[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 15063-15064]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             REOPENING OUR NATION'S MONUMENTS AND MEMORIALS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
South Carolina (Mr. Sanford) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SANFORD. Mr. Speaker, I have been a runner all my life. I ran in 
high school and college, and it has always been my way of sort of 
clearing my head. Sometimes I clearly haven't run enough.
  Over the years, during my roughly 20 years in and out of Washington, 
I have made it a tradition of running down the Mall, down to the 
Lincoln Memorial. I have been down at the Lincoln Memorial on those 
runs in the dead of night when there was not a soul down there. I have 
been down there at sunrise when there was nobody there. I have been 
there on a summer afternoon when it seemed like every tourist from this 
country and every tourist from around this world was gathered there.
  But yesterday I went for an evening run after votes, and I saw 
something I have never seen before, because as I ran down the Mall, I 
got to the World War II Memorial and it was chained up. Mind you, this 
is an open-air rock memorial dedicated to the sacrifice of so many 
soldiers there in World War II, an open-air rock memorial.
  But I continued only with my run, and I got down to the Lincoln 
Memorial, and to my amazement that thing was chained up too. I was so 
agitated in seeing this that I turned to a tourist and I said, You got 
to be kidding me. Would you take a picture of that? And it was actually 
a family from Shanghai, China, here halfway around the world. They took 
the picture, and they emailed it to me last night and it is an amazing 
shot.
  As you can see there, the Lincoln Memorial, two guards. Now, mind 
you, I have been there many times when nobody was there, no security 
guard, nobody. And yet in this instance you have chains around it, two 
police cars, simply to keep people out of one of the great memorials to 
freedom in our country.
  It just strikes me that that is a picture of political gamesmanship 
and hostage taking, and I would say respectfully, Mr. President, you 
have gone too far on this one. At the time of the sequester, you ended 
school tours to the White House. Now, mind you, not since Jefferson's 
time and war has the people's House, the White House, been shut down 
for public tours. But you used that as a political tool to somehow gain 
advantage in the sequester that still exists so kids from 8th grade may 
take their one trip to Washington, D.C., and can't go to the White 
House because you think it will gain political favor. And I see the 
same thing going on with this.
  So let's agree that we disagree. We agree that we as Republicans 
think we ought to be spending less. You and Harry Reid think we ought 
to be spending more. I think the Congressional Budget numbers are on 
our side. They say that in just 12 years we are only going to have 
enough money to

[[Page 15064]]

pay for interest and entitlements and nothing else, and in that regard 
this is just a sneak preview of much more damaging things to come if we 
don't get our financial house in order.
  But I would say it is okay to have disagreements, but it is not okay 
to hold, I guess, citizens hostage and try to maximize and inflict pain 
in their ability to do normal things, particularly when the House has 
offered four different bites at the apple in keeping the government 
open and particularly when just last night bills were sent to Harry 
Reid that would have kept government open, would have kept the Park 
Service open, would have kept groups like NIH open.
  I think this is really important. Reagan once said there at the 
Brandenburg Gate to Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall; and I would say 
to you Mr. President, take down the chains. Take down the walls to 
these open-air memorials to freedom. This is not the National Archives 
where things could be taken or stolen. These are open-air memorials. 
This is ridiculous political gamesmanship. I was Governor for eight 
years. I have been an executive. I know that you can do this, and I 
would ask that you do so.
  I am going to go for my evening run, 5:30, 6 o'clock. I would invite 
every one of you all up there in the gallery to come join me at the 
Lincoln Memorial. I would ask listeners out there to join me at the 
Lincoln Memorial. I will talk to Representative Palazzo from 
Mississippi and Michele Bachmann and others who gathered there at the 
World War II Memorial. This has gotten out of control with regard to 
this degree of political gamesmanship by Harry Reid and by the 
President.
  So I would just ask that you take another look at that picture, think 
about what it means, think about the sacrifice that has been made that 
is ultimately about what these memorials are founded on, and why can't 
we do something about it, Mr. President. I would ask you to do so.
  I would invite folks for a 5:30 or 6 o'clock run down at the Lincoln 
Memorial.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair reminds Members that they are to 
direct their remarks to the Chair.

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