[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14890]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

  (Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, GOP irresponsibility that led to the 
government shutdown is already having an impact across our country. I 
spent part of my day down at the World War II Memorial here in 
Washington. As the author of the bill that created the memorial--and we 
worked for 16 years from point of introduction to point of dedication 
in 2004--I witnessed an irony that Senators and Representatives who 
voted for the shutdown showed up today to remove the fence that was 
placed around the site because honor flights were coming in here.
  Around our country, veterans are still coming with those who sponsor 
them. I thought how ironic to see this, that they would have the gall 
to show up at a site that they voted to shutter last night.
  Knowing that honor flights are coming in from Ohio next week, I 
wondered where we would be. For the first time since the memorial was 
dedicated in 2004, do you know what, it was absent people, absent the 
American people. Last Sunday, we saw how crowded it was as the largest 
honor flight came in from the east coast.
  I just say to my colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle: Did 
you really want to do this? Don't the American people deserve better 
than that, a vacant site, a fenced site?
  It is time for our colleagues to wake up and not think about their 
party or themselves, but think about the American people.

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