[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14909-14914]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, there were two headlines in most of the 
major newspapers across the United States this morning. I saw it in 
Financial Times as well as the Wall Street Journal. The headlines 
noted: ``Americans flock to insurance exchanges.''
  It was the first day when we had the rollout of the Web site where 
uninsured Americans had an opportunity to shop--real competition, a 
variety of plans. Illinois has 54 choices for uninsured people. This is 
a dream come true. Most of these people have lived their entire lives 
either without health insurance or with no choice, a take-it-or-leave-
it policy that may be worthless when they need it. These are situations 
where many of them never once in their lives were able to be insured 
when it came to health insurance. There were a lot of reasons for it. 
Some of them had jobs that paid so little, offered no benefits, and 
they couldn't afford to buy health insurance. Some of them had 
preexisting conditions or perhaps a history of asthma in their family, 
diabetes, cancer survivors. They

[[Page 14910]]

couldn't buy health insurance if they wanted to. It wasn't even 
offered.
  Yesterday was different. October 1 was different as 2.8 million 
Americans came on the first day to this Web site to go shopping for 
health insurance. What a relief it must have been.
  The Chicago papers told the story of a man who had just about given 
up hope because he had a child with a mental illness and because of 
that he could never buy health insurance. He was shopping yesterday. He 
was disappointed. He wanted to sign up yesterday, but so many people 
came to this Web site the first day that it wasn't able to meet all of 
the needs of the people who were shopping, or wanted to.
  It will. There will be an opportunity. I am sure it will be soon.
  I can't get over when I hear the Republican leader come to the floor 
and, with barely disguised glee, talk about the first day's problems 
with the Affordable Care Act. There is no question that many 
Republicans are not only praying for the Affordable Care Act to fail, 
they are betting on it.
  None of them voted for it, not one. Not a single Republican voted for 
it. They are frightened--frightened at what is to come when the verdict 
of history comes down on this program. I think I know what the verdict 
will be. There will be some bumps in the road, glitches, maybe, some 
problems with the Web site. But in the end the American people 
understand the fundamental fairness of the Affordable Care Act; the 
fundamental fairness that said, yes, we have a right as Americans to 
health care protection. I believe we do and we should.
  I have lived the life, a good one, but I had a moment in that life 
when I had no health insurance. I was a brandnew father with a brandnew 
baby with medical challenges and no health insurance. I have never felt 
more helpless in my life, praying that my little girl would get the 
best when I didn't have health insurance.
  Multiply that times 40 million uninsured Americans and understand 
what is at stake. Those on the other side who are opposed to affordable 
care don't want to extend the helping hand of health insurance to those 
who have been denied for years. They don't have anything to replace it 
with. Stick with the current free market system.
  Forty million Americans have been left behind with this current 
system. That is why I supported the Affordable Care Act. This is why 
the President is fighting for the Affordable Care Act. This is why we 
have to continue to fight every single day to make sure it is not 
defunded, as the Republicans tried to do only a few days ago, to make 
sure the coverage for individuals is not delayed as the Republicans 
tried to do only a few days ago.
  No, we have to fight to make sure Americans have this chance. There 
is no turning back when it comes to offering health insurance to 
families who desperately need it.
  What are the Republicans prepared to bet on this wager to end the 
Affordable Care Act and health care reform? They are willing to bet the 
Federal Government. They are willing to shut it down over the 
Affordable Care Act.
  Harry Reid, our Democratic leader, told the story that was reported 
in the Wall Street Journal that the National Institutes of Health--not 
far from here, in the near suburbs of Maryland and which is a beacon of 
hope--this is where some of the most important medical research in the 
world is taking place. The head of NIH, Dr. Francis Collins, may be one 
of the most extraordinary people who has ever been involved in public 
service. He was head of the National Genome Project. They said it would 
probably take him 5, 6, or 8 years. He was so good and had so much 
talent that he did it in a very brief period of time--mapping the human 
genome. In doing so, he started opening doors to understanding, 
knowledge, and finding cures. He took that back to the NIH and they 
apply it every single day to save lives and find cures.
  For the second day in a row, three-quarters of the scientists, 
doctors, and researchers at NIH sit at home, unable to engage in this 
critically important research, unable to find the new drugs, new 
surgeries, new medical devices, and the new procedures to save lives.
  That is part of the Republican government shutdown. Oh, they may 
congratulate themselves on finally bringing this government to its 
knees, but they have to take responsibility for what they have done as 
well. They have shut down the National Institutes of Health. They have 
shut down medical research. It is worse because the toughest medical 
cases in America end up at the doorsteps of NIH. These are the most 
challenging medical conditions, families and people who have just about 
given up hope and think there is one last place to go, NIH, the very 
best.
  Yesterday Dr. Francis Collins announced that 200 people who would 
have started clinical trials this week at the NIH were turned away 
because of the government shutdown. Within that population of 200, 30 
were children, most of them cancer victims. Imagine for a moment that 
you are the mother or father of a child diagnosed with cancer and have 
one last hope, the National Institutes of Health. It may be a great 
personal sacrifice for you and your family to pick up and come out 
here, but you are going to do it. It is your baby. Then when you arrive 
at the door of the NIH there is a sign that says: This agency is 
closed.
  Why is it closed? Some national emergency, some disaster, some 
crisis? No. It was a manufactured political temper tantrum coming from 
the tea party, Speaker Boehner, and those who believe this is the right 
way to go.
  Excuse me if this example is so stark, but I haven't even begun to go 
into the details. I would invite any family who has been a victim of 
this government shutdown at NIH or any other medical facility, come to 
my Facebook page, my Twitter account. Send me a message and tell me 
your story. I wish to come to the floor and tell that story too.
  People shouldn't disappear into the shadows as we make all this noise 
over this political debate. They ought to be front and center. Please 
share your story if you wish. I know it is a matter of privacy and 
confidentiality. If you don't want to, I certainly understand.
  This is what it has come down to. Yesterday, for example, in the 
House they said: Oh, we are going to open the Veterans' Administration. 
Senator Cruz has made a decision he is going to pick and choose the 
agencies to reopen. We will start with the Veterans' Administration. In 
other words, as former Speaker Pelosi said, they are going to release 
one hostage at a time when it comes to our Federal Government.
  But what Senator Cruz and the tea party Republicans failed to 
acknowledge is of the 800,000 Federal employees who have been 
furloughed, over 500,000 are veterans. They are out of work. If they 
care about the veterans, put this government back to work, put 500,000 
of our veterans back to work. Incidentally, one out of four of them is 
disabled, disabled veterans put off the payroll and furloughed. There 
is no promise they will ever be paid because of this tea party 
government shutdown.
  We have serious challenges facing America, but we need to reopen this 
government now. Now. There are no excuses. Speaker Boehner sits there 
with a bill that he could bring before the House by 11 o'clock this 
morning. They could vote on it and the word would go out before noon 
that the government is reopened. That is how quickly he can act. It is 
there, but he won't call it for a vote.
  What is he afraid of? Why won't he call this measure for a vote 
before the House? He knows it will pass because every Democrat will 
vote for it and moderate Republicans will step up and vote for it.
  The only hope we have to end this tea party Republican crisis is if 
moderate Republicans will step forward now and say we are not part of 
this strategy. We want this government open. We are prepared to face 
all the challenges that follow, but we are not going to move forward at 
the expense of patients coming to the National Institutes of Health.
  This is only one example. There are many more just like it.
  I would say this in closing. Once again the Republican leaders come 
to

[[Page 14911]]

the floor and mention the fact that Members of Congress will be in the 
insurance exchanges, the same insurance changes that were advertised 
yesterday for the first time. To give a moment of reflection in 
history, we are in the insurance exchanges because of an amendment 
offered by a Republican Senator, Senator Grassley. This is an amendment 
which was part of the Affordable Care Act, which passed. We will be 
buying insurance, the same kinds of policies, exactly the same kinds of 
policies offered to all Americans on the exchanges. There are no 
special favors for Members of Congress.
  Now we hear an objection from Senator McConnell to the employer's 
contribution for our staff and for Members of Congress. Over half of 
the American people get their health insurance through their place of 
employment. Virtually all of them have employer contributions that help 
them pay their monthly premiums. The same thing is true for Federal 
employees. The same thing is true for Members of Congress. The same 
thing will be true when it comes to the insurance exchanges. There is 
no special treatment of Members of Congress. The notion that we can't 
have an employer's contribution when it comes to the insurance 
exchanges is flatout wrong. A business with fewer than 50 employees, 
for example, can send their employees to the exchanges and continue to 
contribute to their premiums. It is already accepted under law so there 
is no special treatment in this. It is only another diversion.
  Trying to find ways to create chaos and uncertainty when it comes to 
the Affordable Care Act is the message of the Republican Party. 
Unfortunately, it is being delivered at the expense of 800,000 
furloughed Federal employees, the services this government offers, and 
200 people turned away this week for clinical trials at the National 
Institutes of Health.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican whip.
  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I listened with great interest to the 
comments of the distinguished deputy Democratic majority leader.
  I was reminded of a radio commentator, who perhaps is not remembered 
as frequently now, but when I grew up, he had a radio show where when 
he started out he would say: And now for the rest of the story.
  I wish to offer the rest of the story. I listened as Senator Durbin 
spoke about the fact that the National Institutes of Health is not open 
for business. The good news is that Republicans and Democrats both 
agree that we should reopen the National Institutes of Health. In fact, 
it is my understanding that the House of Representatives will pass a 
bill perhaps as early as today and send it over to the Senate.
  I hope Senator Reid, unlike over the last few days where he has 
killed every reasonable offer by the House of Representatives, will 
reconsider and he will not kill that funding for the National 
Institutes of Health during this partial government shutdown.
  There are some other areas where I think we could work together. 
Senator Reid knew that Republicans were going to come to the floor and 
try to make sure that our uniformed military continued to get their 
full pay on time during this impasse of Congress. Like the good 
politician he is, he actually beat us to the punch. He came down here 
first and made the same offer. The good news is there was bipartisan 
support for funding our troops in full, our uniformed military, on a 
timely basis during this impasse.
  This has been sort of a surreal experience in so many ways because my 
friends on the other side of the aisle have been making what I consider 
to be some very strange arguments. The argument they have been making 
is that President Obama's health care law, the Affordable Care Act, 
otherwise known as ObamaCare, is untouchable, and that our efforts to 
modify it in any way are illegitimate. Their favorite word is 
``extreme'' or the product of some effort by the tea party Republicans 
or some other disparaging connotation.
  I am not sure exactly how to respond except to say this: If ObamaCare 
is untouchable, if the Obama administration is perfect, if we can't 
change one word and one sentence about ObamaCare, then you need to tell 
the Obama administration. Since 2010, the administration has granted 
more than 1,000 different waivers to its friends and political allies. 
It suspended all work on a large portion of ObamaCare known as the 
CLASS Act. It has delayed ObamaCare's basic health program and delayed 
the employer mandate. When we tried to delay the individual mandate so 
average Americans get the same sort of consideration from this 
administration that employers get, that businesses get, we were told 
this is an unreasonable request. Senator Reid tabled that, in essence 
killing that provision rather than taking it up and embracing it and 
saying: You know what. If employers get a break for 1 year, then let's 
give average Americans a break.
  The Obama administration has likewise delayed the eligibility 
verification for the exchanges. It started yesterday. In other words, 
you can apply for one of these insurance exchanges, but you don't have 
to prove what your income is. If there is a bigger open invitation for 
fraud, I am not aware of what it might be. But that is what the Obama 
administration has done, delayed the eligibility verification for the 
Obama exchanges, and they have delayed the cap on out-of-pocket 
expenses.
  In short, the Obama administration has, by its very actions, 
demonstrated that ObamaCare is not perfect. The administration itself, 
by its own actions, has acknowledged ObamaCare is not ready for prime 
time.
  This became painfully obvious to millions of Americans yesterday when 
the ObamaCare exchanges encountered widespread problems on its first 
day of operation. The President calls these glitches--glitches, a nice 
poll-tested, fairly benign-sounding word. But these were systemic 
failures of the ObamaCare exchanges yesterday when they came online--
obviously, not ready for prime time.
  Meanwhile, there have been other changes in this perfect, inviolable, 
can't-change-a-word ObamaCare. While the Supreme Court, we certainly 
acknowledge, has upheld major portions of ObamaCare, it is important to 
remember it declared a major piece of the law--the compulsory expansion 
of Medicaid--as unconstitutional. Unconstitutional: incompatible with 
our fundamental law of the land. Does that sound like a law that is 
perfect, can't be changed?
  Let me give another example. During the ObamaCare debate, Democrats 
voted on a party-line vote to impose a medical device tax on medical 
device manufacturers. It is not based on their income, it is based on 
their gross receipts or how much money comes in the door, before they 
even deduct their cost of doing business and their overhead. So they 
would actually have to pay taxes without it generating any net income 
because of the nature of this tax. This is a job-killing tax.
  I have had constituents come into my office and say: We have 
operations in Costa Rica, so we are going to have to move jobs we would 
create in Dallas to Costa Rica because of this job-killing medical 
device tax. You know what. Medical devices are some of the most 
innovative parts of our health care system. How better to discourage 
medical innovation and lifesaving discoveries and manufacturing than to 
impose this gross receipts tax on medical devices.
  That is not just my opinion. The last time we had a debate on the 
budget resolution, 79 Senators voted against the medical device tax 
because they realized it was a terrible mistake in this law we are told 
today, yesterday, and the day before is perfect in every way, wouldn't 
change a thing. But Senate Democrats are now lining up to repeal the 
medical device tax. Somehow, in a schizophrenia I don't quite 
understand, other Democrats are saying an attempt to do that would 
represent partisan extremism. Which is it? I think the American people 
know.
  I am not sure exactly how our friends on the other side of the aisle 
define extremism, but I would submit that very few extreme ideas gain 
the support of

[[Page 14912]]

79 Senators in the Senate on a bipartisan basis. How is it extreme to 
delay ObamaCare's individual mandate when the administration has 
unilaterally done the same thing for businesses? How is it extreme to 
ask Members of Congress to live by the same laws that apply to everyone 
else?
  The majority leader, Senator Reid, tabled two amendments to the 
continuing resolution that would change this special carve-out for 
Congress that would provide a delay of the individual mandate for 
average Americans, such as the administration has already done for 
businesses, and we are told that is extreme; that somehow we are the 
ones who caused the government shutdown.
  I am absolutely convinced President Obama and Harry Reid think this 
shutdown is the best thing that ever happened to them politically in 
recent memory. So rather than come out and tell sympathetic stories 
about what is happening at NIH, let's work together to mitigate some of 
the hardship and inconvenience. Let's talk about working through this 
impasse. Why can't we get the President to do what he reportedly 
intended to do in the first place, which is to convene a meeting at the 
White House with Republicans and Democrats to work through this? They 
are not just refusing to negotiate big compromises, they are refusing 
any compromise. It is my way or the highway.
  They will not even agree to keep the war memorials open for our Honor 
Flights coming to Washington, DC. I would urge the majority leader and 
President Obama to join with us in passing a bill today that would keep 
our war memorials open.
  My father was a World War II veteran. He is dead now, but he was a B-
17 pilot in World War II. On his 26th bombing mission, he was shot down 
and captured as a prisoner of war. My father-in-law landed on Utah 
Beach the second day of the Normandy invasion. He is 95 years old now. 
His mind is still sharp, his body not quite what it used to be. He 
would love nothing better than to come to Washington, DC, on one of 
these Honor Flights. Unfortunately, his health will not allow him to do 
it.
  The chairman of the Honor Flight Network, James McLaughlin, has said:

       It is beyond belief that those deserving men and women who 
     have waited decades to see their memorial and were selected 
     for this trip of a lifetime, to discover they may not be able 
     to see their memorial.

  For many of them, this may be the last time they get during their 
lifetime. I would ask that the President cancel his trip to Asia--he is 
leaving on Saturday--to overrule Senator Reid and convene that meeting 
at the White House and come together to try and work through some of 
these differences.
  We can fund NIH. We could do it today if Senator Reid and President 
Obama would allow it. But, no, instead, we are told it is my way or the 
highway. We actually like this shutdown, they are saying to themselves, 
because they think they are winning politically. But they are not 
winning politically when the American people are the net losers.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from New York.
  Mr. SCHUMER. My good friend, whom I saw in the gym this morning, 
sometimes stretches credulity. Who shut down the government? Was it 
Harry Reid? No. He kept passing messages to keep the government going. 
Was it Barack Obama? No. We all know who it was. It was the small band 
of tea party people in the House. It was his junior colleague in the 
Senate, Ted Cruz, who had the idea of shutting down the government.
  As Leader Reid said yesterday, we are not in 1984. Truth has some 
degree of credulity. For my colleague from Texas to get up and say: 
Harry Reid and Barack Obama open the government, when his junior 
colleague led the charge to shut it down, when the cries of the tea 
party are ``shut it down,'' and we are desperately trying to keep it 
open makes no sense and it is not going to wash.
  One of the amazing things about our politics is how rhetoric has 
become so detached from reality, and then we have talk radio and some 
of the networks, FOX News, that repeat it. I saw a cartoon in the New 
York Post yesterday saying that Senators and Congressmen are exempt 
from ObamaCare. That is just not true. We are part of ObamaCare, and we 
will join the exchange--I will and so will my colleagues--because that 
is what they have to do.
  But that doesn't even matter. The hard right is so angry at ObamaCare 
and, frankly, at President Obama and the fact he just trounced them in 
2012 in an election that was run on their issues. They are so angry and 
white hot that their rhetoric just becomes totally detached from 
reality and totally detached from the truth.
  I feel badly for the veterans who couldn't get to the memorial. But 
why was the government shut down? Because Speaker Boehner and the House 
wouldn't keep it open. Senator Cornyn and many other Republicans paved 
the way for us to open the government with a vote to allow us to go 
forward. That got 25 Republicans, even though Ted Cruz, his junior 
colleague, was urging him not to vote that way. That was the right 
vote. We know that. He knew, Senator Cornyn did, to his credit, that 
shutting down the government was bad. So on the one procedural vote 
that mattered, where he could have had the Senate say shut down the 
government, he voted the other way.
  The real onus here is on Speaker Boehner. The entire focus of this 
debate should be on Speaker Boehner. Some might say it should be on Mr. 
Cruz, the Senator from Texas. Some might say it should be on the 30 or 
40 hard-line tea party people in the House. But in my view it is the 
Speaker of the House who has the responsibility not to listen to a 
small faction of his party when so much is at stake. Instead, Speaker 
Boehner seems to be listening to the junior Senator from Texas. The 
junior Senator from Texas has become the de facto Speaker of the House. 
If he says jump, the House jumps.
  The junior Senator wanted the House to embark on a crusade to defund 
ObamaCare, so the Speaker, Speaker Boehner, did it. The junior Senator 
from Texas told the House to delay ObamaCare for 1 year, so the 
Speaker, Speaker Boehner, did it. Now this junior Senator from Texas is 
telling the House to pass piecemeal bills in a cynical attempt to pit 
important programs against each other, and now the Speaker is trying to 
do just that.
  Senator Cruz has driven Speaker Boehner to pit kids who should be 
enrolled in Head Start against kids who should be enrolled in cancer 
trials. He has driven the Speaker to pick families who want to visit 
the Statue of Liberty against families who own a small business and 
need help from the SBA. He has pitted research and cancer against 
health care for our veterans.
  It is a cynical strategy. Similar to all the others they have sent us 
and that have failed, as these will fail today, it has one purpose: not 
to get anything done but to try and wiggle out of this view that they 
have shut down the government. Senator Cornyn's rhetoric will not work. 
It is too far detached from reality.
  So Speaker Boehner tries to come up with these gizmos, these 
gimmicks, these legislative ploys to say: Hey, I am trying to do 
something. At the same time he is in the vice grip of the tea party 
members of the House who are taking their orders from the junior 
Senator from Texas.
  There is a simple way to open the government, I would say to my 
friend--and he is my friend, Senator Cornyn of Texas--and my other 
colleagues on the Republican side in the House.
  There is a bill sitting there waiting for a vote. It will open NIH, 
it will open the Veterans' Administration, it will open the World War 
II memorial, it will open the Statue of Liberty so the guy with the 
little sandwich shop right by the Statue of Liberty can get some 
business back. Make no mistake about it: This crisis doesn't just hurt 
the Federal Government. It doesn't even just hurt 800,000 families who 
aren't getting the paychecks on which they depend. This is not 
abstract. It hurts lots of private sector people as well, whether they 
be construction workers building a road using Federal dollars or

[[Page 14913]]

the veteran waiting for that disability claim to come through or the 
guy with the sandwich shop next to the closed Statue of Liberty who is 
making those sandwiches. It is not abstract. I get a little resentful 
when I hear my colleagues talk about the Federal Government as if it is 
some big ogre; shut it down.
  If you watched Rachel Maddow the other night, she had a variety of 
tea party congressmen who were running for the Congress in 2010 who 
said they were going to shut the government down. I think it was 
Congressman Mulvaney of South Carolina who said: When I get to 
Congress, I am going to shut the government down. And the tea party 
audience cheered and said ``shut it down'' before they even had a plan 
because they hate the Federal Government so much. That is the goal, to 
shut it down. ObamaCare is an excuse.
  Mainstream Republicans know that shutting the government down is a 
bad thing and know that they are indeed paying a political price. So 
Speaker Boehner should follow the majority and stop being scared of the 
tea party. He will face them down easily in a challenge for Speaker. 
Speaker Boehner knows, as the ``National Review'' said this morning, 
that more than 100 House Republicans would vote for our bill to reopen 
the government if he put it on the floor. Instead, Republicans are 
wasting time on political stunts in asking to go to conference on a 
short-term CR.
  The Republicans have this exactly backward. They say: Let's talk, and 
then maybe we will open the government. They ought to say: We will open 
the government, and then we can talk. If Republicans would simply 
switch all the lights back on, allow hundreds of thousands of 
furloughed Federal employees to go back to work, allow cancer research 
to continue, veterans to get their disability claims, kids to go back 
into Head Start, we could have a discussion about the budget, which 
they rejected 18 times.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Washington.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I woke up this morning feeling like I 
think most Americans feel today--pretty disappointed in the antics of 
Washington, DC.
  As my colleague from New York just pointed out, we all know why we 
are here: Speaker Boehner and the Republicans in the House demanded a 
ransom in order to keep our government open, and their ransom was to 
repeal a law they do not support--ObamaCare. They made it very clear 
that the government was going to shut down. My constituents in 
Washington State who were supposed to go to work today--thousands of 
them--aren't going to get their paychecks because of that ransom. They 
made it very clear that they were not going to open the government over 
a policy about which they care passionately.
  I have to say that I started my morning this morning talking to a 
number of businesspeople involved in the construction industry in the 
State of Washington. They told me that this uncertainty, this crisis, 
this shutdown of government is impacting their small businesses at home 
in the State of Washington because who is going to sign a contract to 
build something new when it is so unclear where our economy is going to 
be as a result of this shutdown and the looming debt ceiling crisis. So 
they are seeing a real retraction of their own businesses right now--
not because of the government funding of a program or anything else 
that is ongoing or in dispute but because of this shutdown today.
  Just a few minutes ago, on the other end of a spectrum, I talked to 
some moms and dads in Head Start from my home State of Washington. A 
young mom from Bremerton, WA, who has a 2-year-old daughter, told us 
that a few years ago she was on the streets, homeless, a victim of an 
abusive partner, and because of Head Start and the wraparound services 
they provide, they found her a place to stay and got her and her child 
involved in early childhood education. Because of that support and an 
early Head Start program, now 2 years later she is back at school 
working on her degree, her daughter is doing well, and she is back on 
track.
  Thousands of moms and dads such as her exist across the country 
today, with a helping hand at the right moment from the right program. 
But because of sequestration and now because of the government 
shutdown, we are telling moms and dads such as her: Sorry, we are not 
going to be there for you.
  I happen to be a very passionate advocate for early childhood 
education. I was a former preschool teacher. I am using my skills as a 
preschool teacher right now. I think all of our colleagues could learn 
a lot from those kinds of skills. No bullying; it is my turn to talk; 
be reasonable; teach our children to play well in the sandbox. Those 
are lessons we teach in preschool. I think we could all learn from 
that.
  I think about that, and I think about those Head Start kids and the 
children whom I taught before and who are not being taught now because 
of the sequestration. What lesson are we giving them--that if I don't 
get my way right now about a bill I fought against and voted against 
and an election was run and won on, but I lost, and I am so mad that I 
am not going to let you have anything else because I am just so 
entrenched in that. That is not a lesson we should teach our kids.
  Let's look at the other side of that argument. What if I came out 
here and said: I am so passionate about funding early childhood 
education because I know the research and what a difference it makes 
and I know what that investment will do for our country not just for 
today but for 10 or 20 years, and if I don't get my way to make sure 
every child in this country has that start, this government is going to 
shut down. That is not the way we run a country. I adamantly and 
passionately fight for any cause I believe in. Any legislator here can. 
But the way you get your way isn't to hold the country hostage.
  We have a country that is counting on us to be responsible adults and 
to come to the table and work out our disagreements between each other. 
And they are large, there is no doubt about that, but you don't do it 
by hurting every family, every neighborhood, every community, every 
part of this country by holding this country hostage.
  We have a responsibility. It is to pass a clean continuing 
resolution. It is to get our government working again. It is to tell 
people they are going to get their paychecks. We are going to 
responsibly do that, and then we, as Members of Congress, are going to 
take our differences to a negotiating table and hammer them out. I may 
want $1 million for something. My House counterparts may say no. We may 
meet in the middle. I may say: I didn't get my way; OK, you got yours. 
That is what you do in a conference committee. You don't do it by 
holding your country hostage.
  So we say to Speaker Boehner today: Open the government. Let 
everybody go back to work. Don't hold our economy hostage. And we will 
then sit down with you and work out our disagreements, as the Presiding 
Officer knows we have asked 18 times now to do and have been told, no, 
we are not going to let you go to that negotiating table, we are not 
going to let you talk--by the same people who want this government 
shutdown.
  I find myself in a very odd place where we have a country that is 
closed for business. We are sending a very bad message and lesson to 
the children of this country that we can't work and play well together, 
that we can't even disagree together in an admirable way. And we are 
doing it while people are getting hurt.
  Speaker Boehner, open the country again, open our economy again and 
agree to work out our differences the way responsible adults should do.
  My understanding is, after trying all kinds of different ways to 
appease some of his Members with all kinds of different proposals, the 
latest proposal is to send us over piecemeal pieces of legislation. 
Well, OK. We feel bad about the veterans--and we all do. I am the 
biggest veterans advocate in here. We will take care of them now. And, 
oh gosh, some of our constituents are mad

[[Page 14914]]

because they have flown out here and the national museums aren't open, 
so we will open those, and on and on, whatever the cause of the day is. 
I guarantee that if we began to pass those piecemeal pieces of 
legislation, my moms and dads in Head Start would be at the end of the 
line and would never get funded. I am standing up for them today and 
saying: You are first in line too.
  We are all in this together. We need the government open--all of our 
agencies. Everybody gets a chance and an opportunity in this country. 
And we are going to stick together and say to Speaker Boehner: Pass a 
clean CR, and then allow this country and this government and the 
American way of life to function as our forefathers said--by sitting 
down at a negotiating table and working out our differences. That is 
what I have asked for as chair of the Budget Committee 18 times now. It 
is what we need to say we are going to do again but not while our 
country is shut down, not while my families in Head Start are held 
hostage, not while our small businesses are held hostage, not while 
everybody in this country is looking at us, wondering how we ever got 
to this.
  Open the government, and let's be responsible legislators. That is 
what I came here to do. I certainly know it is what the Presiding 
Officer came to do. And let's tell the kids in this country who are 
watching us today that this country can function, we can work as 
adults, and we have a responsibility to do that--here and abroad.
  Madam President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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