[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15486-15487]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                ECONOMIC HARM OF THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, the majority party's latest idea is to 
create a supercommittee to figure out how to reverse their Republican 
shutdown of government. Frankly, Congress doesn't need another 
committee. It only needs the Speaker to unlock the Tea Party chains put 
on regular committee order and their function in this House. Let the 
Appropriations Committee do its job as mandated by our Constitution. It 
can and will get the job done.
  Though it is not my first preference, we can begin by allowing a vote 
on a clean continuing resolution, that is, allowing the Senate bill 
which contains

[[Page 15487]]

the Republican budget mark of $986 billion to move forward. Though the 
Democrats have expressed deep dismay at that number as it is not what 
Democrats had sought in discretionary accounts, it speaks loudly to 
which party is willing to compromise. And then if the majority party 
does not like the Affordable Care Act, use your real power in the 
regular committee structure that you control to change it. But closing 
down the entire government is a sledgehammer when what you need is 
merely a needle and thread.
  Meanwhile, the Republican shutdown is wreaking havoc on our economy. 
More and more working Americans and businesses are getting singed. How 
can this be good? The Republican shutdown costs the American people 
$12.5 million each hour and $300 million a day. As of today, the GOP 
shutdown has already cost the American taxpayers over $2 billion. Is 
that responsible government?
  The Republican shutdown has caused rising uncertainty about our 
economy. It has already placed a downdraft on our economic markets and 
job creation. Yesterday the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell another 
160 points. This is part of a recent precipitous slide which has seen 
the financial market lose nearly 400 points this month alone. Overall, 
the trend is strongly in the wrong direction--down.
  The International Monetary Fund, as a result of the Republican 
shutdown, cut its growth forecast for our economy by 0.3 percentage 
points to 2.9 percent for this year and 3.6 percent for next year. This 
surely will cost the American economy more jobs going forward.
  The sapping of U.S. growth will be felt globally, as U.S. economic 
sluggishness impacts other nations. Global markets continue to fall as 
well, wondering what will happen to the value of our Treasury bonds. 
Chaos and uncertainty trigger poor markets. We sure don't need any more 
of that medicine.
  There are over 800,000 Federal workers who have been furloughed as a 
direct result of the shutdown. They are worrying about whether they can 
pay their bills, pay their mortgage. NASA, for example, had to furlough 
97 percent of its more than 18,000-person workforce due to the closing 
of the government.
  At NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, only 100 of 3,150 civil 
servants have not been furloughed. An additional 10,000 contractors 
with the Johnson Space Center will face being furloughed.
  According to a local FOX affiliate, the NASA Glenn Research Center in 
Brook Park, Ohio, near Cleveland, which I represent, has essentially 
furloughed nearly all its 3,000 employees at NASA's key propulsion 
center. This absolutely punches down the local economy as well as the 
national.
  The Republican shutdown has also caused many more contractors who do 
detailed work for our government to lose their jobs. Defense 
contractors like Boeing and Lockheed Martin have had to furlough 
thousands of employees because the shutdown has halted awards and 
payments to those companies.
  The Republican shutdown hurts government agencies and weakens our 
national security. There are currently no death benefits given to 
families of soldiers killed in action; medical treatment for those in 
the military has been scaled back; and furloughs are creating backlogs 
for VA disability claims.
  Mr. Speaker, just bring the clean continuing resolution that has the 
Republican budget number in it to a vote. Reopen our government. Use 
the regular committees to work out any difficulties you have with the 
Affordable Care Act. And, please, put America's economy back on an even 
keel.

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