[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15698]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            REPUBLICANS DON'T WANT TO REOPEN THE GOVERNMENT

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, the House Republicans don't want to reopen 
the government. If they did, all they have to do is bring up the Senate 
clean resolution and pass it here on the floor today. It'll go back to 
the Senate--I don't even know if it has to go back to the Senate--and 
the President has already agreed to sign it.
  They are keeping the government closed as hostage because they want 
to negotiate--I don't even know what anymore. Initially, it was because 
they wanted to repeal or defund the Affordable Care Act. I'm not sure 
it is even that anymore.
  I think sometimes they just want to keep the government closed to 
show that they can. Clearly, the budget numbers are there. We have 
agreed to their budget numbers, so that is not the issue.
  So, Speaker Boehner, please bring up a clean resolution today. The 
impact on the economy is getting to be more and more devastating every 
day. As my colleagues have mentioned, more and more jobs are being 
lost.
  Instead of losing jobs, Speaker Boehner, we should be here trying to 
create jobs and use the government to work with the private sector to 
create jobs and grow the economy.
  Don't continue to keep this government shut down. It is 2 weeks now, 
and the longer it goes on, the more it is going to have an impact on 
the economy and make it more difficult to create jobs. We will continue 
to lose jobs.
  Bring up the clean resolution, Mr. Speaker.

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