[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15646-15649]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           ISSUES OF THE DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. 
Jackson Lee) for 30 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Let me thank the Speaker for his courtesies and 
thank my friends on the other side of the aisle who engaged in an hour-
long discussion that I am sure many of my colleagues were certainly 
interested in.
  I want to congratulate the organization in my constituency, Catholic 
Charities. Catholic Charities in Houston is 70 years old and has a 
storied history of service.
  I had the privilege of being inspired by a wonderful mass led by 
Cardinal DiNardo that catapulted that special day into the 
understanding of who we are in this country and how our service is 
guided by the principles of our faith. I remember that, in his words to 
the congregation, he offered these phrases: ``The just live by faith,'' 
``even a little faith can do great things.'' He added, ``When you are 
acting in faith, you are serving.''
  I think those are powerful words for all of us, whether we are 
Republicans or Democrats or other in our political beliefs. That is 
what we are sent here to do. We are really sent here to speak for those 
who cannot speak for themselves, to speak for the vulnerable, and to 
ensure that the United States of America remains an umbrella on a rainy 
day, for our country's principles are vested in a wonderful 
Constitution that says that we all are created equal, with a number of 
rights that allow us the pursuit of great things, such as liberty and 
health--if we interpret the term ``happiness'' to mean that we have a 
variety of rights, certain unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness.
  So where we find ourselves on October 10, in the midst of this 
government shutdown, the 10th day, does not comport with the very 
principles of this Nation and our Constitution that says that we have 
organized to create a more perfect Union.
  As I listened to my friends have a long discussion, they had some 
very vital points about the importance of the farm bill, a bill that we 
have not been able to bring to closure because the government is shut 
down. But even more importantly, we have not been able to put the 
phrases of ``just'' and ``acting by faith'' in the midst of that 
legislative initiative.
  Our friends did not take note of the fact that $40 billion was cut 
out of food stamps. They didn't take note of that--$40 billion for 
people who are hungry. Forty-six million Americans live in poverty. 
They are poor, but they are Americans. They deserve equality. Sixteen 
million of those are children. But yet someone says it is the 
dependency group. Maybe the 47 percent. I say

[[Page 15647]]

those are the next astronauts, captains in the military, Presidents of 
the United States, teachers, inventors, scientists who may need food 
stamps.
  So I would like to talk this afternoon in the short period of time 
that I have in finding the truth, also recognizing the difficulties 
that we are now in with the government shutdown.
  Let me pause for a moment and say that I know, as I speak, 
Republicans are meeting with the President. We met yesterday and the 
President made it very clear and was very strong on wanting to see 
America move forward, but was very strong on the fact that we needed to 
come together around a clean bill, a bill that could be put on the 
floor with 200-plus Democrats here in the House and a sturdy amount of 
Republicans. That is just.
  We know that Republicans were invited, the whole Conference. Of 
course, they decided that they wanted a few to come and meet with the 
President. Of course, it is their choice. In a sense of humor, I say 
there is an IOU to my other Republican friends that didn't make it to 
the White House today.
  But I hope the discussion doesn't center around leaving the 
government closed. I hope it doesn't center around a 6-week raising of 
the debt ceiling, though I am open to any way forward; but I would hope 
in my discussion you would see why that is faulty thinking.
  I do want to thank my original cosponsors who joined me today to 
introduce this very important legislation, H. Res. 375, which now makes 
a statement that this House will never--I want to say it again, never--
I want to say it again, never--tie a nongermane legislative issue to 
the running and opening of this government.
  What does that mean? We will never do what we have done, which is to 
defund a law approved by both Houses of Congress, the President of the 
United States, and the United States Supreme Court--the Affordable Care 
Act--and hold up the government while we are fighting against it 
because we don't like it.
  H.R. 375 is legislation to have this House go on record to ensure 
that we do not ever do that and tie the government's hands and void the 
services that are relevant to my constituent who, again, I will call in 
a few moments, who is a cancer patient coming out of a hospital and is 
fearful of losing her disability checks because of the government 
shutdown.

                              {time}  1645

  We are getting any number of phone calls on that matter.
  So here is why I hope many of my colleagues, Republicans and 
Democrats, will support H. Res. 375, which will put us back in regular 
order and do things in the right way.
  My friends, I will acknowledge that all States are hurting, but let 
me first of all just cite for you the State of Texas, one of the 
largest States in the Union, and show the faces of those who are 
looking to go to Head Start, our children. This is what they are 
facing. This is all over America; 57,000 Head Start seats are lost 
because of the shutdown, because of the furlough, because of sequester. 
And now we continue down this road. Sequestration cuts are forcing 
Marlen Rosas to defer her preschool dreams for her 3-year-old Hector, 
who may be the next captain in the United States military, who may be 
the next pediatric surgeon, who may be the next outstanding professor 
of law, who may be the next wonderful teacher in an elementary school. 
But right now the Head Start program for 3-4 year olds in Houston is 
being cut by $5.34 million, 109 employees, 699 slots for children. This 
is in Texas. This is in Houston, not even in the entire State. This is 
what we get when we begin to think of the dependency crowd, and it is 
important that we understand the results of what is happening.
  So I want to keep this particular poster in mind. I just want you to 
look at those faces and what is going on across America. We have got 
the government shutdown. We can't fix the sequester, which by the way, 
the Van Hollen Democratic budget is not only growth for jobs, but it 
also fixes the sequester. It gets people back to work. It is well known 
that we are losing jobs here, and 1 percent of the economy is going 
down because of sequester. We can't fix it because the government is 
shut down.
  Now, if you want to know what is happening across America, $2.24 
billion in Title 1 grants have been cut, and so our young people who 
attend high-poverty schools and who need to be able to have Title 1 
grants to help them in education, Mr. Speaker, it is simply gone. And 
Title 1 funding at current levels does not merely reduce the level of 
services to our poorest and lowest-achieving students, but would likely 
cause the elimination of services to millions of students. The teachers 
know that. They know what is happening by losing $2.24 billion. So 
Hector and Ms. Rosas don't get Head Start. Then we take it beyond the 
pre-K to the K-12 and to our high school where we are looking for these 
young people to take their rightful place in society, and here we are 
cutting them again. I guess it is the dependency crowd.
  These cuts come after the number of children living in poverty has 
grown from 16.3 percent, as I said earlier. So let me update it to 21.9 
percent--losing opportunities for our children.
  Here is a more tragic feature. For our special needs children because 
the government is shut down, we cannot fix the $1.73 billion that we 
have lost out of for helping our special needs children, the very 
children who need a stair step to help them climb up and to be all they 
can be. Some parent is out there feeling the pain of not having the 
services for their special needs child because the government is shut 
down, and we cannot get back to the business of appropriations, fixing 
the sequester.
  Child care and development block grant, another problem where we are 
losing dollars, $142 million in real per capita dollars. To be able to 
say that we don't have child care, developmental block grants, I just 
want to refer you to my good friend, Hector, and his mother. These are 
the problems that we are facing because we have a shutdown of the 
government.
  A good friend, the Speaker, is meeting with the President as we 
speak. He is entertaining the idea of a debt ceiling increase to pay 
our bills, the full faith and credit, to save us from a mortgage 
collapse, to save us from our interest rates on credit cards shooting 
through the roof, to hopefully start small business loans and young 
families trying to get mortgages on their homes or get a home. What a 
country if that happens. But, Mr. Speaker, they are suggesting that, in 
fact, we will not open the government. How is that possible? How is 
that possible?
  I see my good friend here, and I am going to yield to the gentleman 
from Illinois (Mr. Danny Davis), who has been a champion on childhood 
development, on dealing with the special needs child, on dealing with 
assisting in developmental issues of children, dealing with 
rehabilitating families, giving a second chance to some of our 
individuals who have found a different path. As I do that, I want to 
remind my colleagues that we are not too far away from Veterans Day. 
And as of October 15, and this is probably happening around America, 
veterans cemeteries will reduce their staff and reduce their burials. 
This is the friend that we talk about over and over again. In fact, we 
have heard a constant refrain: Why are you giving me accolades and you 
are cutting my veteran service centers? You are not allowing homeless 
veterans to be placed or get job training, and here we are telling 
families that there will be a slow process in burying and honoring your 
loved one because of the government shutdown.
  Mr. Speaker, let us unlock these doors and let the workers work. I 
have heard from them personally. They want to get back to work.
  I now yield to Danny Davis from Illinois, who served on the Ways and 
Means Committee, served on the Education Committee, and we have 
cochaired a number of summits or seminars and sessions, brain trusts on 
the issue of childhood development.
  Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Let me first of all thank you for the 
leadership you have provided and continue to provide. Those of us who 
know you well, we often joke and say we don't know anybody that has got 
as much

[[Page 15648]]

energy as you have got. You are here this minute. You are someplace 
else the next minute. You were dealing with a group of ladies in the 
hallway the other day from Houston. They were the wives of ministers. 
One happened to have been a lady who had once lived in the community 
where my office is located in Chicago, and so I said, Hey, you went out 
to Houston and found yourself a minister who is a preacher and you have 
got a husband and so it must be a good place for people to go.
  But I just want to join you in highlighting that we talk a great deal 
about low-income people, and we talk a great deal about the safety net; 
and it seems to me that our colleagues have decided to attack every 
safety net program that there is, no matter what it is. They believe 
that it is providing too much and that government really ought not be a 
government of service, that government should be a government of 
coordination and should just be a government of rules and regulations, 
but it should not provide any help, any assistance to those individuals 
who have fallen on hard times and tough times.
  I have always believed you could measure the effectiveness of a 
government by how well it treats its young people, how well it treats 
its old people, and how well it deals with the needs of those who have 
difficulty caring for themselves.
  But I represent a very diverse district, and so not only do I have 
all of these individuals who have all of the needs that we just 
mentioned, but I also represent the futures industry--the Board of 
Trade, the Mercantile Exchange, and the stock market. I was sitting 
beside a trader on the airplane last week, and he was moaning and 
groaning and talking about how devastating this shutdown is on the 
overall economy of our country. You know, you think in terms of the 
individuals who receive the benefits of a WIC program; but, guess what, 
if those who produce the food, if they can't sell it, if they can't 
move it, if they can't do anything with it, what is going to happen, it 
sits in somebody's warehouse and rots. It sits in somebody's warehouse 
and spoils. And so this slows down the economy. In order for the 
economy to get a lift, to pick up, people must be buying and selling, 
providing services, exchanging goods, exchanging ideas, moving money, 
moving money around, otherwise the economy goes flat. Nothing is 
happening.
  So I don't know how we think that shutting down the government, and 
Chicago is a big town and of course it is a regional office town, and 
so there are a lot of government workers. We are the regional 
headquarters for Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. A 
lot of government workers are there. Now, all of these individuals are 
laid off. They are not able to ride the CTA. That takes money out of 
the transit system. Them not having to come downtown and park their 
cars, that takes money out of the parking garages, just like it is 
around here now. It is practically dead. All of things that people 
would normally be doing, the people who work in the cleaners, they 
can't work because there is nobody here to bring their clothes. The 
restaurants are practically empty. And so it seems to me that there is 
an effort not to move the economy, but to shut down the economy of our 
country. It makes no sense at all. None whatsoever. And so we have 
actually seen a shift now.
  People are finally beginning to decide that, hey, ObamaCare, as they 
like to call it, but let me tell you, for me it is the best thing that 
ever happened to health care since the Indians discovered corn flakes. 
It provides an opportunity for millions of people to get care who 
never, ever had health insurance during their lifetime. Never, ever. 
And so now we see that that is going to stay. I mean, there are so many 
people signing up in Illinois, we can't even keep up with them. Our 
county government has signed up more than 100,000 people in one county, 
in Cook County alone. They started before we really started because 
they got a waiver and were able to do it.
  I want to commend you again for the leadership and for the dynamic 
way in which you function, helping the American people know that we 
can't stand still, we can't stop, we have to keep moving and that 
struggle, struggle, strife and pain, as Frederick Douglass would say, 
are the prerequisites for change. So if we want change, we have to keep 
struggling, and that is exactly what we are going to do.

                              {time}  1700

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. What a significant, enlightened presentation by 
Congressman Davis, if I might summarize his very broad and effective 
presentation and the educating of our Members.
  He has spoken about the collateral damage, and the collateral damage, 
Mr. Davis, is spreading like wildfire. You added that it is parking 
garages, it is the CTA or the MTA or the Metro. It is the restaurants. 
It is the District of Columbia that is collateral damage, a city that 
has to keep its doors open, but lo and behold, it is being impacted by 
the shutdown. Again, workers are shut out and shut down.
  If I might ask the Speaker how much time is remaining.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman has 9 minutes remaining.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Davis may want to comment as I proceed on some 
facts. I know that he has been a leader on some of these issues of SNAP 
and WIC.
  Texas is just viewed as a well-to-do State and we don't need 
anything. Again, the previous dialogue and debate on the floor struck 
me that it talked about the dependency crowd on food stamps. I have 
already said that there are 46 million people living in poverty, and 
growing. I did not say they were nondeserving. I did not say that they 
were deadbeats. I did not say that they were making up their poverty. I 
didn't say they weren't working. I said there are 46 million people 
living below the poverty line, and large numbers of them are children.
  It bothers me for individuals to talk about that we have got a 
dependency crowd and we have got to have these reforms, and what we are 
doing with reforms and sequester is we are taking food out of the 
mouths of children. We can't say it in any other way. So I just want 
some of our friends to know that even though there is a bemoaning about 
getting the agriculture bill passed--and I am out of Texas and have 
always voted for the agriculture bill because my district is surrounded 
by ranchers and others who need the farm bill. We have never separated 
on the farm bill in the State of Texas. We have had a lot of support. 
But when you cut $40 billion out of food stamps and you begin to talk 
about the deadbeats, that gets to be a problem.
  With regards to SNAP and WIC, 47.8 million people are on SNAP and 8.6 
million are women, infants, and children on WIC. Funding for these 
programs needs to be assured.
  I have no problem with the documentation of everyone and ensuring 
that the one or two that are violating the requirements--nobody is 
arguing for maintaining those individuals. What we are saying is that 
there is collateral damage. Farmers are being impacted.
  By the way, regarding Rural Development and Farm Service agencies, 99 
percent of those employees are furloughed; and my good friend just got 
through talking about the commodities.
  Let me just say these points. I am going back to Texas again, which 
is noted as a big and well-to-do State. In actuality, in a couple of 
days, Mr. Davis, we are standing to lose and have an impact or cutback 
of $64.7 billion. The government is shut down. $518 million of that is 
on Federal highways.
  We were just in a meeting with the Texas Department of 
Transportation. We have got 1,200 people a day moving into Texas with 
$411 billion for interstate highways--shut down; $130 million in home 
energy assistance for the poor--shut down; $71 million in homeland 
security grants and our ports--shut down; our borders--shut down; $55 
million in coordinated border infrastructure. When I say the border is 
shut down, what I mean is resources that they need. And $97 million is 
something very important that I have worked with Senator Landrieu on,

[[Page 15649]]

Federal adoption assistance to help our children.
  I started by saying that we organized to form a more perfect Union. I 
am aghast that the wheels of justice have come off. The Department of 
Justice is in a complete dilemma. There are people keeping the lights 
on and doing what is needed for the absolute necessity of making sure 
the principles of our Constitution are not destroyed, but we have lost 
950 lawyers who have cases pending, 4,000 U.S. attorneys.
  We are seeing immigration review cases where people are fighting to 
keep their loved ones who legitimately should be here and 950 are gone; 
in the environmental division, 350 lawyers; the tax division, 200. 
People are expecting their refund so they can pay their bills. The U.S. 
Marshals, what a disgrace, 500 are gone. Why? Because the government is 
shut down.
  Before I close, if the gentleman wants to offer a word on this, where 
are we in this shutdown?
  Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Let me say one thing about the farm 
bill, because I am very sympathetic and empathetic with farmers.
  I grew up on a farm, so I know a little bit about farming and how 
valuable. Of course, Illinois is a great farm State. But I am not in 
favor of all of these great big subsidies that we give to some people, 
like sugar growers that help to keep the price of sugar so high until 
the candy makers and the cookie makers and ice cream processors and all 
these people have serious difficulty making or producing the products 
that they sell.
  There is a lot of give-and-take in these decisions that we make, and 
there ought to be enough give-and-take to know that it can't just be my 
way or the highway. It can't just be my thoughts and ideas. It is time 
to really put behind us all of the difficulty that we have had. I am 
hoping that the next time I go home that I can tell the people in my 
district, Yes, we have reached an agreement. The government is going to 
reopen. We are going to function, and America is going to move like we 
know it can, like we know it will. That is going to be the legacy of 
this shutdown, that we are going to cut it off and reopen.
  I thank you for the opportunity.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. I thank you so very much.
  Let me just say that I am on the sugar farm side of the issue, but we 
are on the same side of the coin on opening the government. And I want 
to thank Congressman Davis.
  I also want to make mention of my fellow Texas Democratic colleagues 
who stood together at 1 p.m. today, all of them calling for a 
bipartisan solution, actually calling upon our good friends, our 
Senators in the other body out of the State of Texas to come and stand 
with us and follow in the tradition of the Catholic Charities mission 
of helping our brothers and sisters, the most vulnerable, of the words 
of ``just live by faith,'' of the words that ``this government is an 
umbrella on a rainy day,'' cancer victims, children who need Head Start 
seats, the justice system of America, the interstate highway of 
America, sick patients in hospital beds needing disability checks, 
veterans who need service centers and need the resources of hospitals, 
all of these and beyond; teachers who are living under the pressure of 
a sequester that cuts off the money for their impoverished students and 
the services for special needs children, all tied into the sequester, 
all at a standstill because of the shutdown.
  What is our plea today? Our plea today is to recognize that we can't 
live in this world alone, and that it is imperative that we unshackle 
ourselves. I have even gotten a Koch brothers letter that was sent to 
the Senators. The Koch brothers, the Koch industry, said, Don't blame 
us. We never tied defunding ObamaCare to the funding of the government. 
I consider that a get-out-of-jail card. I hope all the Senators are 
getting it. I hope all the Members of Congress here are getting it. It 
means that you can vote on a clean bill and lift the debt ceiling for a 
period of time that allows America to pay her bills, young couples to 
get mortgages, young families to get loans. That is what we should be 
doing, and I will take in the words of my good friend, We want a way 
forward in a bipartisan manner.
  But what I would offer to say to you, that America, the greatest 
country in the world, has a Constitution that has said we are organized 
for a more perfect Union, and, in fact, we have that perfect Union if 
we can open this government. We all are created equal with certain 
inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
  Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to speak. I believe 
that tomorrow we may have something on the floor that opens the 
government. Vote. Put it on the floor, a clean bill, so that we can 
vote and open the government and that we have a method for lifting the 
debt ceiling.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________