[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 15116-15117]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS

  Mr. REID. I want to remind everyone listening that yesterday and 
today, the Capitol remains closed to most business. The Federal 
Government remains closed. In the newspaper today, it lists all of the 
layoffs. Today it has a graph of those in the administration area--not 
the legislative or judicial but in the administration. We have tens of 
thousands of public servants who are not furloughed, but they are 
working, including law enforcement officials, without pay. A number of 
people yesterday were out there risking their lives without pay. There 
are hundreds of thousands more, such as intelligence

[[Page 15117]]

officers, to keep the Nation safe, who have been forced to leave their 
jobs, forgo their paychecks altogether.
  Because of these furloughs, the Capitol Police, the FBI, and other 
Federal law enforcement agencies face additional risk, as they are 
asked to do their jobs with limited manpower and without the support 
they can typically depend on.
  Congress owes it to them and to every American family to get past our 
differences, work through our disagreements, and work toward reopening 
the Federal Government. It is hard to comprehend what is going on. This 
is all because of President Obama's signature legislative issue that we 
were so fortunate to pass, to allow all Americans to have health care, 
as is the case in every industrialized nation in the world except our 
Nation.
  We have as many as 45 million or 50 million people with no health 
insurance. I would hope my Republican colleagues understand the bill is 
4 years old, it has been declared constitutional by the Supreme Court, 
it is in effect. Millions of people have gone on line this week to find 
out what they can do to have health insurance.
  Mr. LEAHY. Would the leader yield for a question?
  Mr. REID. Of course.
  (Ms. HIRONO assumed the Chair.)
  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, the leader has noted a number of times 
that a small group in the House of Representatives has held up and 
closed the government because they want to do away with what they call 
ObamaCare, the Affordable Care Act. So my question to the Senator is, 
in all of these discussions they have had, the 40 times they voted, 
have they ever once come up with an alternative piece of legislation 
that would provide for your children, if they are in college, to be on 
your health care policy, or if you have a member of your family with a 
preexisting condition such as diabetes or has gone through cancer, have 
they come up with any alternative or is it just: We want nothing?
  Mr. REID. Madam President, to my friend, the most senior Member of 
the Senate, in today's newspapers and in commentary on television and 
radio, even Republicans, prominent Republicans, former chairs--I have 
in my mind, which I read today, two former chairs of the National 
Republican Party--said: We have got to be for something, not just 
against everything.
  That is the problem we have. They are against everything. Against 
everything. As the distinguished Senator from Vermont said, what are 
they for? We know what they are against, but what are they for?
  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I thank the distinguished leader, because 
I know in my State of Vermont, people are happy, if they have children 
going to college, that they can keep them on their health insurance. Or 
if they have a spouse who had breast cancer, for example, they can 
still get health care, or whatever--diabetes and so on.
  I think the distinguished leader has answered, no, they want to do 
away with all of this, and nothing in return. That is a nihilistic 
approach that makes no sense.

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