[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15482-15483]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         GETTING TO A BIG DEAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, the previous speaker said that the shutdown 
should be unacceptable. I agree with that. We could all, within the 
next half an hour, vote to make the unacceptable not the policy that we 
are pursuing.
  Mr. Speaker, our government has now been shut down for over a week 
and the American people are looking to Congress for solutions, not 
spin. Thousands of dedicated Federal employees here, but more profusely 
around this country, continue to be furloughed without pay, all because 
a faction of Republicans insist on keeping government closed until we 
repeal the Affordable Care Act, a demand that has nothing to do with 
keeping our government open.
  Debate about the Affordable Care Act is legitimate. There are people 
who disagree with it and people who agree with it. But holding ransom 
the people's government is and should be, as the previous speaker said, 
unacceptable.
  Americans are tired, I am tired, I think most Members are tired of 
hearing the same rhetoric from politicians over and over. Instead, they 
want real solutions that can restore fiscal sanity, end the irrational 
sequester which Hal Rogers, the chairman of the Appropriations 
Committee, a conservative Republican from Kentucky, says does not work 
and cannot work, and break the cycle of manufactured crises that do 
nothing to help our economy and, in fact, are doing it great harm. So 
the question, Mr. Speaker, we must ask ourselves is: How do we reach a 
solution? How can this Congress achieve the big, balanced deal that our 
constituents expect from us?
  First and foremost we must end the shutdown. Mr. Speaker, 200 
Democrats--we have a vacancy--200 Democrats will vote this very day, 
this very hour, to open the government. That means, Mr. Speaker, we 
only need 18 Republicans. The previous speaker said it is unacceptable 
where we are. We can

[[Page 15483]]

change it, and we can change it within the hour, with only 18 
Republicans joining 200 Democrats to say let the people's government be 
open; let the people's government be serving them.
  First and foremost, Mr. Speaker, we must end this shutdown and take 
action to prevent the United States from defaulting on its bills for 
the first time in history. A solvent nation should not be taken hostage 
to accomplish an objective. Once these immediate threats are removed, 
Congress should then vote to go to conference on the differences which 
are legitimate between our two budgets. Republicans have refused, for 
the last six months in the House and in the Senate, to go to 
conference.
  The Speaker talks about negotiation. That is where you do it. That is 
the mechanism that is set up under our democracy to resolve 
differences. Go to conference. There we can have the opportunity to 
agree on a comprehensive, balanced plan to put our country on a 
fiscally sustainable path, not for the next week, the next month, the 
next 180 days, but for decades to come; and if we do that, our economy 
will explode, jobs will be created, and Americans will again feel good, 
not only about their country, but about their Congress.
  The shutdown and the threat of default are standing in the way of a 
real negotiation process for a long-term solution. Democrats, I say, 
Mr. Speaker, are ready to sit down and talk with our Republican 
colleagues about a long-term agreement. We know that will require tough 
decisions, but Republicans should not demand their own policies as 
ransom required to reopen the government and make sure America pays its 
bills.
  Democrats have already made the difficult choice to accept the 
Republican's preferred budget level for the short-term funding bill. 
How do I know it is their preferred funding bill? Because they voted on 
it and sent it to the Senate, Mr. Speaker, and the Senate said, We will 
accept your number, and they sent it back here; and my Republican 
colleagues will not say ``yes'' to their own number.
  A big and balanced agreement on a budget. After we take the 
Republican number to open up government, go to conference, have 
discussions, a big and balanced agreement on the budget and on getting 
our debt under control will require real compromise and difficult 
decisions. My colleagues, we should have the wisdom and, yes, the 
courage to make them; and if we do, future generations will thank us.
  I continue to believe, Mr. Speaker, that there is a bipartisan 
majority of Members in this House who are ready to work in good faith 
towards achieving such an agreement. My observation, however, is, after 
33 years in this body, that there is a small faction on the Republican 
side of the aisle--it may be 50, it may be 60--that is holding captive 
the 170 of their colleagues who want to make sense and move forward.
  I hope that Speaker Boehner will take the important steps necessary 
to enable those negotiations to begin by allowing a vote on the 
Senate's bill at the House number to reopen government and another one 
on a clean measure to prevent an unthinkable and economically 
catastrophic default. Once those occur, Mr. Speaker, we will be able to 
resume work on achieving real and lasting results for the American 
people when it comes to our long-term fiscal health.
  Mr. Speaker, I would hope that the majority leader, Mr. Cantor, would 
bring the bill to open our government, the people's government, to the 
floor this day.

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