[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 15091]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1700
                     REOPEN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

  (Mrs. CHRISTENSEN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Yesterday I spoke about the damage to the St. John 
economy because the national park is closed. Like everyone's district--
Republican and Democrat--the damage is growing exponentially with every 
day this continues. By not putting a clean CR to a vote, the House 
leadership is preventing pregnant women and babies from getting 
important nutritional support.
  The gentleman who called me on a radio program on Tuesday can't get 
help from us with USDA loans because USDA offices are closed. Our work 
with SBA offices, to help our small businesses, are on hold. And the 
town halls with GSA on Federal contracting with local businesses will 
be put off.
  My community is already in economic distress, and this shutdown is 
making it worse. I'm proud to have one of the best National Guard units 
in the country. I'm a member of the American Legion Auxiliary and avid 
supporter of NIH. But the bills that are being passed here only pretend 
to help these entities while imposing damaging cuts.
  The ACA is law. Get over it. Let's stop this divide and conquer 
piecemeal approach. Let's vote on a clean measure to reopen the offices 
of the Federal Government to ensure Federal workers can pay their 
bills. And let's make sure the Federal Government will pay its debt 
too.

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