[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15488]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     INVESTING IN AMERICA'S PEOPLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, let me, first of all, say good morning 
to my colleagues and start with a thank-you to President Obama for his 
invitation to the White House to all Members of Congress in quite a 
contrast to the representation of the President's lack of involvement.
  In fact, over the last 4 or 5 years, this Congress has failed to pass 
a budget with a Republican majority in the House. That has constantly 
raised the question of how can we start growth in America.
  So I thank the President, first of all, for his negotiating at the 
beginning of January 2013, in the tax negotiations, along with the 
acceptance of the very structured and restrictive and non-growth number 
of 986 for the budgeting of this particular Nation.
  We are a growing Nation, we are a thriving Nation, we are the most 
powerful Nation in the world, and the way to go forward is to invest in 
America's people. So I thank the President. I thank the President for 
recognizing, as devastating as the sequester was, that he was willing 
to cede to a supercommittee that did not fulfill its responsibilities.
  So we are here. And this is not about individual Members of Congress. 
It is about the American people. It is about the 29-year employee in 
the Dallas-Fort Worth area that spoke eloquently to the fact that, 
combined with military service, she desired to be at work. She enjoyed 
working with her young child and being at his school, but she wanted to 
help Americans. But she is not able to go to work.
  It speaks to this question of the willy-nilly structure that the 
Republicans have constructed. I use the term ``martial law.'' For those 
who want to understand it better, we were speaking of martial rule. So 
it is martial law on this floor. But a martial rule we are using means 
that whatever is thrown down on the floor, what Legos are thrown down 
on the floor to be picked up, that is how we are running this 
government.
  So the word ``clean bill'' is not a naughty word. It means that we 
want to fulfill the ability to fund the entire government, not to leave 
out the SNAP and WIC programs or school food programs that are 
suffering, not to leave out rural development or the Commodity Futures 
Trading Commission, the Centers for Disease Control that announced 
today there is a salmonella epidemic and because we don't have those 
staff persons, America suffers.

                              {time}  1100

  I understand Senator McCain's frustration on the floor of the United 
States Senate because I went to the floor yesterday in the early 
morning hours to express my pain for the families who have lost their 
loved ones in Afghanistan. These are young men and young women; and 
because of our government shutdown, their memorial services benefits 
could not be had.
  I planned the introduction of a bill, ceded to the bill that is now 
going to be on the floor, that now we are going to pick to be able to 
help them. I indicated yesterday in a letter to the Secretary that he 
should immediately provide them with their funds, that it was eligible 
under a particular law. We all come together around that issue, and we 
are pained because of the loss of those loved ones of those family 
members.
  So, Mr. Speaker, this is not about us. I continue to say that we are 
not doing it the right way.
  A Vietnam veteran in Houston, Mr. Richard Simon, who came to a 
veterans center, was turned away yesterday. Homeless veterans in 
Houston, who need the veterans service centers, were turned away as of 
Wednesday because all of these veterans centers are being closed down. 
A farmer in Iowa, John Gilbert, has 770 acres. He is working every day, 
but he can't get his agricultural resources because the Department of 
Agriculture has shut down. A family resource center that is dealing 
with domestic violence is no more because it cannot get its Federal 
dollars. Then, of course, the U.S. Attorney's Office has seen 4,000 
U.S. Attorneys shut down. There have been 3,000 Lockheed employees laid 
off and 3,000 NASA employees laid off.
  So I believe that it is important that we recognize that we are not 
here for ourselves, rather, that we are here for the families whose 
loved ones lay down their lives in Afghanistan. Whether we call it a 
clean bill--however we call it--it needs to be put on the floor of the 
House because we cannot run the government by playing Legos. We can't 
throw sticks on the ground. We can't be out on the corner playing those 
games, throwing things on the ground, and saying, Whatever happens, it 
will happen.
  We have got to help Richard Simon. We have got to help the veterans 
who are going to these closed centers. We have got to make sure that we 
understand that a President should be judged for his leadership in this 
country and not on where he came from or what he looks like. We have to 
be able to work with all people in America--and all of the people are 
being harmed.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask this one question as I go to my seat: Are we going 
to leave homeless veterans on the street, Mr. Speaker? I hope that we 
will answer that question and also pay the veterans or their families 
for the memorial services.

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