[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15493]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

  (Mr. VEASEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, we are now in day 9 of the Republican 
government shutdown.
  Let's keep it real. Come on. This could end tonight if Republicans 
vote ``yes'' on a clean CR. The problem is that the Republicans only 
want to pass partisan bills with no attempts to reach across the aisle. 
Instead, Republicans are bringing bills up for votes that claim to fund 
the VA, feed children, and cure deadly diseases when, in fact, they 
actually reduce funding for these very important programs. The 
appeasement of the far right, the Tea Party, is the opposite of good 
governing and bipartisanship, and it needs to stop today.
  As a freshman Member of Congress, I am disheartened by my Republican 
colleagues' inability to compromise for the benefit of the American 
people. It's not fair to the constituents that I represent in places 
like Grand Prairie, people who work at the old Carswell Air Force Base 
and the Naval Air Station Fort Worth who were recently furloughed as 
nonessential employees. It's unfair to punish the 62,000 Federal 
workers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area who have faced uncertain work 
status as a result of these partisan games.
  I urge Republican leadership to stop the parlor tricks. Everything 
doesn't have to be a partisan battle. It is time for House Republicans 
to take ``yes'' for an answer and end the government shutdown today.

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