance, enough 
Republicans in the House would join with the Democrats in voting for a 
clean continuing resolution to keep the government open so we can deal 
with the bigger issues in front of us.

[[Page 14733]]

  If Speaker Boehner takes that step, we could avoid all the disruption 
and all of the harm a government shutdown will cause to the families 
and communities we serve. Then we could move forward and continue our 
work, which is incredibly important, on a longer term budget deal that 
ends this crisis and puts our families and our economy first. This is 
what families across the country expect, and it is what my fellow 
constituents in the State of Washington expect. That is what I am 
fighting for, and that is what we should deliver.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. MIKULSKI. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Ms. MIKULSKI. I rise to once again speak about where we are, where we 
ought to be, and where I hope we will be.
  It is now 8:30 in the evening. We are 3\1/2\ hours, essentially, 
until the government begins to shut down. Can we believe this? We are 
the United States of America. We are a superpower. We are supposed to 
be a nation governed by rule of law, and we are about to shut down--not 
shut us down because of a catastrophic event that hit us. It is not as 
if a meteor has streaked across the sky and hit the United States of 
America, taking out our power grid and rendering us powerless.
  It is not as if we have been hit by a global pandemic that would 
bring us to our knees. We are in a self-induced act, about to shut down 
the functioning of the government of the United States of America. I 
find this shocking.
  I have been through this in the mid-1990s. It is deeply disturbing to 
the people who work for the Federal Government, who get up every day 
and go to their job trying to perform a service or a function they 
consider important to the United States, whether it is in 
transportation, protecting the environment, Federal law enforcement, 
important financial regulatory agencies, such as our consumer 
protection agency or our financial services or the Consumer Product 
Safety Commission in my own State, which protects us and particularly 
our children against harmful products.
  So there are those functions that are going to be shut down. You know 
what is going to be said to those people--to the men and women who work 
for the United States of America. Most of you are considered 
nonessential.
  That might be a witty throwaway line for a cable TV show, but I 
happen to think they are very essential and so does the rest of 
America.
  These people are performing very important functions to protect 
America.
  The House feels it protected America by passing a military pay bill. 
The Senate passed it by unanimous consent. But guess what. It still 
means almost 50 percent of the men and women who work at the Department 
of Defense will be furloughed tomorrow. They are going to be told they 
are nonessential. Who is essential to defense and who isn't? We 
certainly know our men and women who wear the uniform and who are in 
harm's way need to get their pay. They need to get their supplies. They 
need to get what they need to defend America, but they also need a 
fully functioning Department of Defense.
  I think there are other agencies that protect the United States, one 
of which is Federal law enforcement--whether it is the FBI, the Marshal 
Service, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and, yes, the Bureau of Alcohol, 
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. They put themselves in the line of 
fire too, along with our Customs and our Border Patrol agents, some of 
whom have already died. What about our prison guards who are there 
facing people who are ready to either kill them or break out or break 
them up at the first chance they can get.
  We don't have to pursue this route. Remember, this is self-induced. 
It is, as our President said, being induced by one faction in one party 
in one House of our government over one issue--not funding, but should 
we fund the President's Affordable Care Act. That is the law of the 
land. It is already in existence, and a good part of it will go into 
effect on October 1.
  When I talk about this, I am speaking from the standpoint of being 
the chair of the committee called the Appropriations Committee. That is 
the committee that puts money into the Federal checkbook. That Federal 
checkbook keeps the entire discretionary funding for the U.S. 
Government operating--and it is $1 trillion. Wow. What a number. Gasp. 
You know what. It is a big number, but it is a big country with big 
responsibilities.
  That is not the total funding of the Federal Government because there 
is mandatory spending. Mandatory spending is our Social Security 
benefits, our veterans' benefits, earned benefits--earned benefits. All 
of that is over several other trillion dollars. There is a dispute 
about how much the spending should be. That is an honest dispute. That 
is what funding disputes and resolutions should be about. I should be 
in a room right this very minute with my House counterpart, Congressman 
Hal Rogers, the Republican chairman, a fine, honorable man from 
Kentucky, and my Democratic counterpart Congresswoman Nita Lowey from 
New York, along with my vice chairman, Senator Richard Shelby, another 
fine Southern gentleman, a fiscal conservative, and we should be 
discussing that.
  But that is not what we are talking about. We are not talking about 
what is the House's number, what is the Senate's number, what is the 
best number to fund our government and do it in a way that is smart, 
effective, and frugal. Oh no. The big fight is over ObamaCare. That is 
not what it should be about. We have had something called continuing 
resolutions before. A continuing resolution should have another word in 
it--``funding.'' It is the continued funding resolution, and it is to 
keep government funded while we resolve our disputes.
  These resolutions were always, No. 1, short term, and No. 2, they 
focused on fiscal differences--where did we disagree on fiscal matters. 
And there is disagreement. The House marked up their bills primarily to 
$988 billion. That acknowledged that sequester is the new normal. We in 
the Senate marked up our bill, and the number we used was $1.058 
trillion. The number I used came from the Senate-passed budget bill 
under the chairmanship of Senator Patty Murray. So there is a $70 
billion difference between the House and the Senate, and that is an 
honest dispute.
  I am ready to negotiate with Congressman Rogers, but I am not ready 
to capitulate. What does capitulate mean? It means we don't even get to 
a number because we are fighting about ObamaCare. We should be 
discussing what is the way to do this. I am willing to see a compromise 
because my goal is that in December we will pass all of the funding 
bills, that we would have canceled sequester for 2 years, and we would 
have formed a compromise on a number that does reduce public debt--we 
acknowledge that--but that also makes public investments that create 
jobs and growth in our country. We would do that through 
transportation, research and development, and things we can also make 
and sell overseas. These are the kinds of things we want to invest in--
the physical infrastructure and human infrastructure, such as 
education, research and development. We want to have the kind of 
approach that is progrowth and a pro-American future. I want to get to 
that debate. I want to get to that discussion. I want to get to that 
conference. But I cannot get to it because we are fighting over 
ObamaCare.
  Somehow or another that term is supposed to be kind of a sarcastic 
thing, to call it ``ObamaCare.'' I think we need to respect the 
President of the United States. I like calling it the Affordable Care 
Act. But if people want to call it ObamaCare, let them do it. The 
President does care. He does care that 42 million people don't have 
health insurance and that we needed to reform our health care system to 
get more value for our dollar and get rid of

[[Page 14734]]

the punitive practices of insurance companies denying people health 
care on the basis of a preexisting condition and, by the way, as a 
consumer advocate the Chair knows this, charging women much more for 
insurance than men are charged of comparable age and health status.
  So I come to the floor tonight and I ask my House colleagues--I 
served in the House--please, let's stop the ideological amendments and 
get on to what appropriations are supposed to be, what a continuing 
resolution is supposed to be--a short-term approach. That is why I am 
recommending November 15, to get us to the point where we have 
compromise on fiscal matters--how can we end the sequester for 2 years, 
how can we pass all of our funding bills, and how can we come to a 
sensible compromise on the $70 billion difference between us.
  We have tried everything we know. Senator Murray worked very hard to 
pass the budget bill. We passed it in a marathon session, and I was 
proud of us. We worked hard. We had great debate. It was heartfelt and 
hard fought. But in the end, we had over 70 votes. Then Senator Murray 
did what the law requires. She said she wanted to go to conference, 
along with her vice chairman and ranking member Senator Sessions. But 
six Republican Senators objected. So we have yet to be able to even 
have a conference to get to the overall budget, which is about what our 
tax policy should be, our approach to mandatory spending, and a target 
number for me to reach with my appropriations members on both sides of 
the aisle.
  We never got to that. So we marked up our bills in appropriations. We 
followed the guidelines given to us by the Senate bill at $1.058 
trillion. We have been in frequent conversation--frequent 
conversation--with Congressman Rogers and Congresswoman Lowey. That is 
the way Senator Shelby and I work. We also have had frequent 
conversations. But we are talking to ourselves.
  So now I am talking to the American people. I think they want an 
orderly process. The Founders of our country said we would not be a 
government of personalities and plebiscites and wins and whims. We 
would be a government of institutions and laws and a process within our 
parliamentary form of government for resolving disputes.
  Let us get back to regular order. Let us pass a simple 
straightforward continuing resolution to keep the government open until 
November 15, with the direction that we end sequester, come up with a 
compromise on the funding, and, at the same time, be able to pass all 
of our bills. I think we can do it. I think there is the will. I think 
there is the wallet. We just need to find the way. The way for the 
House is to give us a plain straightforward bill. Let us pass it over 
here. Let us keep America open and let us keep America running.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, when defining insanity, Albert Einstein 
said: It is doing the same thing over and over and thinking you are 
going to get a different result.
  Einstein was a genius, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out the 
proof is watching the House Republicans because they have lost their 
minds. They keep trying to do the same thing over and over. They have 
voted to repeal ObamaCare 45 or 46 times. That is kind of a lot of 
repetition. Now they are trying to do it again.
  They just passed over there another piece of legislation to try and 
diffuse, defeat, and get rid of ObamaCare. But ObamaCare is the law. We 
had a couple of Republicans today come and talk about the Obama health 
care bill. That has long since passed. It is the law. Do I need to 
remind everyone again that the U.S. Supreme Court has said it is 
constitutional?
  The Speaker, instead of allowing all 435 Members of the House of 
Representatives to vote to keep the government open for business, is 
once again pushing for a government shutdown. I think this is what they 
want. Remember, they don't believe in government. So what is a real 
good way to hurt government? Shut it down.
  The House once again has attached ridiculous policy riders that are 
dead on arrival over here.
  I heard this story before--in fact, just 6 hours ago. Republicans are 
once again threatening to shut down the government unless Democrats 
repeal ObamaCare for 1 year. But, once again, we will not relitigate 
the health care debate or negotiate at the point of a gun. This time 
the House has attached a poisoned pill that would punish 16,000 
congressional staff. The amendment originally offered by the junior 
Senator from Louisiana would force congressional staff to cover the 
full cost of their health care.
  Think about this for a minute. Others have thought about it. The 
newspaper Politico said yesterday, perfectly explaining the hypocrisy 
of this approach:

       Some health care opponents claim the Obama administration 
     is giving members of Congress and their staffs special 
     treatment under the Affordable Care Act. The claim, which . . 
     . is simply false: Although they will be required to enroll 
     in health plans offered within the new health-insurance 
     exchanges under the law, members of Congress and their staffs 
     will not receive extra financial help to pay for their 
     medical care.
       In reality, it's the critics--as part of their ongoing 
     assault on the health care law--who are seeking special 
     treatment for Congress, by proposing to make members and 
     their staffs the only workers in the United States whose 
     employer is barred by law from helping to cover their 
     premiums.

  I repeat, in reality it is the critics--Politico said--as part of 
their ongoing assault on the health care law--who are seeking special 
treatment from Congress, by proposing to make members and their staffs 
the only workers in the United States whose employer is barred by law 
from helping to cover their premiums.
  Like other Americans who get their health care through their jobs, a 
portion of the cost of congressional staff health care premiums is 
currently covered by their employer. Their employer is the Federal 
Government. There are about 6 million of us. In other words, Members of 
Congress and congressional staff live by the same rules as other 
Americans and other Federal employees. As a matter of fact, all Members 
of Congress will be getting their health care on marketplace exchanges 
just like tens of millions of other Americans. Six hundred thousand 
Nevadans are now eligible. They will start signing up tomorrow. But 
House Republicans want to force our staff, who work so hard, to live by 
a different set of rules.
  Although many of these Republicans have gladly allowed the Federal 
Government to pay for a portion of their own health insurance, for 
years--decades, some of them--they now want to force 16,000 
congressional employees to cover the full cost of their health 
insurance.
  If Republican Senators believe they should bear the full cost of 
their own health insurance, they should decline the employer 
contribution and pay their own way. They should stop being 
hypocritical. They should practice what they preach. But punishing 
16,000 innocent congressional workers is simply mean-spirited.
  Speaker Boehner knows this new amendment won't last any longer than 
the last one, once it gets to the Senate; and it should be quick. The 
Senate will vote it down, and the House Republicans will be in the same 
pickle they are in right now--but with even less time left before the 
government shuts down.
  But there is still a way for the Speaker to get out of this quagmire, 
to get out of this ditch, this hole that they have dug for themselves. 
But I am not sure they want out of this hole, because common sense 
dictates, if you want to get out of the hole, stop digging deeper. But 
they do that. They are over there now figuring how glad they are the 
hole is deeper than it ever was. I believe there is a significant 
number--if not the majority--of the House Republicans who want the 
government to close.
  So here is what the Speaker should do to get out of this hole that he 
has dug: Let the House vote, all 435 Members, on the continuing 
resolution that we passed. We did it on Friday. We affirmed that this 
afternoon. Stop standing in the way, I say to the Speaker

[[Page 14735]]

John Boehner. Let the House work its will.
  If Speaker Boehner prevents the Senate bill from coming to the floor 
before midnight, the responsibility for this government shutdown is 
clearly a Republican government shutdown and will rest squarely on his 
shoulders, as all America knows.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I thank the majority leader for the 
statement he just made.
  It is hard to believe that we are a little over 3 hours away from 
shutting down the government of the United States of America. When you 
hear about this happening in foreign countries, you think: It is a 
shame they just aren't as stable and strong as our great democracy. Yet 
here we are, facing that possibility just a few hours from now, and it 
is through our own fault. It is the failure of leadership.
  I will tell you what we have done in the Senate. I think it is the 
right thing. We passed a clean CR, a clean budget bill. No political 
strings attached. None. We could have attached the immigration bill, 
the farm bill, a lot of possibilities there. None. A clean budget bill 
for America's government for the next 6 weeks, we sent it over to the 
House and said, just vote for this, and we don't have to shut down the 
government. They have said ``no'' repeatedly. And they are about to 
send us the third effort of the House, and it too will be defeated 
because they are obsessed with ObamaCare--obsessed with the Health Care 
Reform Act. More than obsessed. They are living in mortal fear of what 
is going to happen starting tomorrow.
  As we will see, across America they are going to announce the 
insurance exchanges in every State. People who have never had health 
insurance in their entire lives will have a chance to buy it. Some of 
it will be affordable for a lot of families. Some of it will be the 
first chance a family has had to buy health insurance.
  There was an article I read over the weekend in one of the Chicago 
papers about a family raising a child with mental illness. As a 
consequence, they have been disqualified every time they tried to buy 
health insurance. Nobody will insure them because their child suffers 
from mental illness. Guess what. As of tomorrow they will get a list of 
health insurance plans in their State they can buy. And it is in 
competition--in a marketplace--and they can choose from many different 
options. In my State of Illinois, there are 54 different options that 
we can choose from for our health insurance. It means for that family 
which has lived without health insurance because of the mental illness 
of their son, for the first time in their lives they will be able to 
buy health insurance.
  If one has ever lived as a parent with a sick child without health 
insurance, you will never forget it as long as you live. I know of what 
I speak. I was there and I remember it, and I will never forget it. 
When you finally get health insurance, you can breathe again knowing 
that, if something happens, you will get help in paying those medical 
bills. For some of these families, for a lifetime they have never had a 
chance.
  That is why the Republicans want to stop ObamaCare. They don't want 
these exchanges to be announced. They don't want people to see these 
options. They know what is going to happen: 40 million uninsured 
Americans are going to take to this because it gives them the first 
lifeline they have ever seen when it comes to health insurance. That is 
what it is all about, and that is why they fear it and hate it so much. 
It is going to work. It is going to give peace of mind to families. And 
we are never going back.
  We will change some of these provisions in this health care reform. 
Of course, we will. Anything this big is going to be changed, as it 
should be. Wisdom and experience is going to give us some ideas of how 
to make it better and stronger and work more fairly. That is why the 
Republicans are so determined to stop it tonight, before it can go into 
its first phase of advertising marketplaces tomorrow.
  They are going to fail, again. For the third time they are going to 
fail in just a few days with this House approach with strings attached.
  And there is one other element here. I am glad the majority leader 
raised it. People think that Members of Congress have these gilded 
health insurance plans, and the honest answer is we do have a pretty 
good health insurance plan. We go through what is known as the Federal 
Employees Health Benefits Program. Eight million Federal employees and 
their families, including Members of Congress and their staff, buy into 
it. It has been around for decades. It works well. My wife and I can 
choose from nine different health insurance plans in Illinois as 
Federal employees. We choose the big Blue Cross plan, and we pay the 
highest premium for it. But our employer pays a share of the premium. 
This is not a radical idea. One hundred fifty million Americans have 
exactly the same arrangement. They get their health insurance through 
their work, and their employer pays a portion of the health insurance 
premium.
  Now come the House Republicans and they have come up with a new idea.
  First, the requirement that Members of Congress and their staff buy 
insurance through the marketplace. It is OK with me. I have taken a 
look at the marketplace plans. They will cover my family just fine, 
thank you.
  Now they add the kicker. But, the Federal Government cannot pay for 
any of the premiums. Why? Because we know, under the health insurance 
marketplace small businesses with fewer than 50 employees can provide 
an employer contribution to their employee buying through that 
marketplace. It is in the law.
  So Members of Congress aren't being treated any differently when our 
employer--the Federal Government--pays part of our premium in the 
marketplace. That is all that the law says. They want to stop that. It 
isn't because of the injustice, because others are getting the same 
benefit and we are not getting special treatment. It is because they 
want to find a way to create some pain in the process.
  Senator Reid talked about 16,000 congressional workers and their 
family members. I am sure that number included their family members. 
They want to single them out and say that they get no employer 
contribution for their health insurance. Shame on them for coming up 
with this idea.
  To deny hard-working people--whether Members of Congress or our 
staff--the basic protection of health insurance without digging deeper 
into their pockets, is that their idea of making this a fairer, more 
just society? I don't think so.
  We are going to reject what the House is about to send over, and the 
clock is ticking. It will be a few hours left before midnight. There is 
an answer to this, though, an easy one.
  Right now, Speaker Boehner has in his power the ability to call a 
bill on the floor that will avoid the government shutdown. It is a bill 
passed in the Senate, a bill with no political strings attached, a 
simple extension of the government's budget for 6 weeks. He can do it. 
He can stop what otherwise will happen tomorrow morning, when agencies 
all across our Nation give notice to their Federal employees: Go home. 
We are shut down. It means hundreds of thousands of Federal employees 
tomorrow will be sent home and not paid for their day's work, and the 
things they do to make this a stronger country and to keep our 
government working will just come to a stop.
  The greatest Nation on earth shutting down its government on October 
1, 2013. It is totally unnecessary. It is a manufactured political 
crisis by tea party Republicans. We are hoping that some of our friends 
on the Republican side of the aisle--conservatives, moderate 
conservatives from all over the Nation--will join us.
  Let's spare this embarrassment for America. Let's allow those Federal 
workers to go to work tomorrow as they should and provide our country 
the services it needs. Let's get ready for health care reform and the 
marketplace, and let's let the American people be the judge as to 
whether it is right or not. I think it will be. But trying to

[[Page 14736]]

stop it in its tracks is just a fool's errand, as one of the Members of 
Congress on the Republican side described it.
  If the Speaker would call the spending bill that passed the Senate 
for a vote tonight in the House of Representatives, we can be spared 
this government shutdown.
  Madam President, I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, will my friend withhold for a question?
  Mr. DURBIN. I withhold.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, I was just speaking with my friend from 
Arizona, and I direct this question to my friend from Illinois.
  Nevada is not a heavily populated State as is Illinois, but we have a 
number of really beautiful systems that are part of our national park 
treasures.
  We have one, Lake Mead, which we all know about. We have about 15,000 
people visit there every day. That will close at 12:01 tonight. That is 
about 550,000 or 600,000 people a year. And Red Rock is a beautiful 
place. Tourists love it, just like we love Lake Mead. We have 1 million 
people a year come in.
  This is going to happen all over America. I mentioned just a couple 
of things in Nevada. I will bet my friend knows of national treasures 
in Illinois that will close. Is that true?
  Mr. DURBIN. I would say to the Senator from Nevada that we have 
50,000 Federal employees in Illinois, and we expect the majority of 
them to be sent home tomorrow. They are working in places such as the 
Rock Island Arsenal. Some of those employees will have to go home 
tomorrow morning. These are men and women who make the armaments 
America needs to be safe. The same will happen at Scott Air Force Base 
and at Great Lakes Naval Training Station. That is the reality.
  I might also add to the Senator, because of my responsibilities on 
the Appropriations Committee I was briefed this afternoon about the 
impact of a government shutdown on the intelligence agencies of the 
United States. I am not at liberty to give a number, but it is an 
amazingly large percentage of those working in intelligence agencies 
tomorrow who will be told to go home. These men and women are watching 
out for our safety and security, to guard against terrorism every 
single day. Because the government shuts down, they will be sent home. 
Not all of them; the military personnel involved will continue. But the 
nonmilitary personnel, many of them, thousands of them, will be sent 
home from work tomorrow. For what purpose? To make a political point 
about the power of Congress to shut down the government?
  It doesn't make us any safer as a nation. It certainly doesn't 
enhance our reputation. And it is not helping to build our economy. As 
the Senator from Nevada knows, we are making a recovery. It is slow. We 
have been told by the Business Roundtable, not necessarily an ally of 
the Democratic Party, that this tea party Republican strategy will be 
disastrous in terms of economic growth. I don't know if the word was 
calamitous or catastrophic or cataclysmic--whatever, it was one of 
those. They told us to do this will be damaging to this economy. Yet 
the House Republican leadership is hell-bent on getting this done, 
shutting down this government tonight.
  All they have to do is take what has passed the Senate, our budget 
proposal that has passed the Senate, and call it for a vote. If they 
call it for a vote, it will pass and they know it, and Speaker Boehner 
and the tea party Republicans live in fear of that possibility.
  I hope they come to their senses. This is about more than a political 
bragging point, more than tomorrow's headline. We can avoid shutting 
down this government.
  I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Kaine). The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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