[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15793-15799]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            THE PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Messer). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2013, the gentlewoman from Hawaii (Ms. Hanabusa) 
is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Ms. HANABUSA. Mr. Speaker, it is very disturbing that we are here on 
day 12 of the Republican government shutdown, but it is even more 
disturbing when we heard the point of order that was made just a little 
while ago, the point of order on October 1, about a special rule that 
was passed. What has happened by that vote--the vote, again, by the 
majority party--says that only the majority leader or his designee can 
bring the matter of calling up by motion the ability to rule, the 
ability to ask people to vote on the continuing resolution as amended 
by the Senate.
  In this process of not only shutting down government, what we have 
also done is shut down the people's right to have a representative form 
of government. So, out of all of us--435, who are mandated by law to be 
the Members of the House of Representatives--only one or his designee 
has the right to bring forth this critical, critical issue on which the 
people throughout this Nation are asking for a resolution. Only one can 
do it. Yes, it passed by the majority of the Republican votes in this 
House. Now, not only have we shut down government, not only have we 
made things unbearable for the people, but we have deprived them of 
their representative form of government. That, Mr. Speaker, is 
something that the people should be absolutely outraged about.
  I would like to begin this Special Order by first yielding to the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett).
  Mr. DOGGETT. I would ask the gentlelady about the number of Federal 
employees you have in your area who remain unable to do their work.
  Ms. HANABUSA. To the gentleman from Texas, I appreciate the inquiry.
  As you may probably be aware, because of its unique location and its 
location before the time we were a State, Hawaii has a large Federal 
presence, and a lot of them are in the military. Because of the actions 
of this House, plus the Senate, plus the President, about 20,000 of 
them are defense. The last time I was able to check, we just had a 
small handful that were yet not back to work, but we do have a large 
number who did not work.
  What is being impacted now are the other agencies which had some 
funds like, for example, the courts, the U.S. Attorney's Office and the 
other people like, for example, the State Department. All of them we 
are watching very carefully, but we have an additional number--
somewhere between 6,000 to 9,000--who are being affected. As the 
gentleman knows, it is not only they; it is the people they service, 
and it is their families who are being impacted.
  Mr. DOGGETT. That is exactly what I wanted to explore with you.
  First of all, all of those public service workers, whether they are 
at work or not at work, continue to face the uncertainty of whether 
their paychecks will arrive when the car payment is due or when the 
rent is due or when they need to buy another round of groceries. They 
don't know if those checks will be there.
  I think that there are some people out there across our country who 
are watching this shutdown, and they are saying, Well, at least we are 
saving some money by not paying hundreds of thousands of workers across 
the country--Federal employees--who are not yet able to return to work.

[[Page 15794]]

  In fact, isn't it true that, under the Tea Party faction rule here in 
the Republican Party, they have passed a resolution through this House 
to pay every one of those hundreds of thousands of Federal workers to 
stay idle--to pay them not to work--at a time that they could be 
delivering the services they were hired to provide so that then the 
taxpayer has to pay them to stay idle and cannot receive the benefits 
of the many varied services that these public service workers would 
like to provide?
  Ms. HANABUSA. The gentleman is correct that we as the House of 
Representatives unanimously passed that bill that we would pay the 
furloughed workers. You are also absolutely correct that, because the 
government is still shut down and because the Republican position is to 
open up government piecemeal, with no concurrence on the Senate's part, 
that that is exactly what is going to happen.
  Many of these Federal workers feel like, Why can't we go to work? We 
are getting paid to work. Why isn't that happening?
  I believe that that is clearly a disservice, not only to the workers, 
themselves, but to the people of this great Nation. It makes no sense.
  I yield to the gentlelady from Florida.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Last weekend, I left. I went to Florida. Many 
people in church came up to me, and they wanted to know about this. 
These are not Federal employees; they are contract employees. So, 
therefore, they do service for the Federal Government, but they will 
not get paid; is that correct?
  Mr. DOGGETT. That is correct.
  The other thing that happens: suppose you have a cafe across the 
street from a major Federal installation. Suppose you have a dry 
cleaners or a service station or an auto repair. Your business has 
fallen through the floor because that workforce is not there, not only 
to do the public's work, but to do business with you.
  There is not any plan from this irresponsible Tea Party caucus to 
reimburse the many small businesses around America as well as the 
contractors to whom you referred. There is not any plan to give them a 
dime. So they will suffer at the same time they pay Federal workers not 
to work and not to deliver the services that they were hired to provide 
and are willing to provide.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Lockheed Martin indicated that they are going 
to lay off over 3,000 employees. There are many companies that do work 
with the Federal Government, but because the Federal Government is shut 
down, they are going to furlough their employees, and they are not 
going to be paid.
  Mr. DOGGETT. That is one of the reasons I feel that, with every hour 
that we go through this government shutdown and with every hour that we 
get nearer to a default--an historic default on the full faith and 
credit of the United States--we are jeopardizing our security. As to 
your comments regarding Lockheed, we are talking about the national 
security of the United States, and I am also talking about the economic 
security of your fellow church members and of our veterans.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. We had the Secretary of the VA come to our 
committee. He indicated that by the 1st of November, if he did not have 
his appropriations, over 5,000 veterans and their families and their 
spouses would not get their benefits in the mail.
  Mr. DOGGETT. I view that as a real disgrace.
  This week in Texas, in San Antonio and in Austin, as we attempted to 
call the Veterans Administration about problems some of our veterans 
were having, they said they had turned off their equipment and that 
they had furloughed some of the representatives we work with--I am sure 
that happened in your areas also--so that we cannot be the advocate we 
want to be for our veterans.
  Additionally--I think it is around a fourth or a little over a fourth 
of our Federal workforce who are veterans. They are people who have 
served our country and have put their lives on the line, and now they 
are serving our country in a different way. Those are some of the 
families who are being paid not to work, and all of them, whether they 
are at work now or not, are left with great economic uncertainty about 
when they will get paid.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. The list goes on and on.
  For example, we have furloughed most of the HUD employees, so we are 
going to have more homeless veterans. The list goes on and on. 
Cemeteries. We have furloughed cemetery employees. The other issue is, 
if we default on Thursday, then the Social Security payments will not 
be made.
  These people in this House of Representatives want to operate by 
management. For example, yesterday, I heard over the news the number of 
cows that had died--or had been killed--because of a storm. We came 
back the next day and did the farm bill. Because everyone has been 
furloughed, they can't even provide the assistance they usually 
provide. We are going to tackle this, but there is a whole array of 
services that we are not picking up. For example, when you look at the 
number of, let's say, people who work at the universities, their checks 
say the universities, but they are really working for national 
foundations or the Mayo Clinic.
  Mr. DOGGETT. You are talking about things like cancer research or 
someone who is working on childhood disease.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Or on Alzheimer's research. So all of this work 
is brought to a halt for no good reason.
  Mr. DOGGETT. For no good reason.
  That is why it is outrageous that we could be here on this Saturday 
and that the Republicans have recessed the House until Monday night. 
They know that this default is approaching. They have outlined no plan 
to avoid default. They had one coming up on the floor 2 or 3 weeks ago, 
and they could not get agreement among their own Members about how to 
avoid default. Now at a time when you--like all of us who are here--
have signed a petition to reopen the government and are prepared to 
address the default issue right here, they have gone home.
  Mr. Cantor was here on the floor a few minutes ago. He is the only 
one under the rules--the Republican majority leader--whom they will 
permit to offer the motion to continue the operation of the government. 
That is why we turned, as you know, to this petition of all of us 
coming together. We are approaching now--are headed toward--200 Members 
of the House. We only need about 17 or 18 Republicans to come join us 
so we can reopen this House and then move to address the default issue.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. The sad issue here in the House is that the 
minority has no rights.
  Mr. DOGGETT. Because they were specifically, as you know, cut off in 
the rules. The rules of the House, which have existed for so many 
years, would have given the gentlewoman from Florida, the gentlewoman 
from Hawaii, or any of our colleagues who are here now from across the 
country the right to say, Mr. Speaker, let us vote on continuing the 
operation of the government.
  Now, why would they deny us that traditional right as Members of the 
Congress--all Members, Republicans and Democrats--and give Mr. Cantor, 
as the Republican majority leader, the sole right to do that?
  I say it is because of fear. They are fearful that this House will 
continue the government operations, and they can no longer hijack the 
country the way they have hijacked the Republican caucus and jeopardize 
the security of our families.

                              {time}  1145

  Ms. BROWN of Florida. In the Veterans' Committee, members kept 
alluding to the Senate, the Senate, the Senate. Let's be clear, the 
Senate passed the bill, and I thank God for the Senate. They passed the 
bill and took the House number, which was unacceptable to all 
Democrats, unacceptable, took those low numbers in order to pass a 
continuing resolution so we could have discussions. But what happened 
to the House? They are missing in action because there is no leadership 
on the Republican side.

[[Page 15795]]


  Mr. DOGGETT. I want to thank the gentlewoman from Hawaii for the 
opportunity to join with her on this because the numbers she refers to 
is back during the summer--and Speaker Boehner acknowledged this last 
Sunday on ABC. There was an understanding reached between the House and 
the Senate that Democrats would compromise and agree to a level of 
government services that we think is totally unacceptable.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Would you repeat that again, sir.
  Mr. DOGGETT. There was an understanding, that he acknowledged, 
reached between the House and the Senate that we Democrats, in order to 
keep the government functioning, would agree on, for a time this fall, 
to accept an unacceptable low number that we know won't deliver the 
level of services that we need for Head Start, for education, and for 
cancer research.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Sir, are you saying that the Democrats in the 
House held their nose and voted for the Republican irresponsible 
numbers?
  Mr. DOGGETT. We have said we will do that now if it will keep our 
government open and protect our families and avoid default, open the 
government. And it is that motion, not a motion to give us all that we 
have asked for, but a motion to take the Republican budget number and 
put it in place as a compromise, and I might say not a very good 
compromise, not a favorable compromise.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Say it again. Say it again. We lost on the 
compromise.
  Mr. DOGGETT. We agreed to do that. The Speaker indicated that he had 
agreed to that, and then this Tea Party faction took control, the 
shutdown caucus.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Sir, a conversation. Can we have a 
conversation. Can you repeat what you just said again. A conversation. 
You mean to tell me that the Speaker had a negotiation with the House 
and with the Senate on the Republican's low levels? That it was 
unacceptable to the Democrats in the House, we held our nose and voted, 
would be willing to vote for it if they bring it up in order to move 
forward and get a conversation going?
  Mr. DOGGETT. Absolutely.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, we just want a conversation.
  Mr. DOGGETT. I want to yield back to the gentlewoman from Hawaii and 
in doing so thanking her for this time. The reason that it is alleged 
that they would not continue to stand by the agreement that was made 
between the House and the Senate for this bad number was they wanted to 
shut down the Affordable Care Act and our opportunity to get health 
insurance for millions of Americans. And as the gentlewoman from Hawaii 
knows, they have failed utterly and completely to do that. They are now 
in search of some other rationale, some rationalization, some 
justification for keeping the government shut down.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Sir, just one other question. I want to know 
how many times did the Republicans pass their bad bill in the House and 
then send it over to the Senate, and they think that the Senate is 
supposed to pick up their bad bill? How many times did they pass it--
44?
  Mr. DOGGETT. They have passed little partial bills many times.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. No, I am talking about on the health repeal.
  Mr. DOGGETT. Oh. They have sent that over there, I guess, 40 times to 
repeal.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. No, I think it was 44.
  Mr. DOGGETT. Forty-four? One can lose count because they do every 
time you turn around.
  But I thank the gentlewoman from Florida and the gentlewoman from 
Hawaii. This totally unjustified shutdown must end, and we must stand 
for American families to avoid the insecurity, the threat to them that 
grows by the hour.
  Ms. HANABUSA. I thank the gentleman from Texas.
  I think what everyone needs to understand clearly, what the gentleman 
from Texas was referring to was the level of funding in the continuing 
resolution which was amended by the Senate at $986 billion. As the 
gentlewoman from Florida said, for many Democrats that was 
unacceptable. But you know what, the Democrats haven't had the 
opportunity to vote because it hasn't come to the floor, but it is a 
compromise.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. If the gentlewoman would yield, we have agreed. 
We have compromised. We have had a conversation. We have agreed to put 
our politics aside and do what is in the best interest of the United 
States of America. It is unfortunate that we have people that serve in 
the House of Representatives, what is supposed to be the people's 
House, and they do not care about the people of the United States of 
America. They only care about their petty politics.
  Ms. HANABUSA. I thank the gentlewoman the gentlewoman from Florida 
(Ms. Brown). Do you wish to speak further?
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. I think I have said everything I need to say, 
but I do want to say one thing jokingly. I went home last weekend, and 
I was looking for some snake oil since they said that Cruz had given 
the House Republicans snake oil. I couldn't find any snake oil, but I 
did find some holy oil, and I asked my pastors to pray for us because 
we need all the prayer we can get.
  It is shameful. The Republican Party, particularly in the House of 
Representatives, continues to hold the nation hostage in a futile 
attempt to defund Obamacare.
  I am so deeply disappointed that Republicans, especially those tea 
party Republicans in the House, continue to keep the government closed 
by appealing to the most extreme members of their Party by refusing to 
pass a clean funding bill to keep the government working.


            Speaker Boehner's Republican Shutdown Must Stop

  Republican recalcitrance has once again brought about a manufactured 
crisis designed to promote right wing ideology at the expense of the 
needs of all Americans.
  Instead of working together to develop a budget that will work for 
Americans, Republicans let extremists and ideologues drive their agenda 
and drive us all into a national crisis.
  Why did Republicans so carelessly shut down our government? Because 
they continue to be obsessed with eliminating the Affordable Care Act.
  The Republican crusade against providing affordable access to health 
care for all Americans knows no bounds, and it has become apparent that 
they are even willing to sacrifice the basic functions of the U.S. 
government just to prove a point.
  Even though millions of Americans were clamoring to sign up for 
insurance benefits on just the first day the exchanges opened up to the 
public.
  Members of Congress are elected to make sure our government 
functions, and Americans have had enough with this Republican led 
shutdown.
  There is a solution to this problem.
  The Senate passed CR would fund the government for an additional six 
weeks, and all Speaker Boehner has to do is bring that bill up for a 
vote to end this stalemate.
  In fact according to some reports, there are enough votes to pass a 
clean CR now.
  This short term bill to fund the government already represents a 
compromise, after a negotiation, by Democrats and is the level 
requested by Speaker Boehner.
  But Republicans cannot take ``yes'' for an answer. They are 
continuing to play more games by pushing a piecemeal approach to 
resolving this shutdown. This will not work.
  As USA Today put it, it's like seizing a school bus full of kids then 
offering to release the cutest ones.
  The Senate will not pass these bills, because they do nothing to 
address the real problem--that we need to fund the whole government.
  Instead of working together to do our jobs and resolve these critical 
issues, Republicans have taken a decidedly different approach, one that 
they seem to have been looking forward to for some time--to make 
another desperate attempt to stop the Affordable Care Act.
  In fact, as one of their chief spokespeople, Congresswoman Michele 
Bachmann put it, ``We're very excited. It's exactly what we wanted, and 
we got it.''
  Republicans seem not to care too much about the consequences of a 
shutdown, even though the consequences are significant.
  Thousands of Federal employees have been furloughed. National parks 
are shuttered.

[[Page 15796]]

Loans to small businesses, farmers and families trying to purchase 
homes have been shelved. Lifesaving scientific research at NIH is 
halted. People waiting for travel visas and passports will be even 
further delayed. Those who need assistance to get back on their feet 
like recipients of the Women, Infants and Children program (WIC) are 
struggling to find other means to get by. Veterans and their families 
applying for hard-earned benefits are waiting indefinitely for their 
fair due.
  But the plan is in place, the Republican slash and burn approach to 
governance continues, and they have shown that they are willing to put 
it all on the line to appease the extreme right wing of their party.
  As if their work to dismantle the programs Americans rely on like 
Head Start and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) 
wasn't clear enough when they pushed the sequester through, they have 
now chosen to just stop our government from functioning.
  The cavalier attitude on display by House Republicans makes it clear 
that the Majority is more interested in ideology than action.
  Their government shutdown could be the most damaging thing to hit our 
economy since the budget sequestration they imposed on Americans.
  Rather than passing a jobs plan to get Americans back to work, help 
rebuild our economy and create good jobs with good benefits, the GOP 
has gotten what they really wanted all along--shutting the doors of the 
government of the United States.
  As the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for. You just might 
get it.
  Ms. HANABUSA. I thank the gentlelady from Florida.
  Now I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Honda).
  Mr. HONDA. I want to thank the gentlelady from Hawaii. I just have to 
say offhandedly that this is a wonderful, candid interchange, one that 
needs to be heard, witnessed, and participated in because the way the 
rules of the House are set up, there is very little exchange between 
the different parties here on the floor. The rules are very rigid, and 
it disallows debate and interchange of ideas and discussion, a 
discussion that is very, very needed in this country because through 
this discussion that we just had, as candid and as colorful and as 
interactive as it was, it was informative. And, hopefully, the 
information that was shared between the gentleman from Texas and the 
gentlewoman from Hawaii and the gentlewoman from Florida was helpful 
and would raise some questions in the minds of individuals watching and 
listening to us, and perhaps asking themselves, Is this all true? 
Hopefully, it will drive them to check it out and see if the 
information that was exchanged was valid and factual. I believe they 
will find it is.
  Ms. HANABUSA. To the gentleman from California, I want to say aloha 
and mahalo. You are from California; but as far as I am concerned, you 
have been a great friend of Hawaii all along. Your concern over the 
shutdown is not only for your constituents in California but the 
constituents of the United States. And I know we in Hawaii, we also 
have a special place in your heart. So I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. HONDA. As our past Senator Inouye would have said, mahalo, 
sister.
  Mr. Speaker, I come here from California. My friend, Ms. Hanabusa, 
comes from the islands of Hawaii. All of us here in this body came here 
to do things that will make our country better, to help us build a more 
perfect Union. We have different ideas on how we would do that; but 
like in the medical field, we should observe one rule before all else: 
do no harm. We should not be causing unnecessary suffering, inflicting 
unnecessary pain on our country or on our economy and those who sent us 
here to try to improve their lives.
  Here we are on day 12 of the Republican government shutdown and less 
than a week from an unprecedented government default; and every day 
that the Republican majority does not allow a clean vote to reopen the 
government and give us a long-term certainty on the debt ceiling, they 
are violating that most important rule: do no harm.
  Critical child care, nutrition support, lifesaving research, small 
business capital, high-tech and groundbreaking research and 
development, home loans, affordable housing, veterans benefits, tax 
support, visas and passports are all negatively affected. And the list 
goes on and on to touch nearly every sector of the economy, with the 
cost to our economy compounding every day; $50 billion is the estimated 
cost to the economy over a month's time.
  As we get closer and closer to defaulting on our debt obligations, we 
are causing more and more undue harm to our economy. A failure to make 
payments on any part of our debt for any amount of time would cause 
severe disruptions in the global financial markets, downgrade the 
creditworthiness of the United States, and do long-term harm to the 
economy. If we defaulted, Social Security, Medicare, and veterans 
benefits could all be disrupted. Retirement accounts would be 
devastated, State and local governments might be forced to default, and 
their ripple effects would be felt all over the world.
  Mr. Speaker, time is running out, and the world is watching. There is 
nowhere for us to hide from our obligations. Let's start the process of 
ending this manufactured crisis and stop inflicting unnecessary harm to 
our economy and to our people. Let's lift this cloud from over our 
economy and have the vote that Americans have been waiting for.
  Let me just close, my friend, with this other personal observation. 
We know the phrase PTSD, and we know about its devastating effects on 
people. I suspect the kinds of things we are doing here--or not doing 
here--is causing or inflicting a massive PTSD upon our seniors, our 
families, and those who are trying to make ends meet. I appreciated you 
doing this Special Order for us.
  Ms. HANABUSA. I thank the gentleman from California. The gentleman 
from California makes some great points, including that we are never 
fully aware of the impacts, and that is what is the saddest part of 
what has been done with the shutdown, and that is we do not know what 
are the true impacts. I can say for my Democrat colleagues, that is the 
reason why we fight so hard on trying to reopen government. But the 
question is for the majority party and especially for the Speaker, what 
about the people? The gentleman raises a great point.
  I just would like to share something before I call upon the 
gentlelady from Illinois. I just learned recently in visiting with some 
of the most decorated members of the Greatest Generation, members of 
the acclaimed 442nd Regiment in Hawaii, everyone knows about them, and 
one person came up to me and said, You know, we found out that although 
our fathers sort of suffered quietly as a result of that war and the 
result of the rejection by a Nation that didn't want them, that they 
were suffering from PTSD, we just didn't know that it was called that 
back then.
  I think the gentleman from California makes an amazing point, that we 
have got to see the hidden injuries, because if we can all look upon 
the hidden injuries; no one, on either side of the aisle, can let this 
craziness continue.
  With that, I yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Bustos).
  Mrs. BUSTOS. Thank you very much. I appreciate this opportunity, and 
I also appreciate that you are talking about the human consequences of 
this shutdown. That is what I have been doing for the past couple of 
weeks now is trying to draw attention to the human consequences of this 
senseless government shutdown because this is about people we are here 
to serve, and now we are in week two of this crisis.
  What I have been doing is spending a lot of time on the telephone 
talking firsthand with the people from my region of Illinois who are 
suffering through no fault of their own. Today, I would like to share a 
story about a family who not only wants a piece of the American Dream, 
but is striving to achieve that and is working their tails off to 
achieve just a piece of the American Dream.
  This is a story about a woman named Jill King. She is a wife and 
mother of two young girls and a disabled veteran from Moline, Illinois. 
Jill also happens to be a Federal employee who works at the Rock Island 
Arsenal, which is the

[[Page 15797]]

largest employer in the district I am here to serve.

                              {time}  1200

  On top of all that, Jill has gone back to college as a way to 
continue her education, and her husband, also a veteran, who lost his 
job recently, has gone back to school to increase his employment 
opportunities. All they want to do is provide a better life for their 
two young girls. They are ages 4 and 6. One is a preschooler, and one 
is a first-grader. But because of this government shutdown, Jill has 
been furloughed and is afraid that now she will lose her VA benefits on 
top of it. With her husband back in school, not knowing where their 
next paycheck is going to come from, Jill and her husband are rightly 
worried about how they are going to make their home mortgage payment, 
or, for that matter, even pay their most basic bills.
  Jill and her husband worked very hard for a number years in order to 
buy a home. They had to rent to save that money. They have never missed 
a payment of any sort. They have never even been late with any payment. 
Now what Jill is left doing is calling her banks just to talk about the 
what-ifs, because, like many people throughout the country, they don't 
know what the next steps are. They have had to cut back, and Jill has 
even had to stop going to her doctor appointments because of the 
injuries that she has been treated for that are associated with her 
military service. Her husband now is considering dropping out of school 
in order to bring home more money to help their family, and Jill is now 
applying for a second job.
  What especially worries her is that if she has to work both night and 
day, and with her husband now not sure what he's going to have to do as 
far as his education or going back to work, is that her children--
again, ages 4 and 6--might have to be at the babysitter not only during 
the day, but at night now. I would ask any mother, or for that matter 
any parent: Who thinks that that is acceptable?
  There is so much sacrifice that we have asked of our veterans and 
their families, and in this case we are asking so much of this family 
when all they want to do is do better. Jill King and her family want 
more from their government. And on week two of the shutdown, I ask of 
this Congress to do what is right for families like Jill's. That is 
nothing more than let's talk, shake hands, work together, be civil, be 
kind, and allow Congress to vote on a measure that simply reopens this 
government.
  We have been talking this morning and now into the afternoon that the 
votes are there. Republicans and Democrats, together, but only 
together, can reopen this government. We can do it right now. We could 
do it right this minute for that matter. I think everybody here today--
at least here today--would say let's do that. Let's bring this up for a 
vote. Let's open up government. Let's do what is right for Jill King 
and her family and all the families throughout this country.
  Ms. HANABUSA. If the gentlelady would stay for some conversation.
  I had the opportunity to actually go to Rock Island. I know people 
are probably saying, what is somebody from Hawaii doing in Rock Island? 
I also want people to know how difficult it must be for Jill because 
Rock Island Arsenal, what many may not be aware of, is the last foundry 
of the United States Army we have in the United States. They actually 
do do things like the necessary plates to keep people safe in the 
Humvees and the Strykers and things like that. They are also faced with 
the question as we withdraw or draw-down from Afghanistan, and as we 
have drawn down from Iraq, of what happens to Rock Island Arsenal, and 
what they are able to do for the military--the whole idea of reset, and 
what do we do with that? I can just imagine the uncertainty with 
sequestration, with the drawdown, and now with this unnecessary 
shutdown that it must cause her amazing and critical concern about the 
future of her family, and to put on top of that the concern over 
veterans benefits.
  Because we have talked about this, I would like for you to share how 
your office has been able to get this kind of information because you 
have actually adjusted your schedule and what your office does to 
service your constituents. I would like for you to say that because it 
is so important as to how you have tried to adjust and make things 
easier for them.
  Mrs. BUSTOS. I appreciate greatly the kind words that you say about 
the Rock Island Arsenal. It is the largest employer in the entire 
7,000-square-mile district that I represent that stretches from 
Rockford to Peoria to the Quad Cities, and so many great towns in 
between. We have about 8,000 employees there. Here is what they have 
been going through because of the nonsense, these votes that have been 
cast that have hurt government employees who just want to do a good 
job.
  People like Jill and the rest of the employees there, leading up to 
this, they had to take 6 furlough days. Already, that was a cut in 
their pay of what they are used to bringing home. That was already a 
cut in their pay. On top of that, they haven't received pay raises 
going on 4 years now. We want to encourage people to go into public 
service in these jobs that are helping people and helping our military 
in this case.
  You had mentioned the armored reinforcement that is built right in 
the heart of my district at the Rock Island Arsenal. What that did was, 
early in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, our military men and 
women were driving in Humvees that did not have armor reinforcement, 
and they were sustaining horrible injuries and death. The workers at 
the Rock Island Arsenal, the foundry and the manufacturing sector of 
this, actually developed these and produced these to save countless 
lives. So the work that the people at the Rock Island Arsenal are doing 
is meaningful work, it is lifesaving work--and look how they have been 
treated as a result of this.
  I appreciate you also bringing up the fact that in light of this 
government shutdown, we in our office have restructured things because 
we are public servants. We are here to make sure we are doing 
everything we can in light of this atmosphere. We have five offices in 
our district in Illinois, and we have our office out here. That is six 
offices altogether. What we have done is we have opened our office an 
hour early and we stay an hour late. And every single one of our 
employees, including myself, are all answering telephones, doing 
casework, and talking to the people who call in about their concerns 
about what is happening in the government and what they can expect 
next.
  What I have learned from this, and something I will continue doing 
well after the government shutdown, is I will continue answering the 
telephone calls and reaching out to people because I never want to lose 
sight of why we are here. You understand it. Our colleagues understand 
why we are here. That is to serve people. Government can be a force for 
good.
  Where government is in the way, I don't know anybody here who doesn't 
want to fix that. We want to fix anything that is broken or bent or 
just needs some tweaking. We want to fix that. We also know that 
government can be a force for good. That is why we run for office. That 
is why we are out here in Washington, D.C. That is why it is so 
disheartening what a few people in Congress have done to this country. 
It is time to move to this next level now.
  Ms. HANABUSA. I thank the gentlelady from Illinois, and thank you for 
reaching out so clearly for your constituents.
  I now call upon the gentlelady from Oregon (Ms. Bonamici).
  Ms. BONAMICI. I want to thank my colleague from Hawaii for yielding 
some time and for this opportunity to talk about the harmful effects 
and the hidden injuries of this unnecessary government shutdown.
  My colleague from Illinois was just talking about the human 
consequences. We also have to talk about the economic consequences to 
our constituents and to this country on day 12 of a completely 
unnecessary government shutdown.
  I really appreciate this opportunity because our constituents want to 
hear

[[Page 15798]]

and we need to get the message out there about the harm that is being 
caused by this. And like my colleague from Illinois, I spent a good 
part of this week on the telephone talking with constituents out in the 
great State of Oregon. I have to tell you people are concerned, they 
are anxious, and they are frustrated.
  I spoke with our National Guard. There is so much uncertainty out 
there among the National Guard members about when they'll be paid. Many 
of them are unable to work. They are anxious.
  Our community action organization that is designed to help low-income 
people, they are worried. They are already struggling, some of these 
families. They don't know if they will be able to continue getting the 
assistance they need.
  Our Head Start organization--if you really want to make a difference 
in a child's life, early childhood education makes that difference. Our 
Head Start programs are being threatened.
  Just a while ago here in this discussion, somebody mentioned health 
care research. I talked to one of our supervisors of health care 
research at the Oregon Health & Science University. It is clear and 
obvious that health care research is not something that can be put on 
hold and picked up again when the government figures things out. So 
much is at stake here with the researchers who have dedicated so much 
time on their research projects and are at a halt because they might 
need something like NIH approval that they can't get. They are 
extremely concerned, and here we are on day 12.
  I have to say that the government shutdown is not just affecting 
Federal employees and their families, or even those directly connected, 
like government contractors. It is also hurting private sector 
businesses, and that is what I wanted to highlight in the next couple 
of minutes.
  There is a business in my district, Leupold. It is in Beaverton, 
Oregon. They have about 700 employees, and they manufacture specialized 
optics. That is 700 employees in Beaverton, Oregon. Right now they have 
$10 million in orders that they can't ship. They can't ship them 
because they need export licenses because they sell their scopes and 
their binoculars and other products overseas, and they get that 
approval from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and 
Security. So if we can't resolve this government shutdown, they are 
soon going to lose those sales to foreign competitors. That hurts our 
economy, it hurts the employees who work there, and it hurts the 
business.
  Here is another example. Oregon, you might know, is well-known for 
craft beer. There are a lot of great small businesses, and those people 
work really hard to brew a great product. In Hillsboro, Oregon, in the 
district I am honored to represent, Three Mugs Brewing Company is all 
set to open. They are paying their rent, they are paying their 
utilities, their business expenses, but they can't start brewing 
because they need approval from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade 
Bureau. They approve the labels and recipes for brewers. So here is 
this great small business, an entrepreneur ready to start, and they 
have their store, they are paying their rent and expenses, and they 
can't start brewing their beer because of this unnecessary government 
shutdown. It is time to end this right now, and we could end it today.
  I, along with my colleagues here, we signed a petition to open 
government today. We could end this shutdown now, because across the 
State of Oregon, as well as across this country, our constituents are 
more than ready for this government to be back open.
  I try, I struggle to understand how they must view this from across 
the country. We are here in Washington, D.C. We have been here day 
after day after day ready to open up the government and get the 
employees back to work, but what must we look like? I thought of an 
analogy. So there is an accident about to happen, and those nearby can 
prevent the accident, but they don't because they can't agree how to 
prevent the accident. So the accident happens, and now the victim is 
bleeding. The victim has been bleeding for 12 days. Guess what? There 
is a disagreement about what kind of bandage to put on the victim. That 
is how absurd this must look to the United States of America. This is 
an unnecessary government shutdown. It has been 12 days now. Let's get 
the government open. We can do it today.
  I hope the Speaker calls us back today for a vote. The votes are 
there. We can pass a continuing resolution. Let's pass that resolution, 
open up the government, and continue the conversation about how to 
build our economy, get our budget conference committee going. We can do 
that today, and I hope we do.
  I want to thank again the gentlelady from Hawaii for giving us the 
opportunity to really highlight how this unnecessary government 
shutdown is hurting our constituents and our economy.

                              {time}  1215

  Ms. HANABUSA. I thank very much the gentlelady from Oregon, who 
clearly is in her district looking and hearing what her constituents 
are saying. I will always remember Beaverton, Oregon, and her 700 
constituent employees of that company that is unable to ship, because 
that is really what this is about. We initially reacted to the 
immediate impact of the Federal employees, but now we are beginning to 
see, as the gentlelady from Oregon pointed out, that it is more than 
just the immediate employees, contractors who deal with the Federal 
Government; it is also the people who need the Federal Government 
because of their businesses. So the gentlelady from Oregon has brought 
forth an amazing story, as well as given us further insight into how 
this really Republican government shutdown has hurt everyone.
  Now I would like to call upon the gentlelady from Florida (Ms. 
Frankel).
  Ms. FRANKEL of Florida. First I would like to thank the esteemed 
Representative from Hawaii for sharing this time with me.
  Mr. Speaker, I once again rise and join my colleagues in urging you 
to allow us to vote to reopen government. I have been up here before 
day after day. I have taken a nuanced approach, quoting the wisdom of 
the popular children's author, Dr. Seuss, but today the Dr. Seuss 
gloves come off.
  It is no wonder, no wonder that a recent poll of Americans show that 
Congress is less popular than hemorrhoids, toenail fungus, dog poop, 
and cockroaches. Like millions of Americans, I want to put my head out 
the window and shout that this standoff is idiotic and this reckless, 
irresponsible shutdown has got to stop.
  Mr. Speaker, as I speak, the Earth is in turmoil. Iran is building a 
nuclear weapon; in Syria, a civil war is killing thousands of women and 
children; in Nairobi, terrorists attacked innocent shoppers in a retail 
mall; and in Europe, major countries are going bankrupt.
  So what does the greatest Nation on Earth do to set an example for 
the rest of the world? We hang a sign that says, ``Closed for 
business.'' And as we try to emerge from a recession that hurt so many 
of our constituents, we proceed to throw 800,000 patriotic Americans 
out of a job, leaving them without income to pay their mortgages, their 
car loans, their children's tuition. Oh, but that is not all. We stop 
the funding for Head Start for millions of children and slow down 
benefits for veterans who risked their lives and their liberty for our 
freedom.
  Mr. Speaker, this government does not belong to the United States 
Congress. This government belongs to the people of America, and they 
are demanding, rightfully so, that we open our government today.
  Mr. Speaker, let us vote today.
  Mr. Speaker, if this Congress delays any longer, I respectfully 
suggest that even the Ebola virus and twerking will overtake us in the 
polls, and it will be well-deserved.
  Ms. HANABUSA. Thank you to my good friend, the gentlelady from 
Florida (Ms. Frankel). As she always has the capacity of bringing 
things down to the basics, I would hate to admit that

[[Page 15799]]

we would be less popular than the Ebola virus; but knowing the 
gentlelady from Florida, she probably has a basis for what she has 
said.
  Mr. Speaker, my Special Order time is running down, and I would just 
like to say, after listening to all of the people who have spoken--the 
gentleman from Texas, the gentleman from California, the gentlewoman 
from Florida, the gentlewoman from Oregon, and the gentlewoman from 
Illinois--and all of their stories that they have shared and the 
concerns of their constituents, you have got to start to ask the 
question, why, and what does the Republican majority, Mr. Speaker, 
intend to gain--to gain--from this shutdown?
  Let's also look at H. Res. 368 that we passed on October 1 regarding 
the amendment to clause 4 of rule XXII that says, any motion pursuant 
to clause 4 of rule XXII relating to House Joint Resolution 59--and we 
all know that is the CR--may be offered only by the majority leader or 
his designee. You add this on top of everything else, the inability for 
people to come forward on behalf of their constituents to ask for 
unanimous consent to bring House Joint Resolution 59 to the floor, not 
being able to do that, and the fact that we have a petition, a 
discharge petition that people are signing up for because that is the 
only alternative, is this the message we want to give to the people of 
the United States, that not only does the House of Representatives shut 
down government because of a minority group within the Republican Party 
that is the majority, but in addition to that, you have taken away the 
ultimate form of representative government, which is that each and 
every one of their elected Representatives has a right to come before 
this body and to make a motion and to be heard? But instead we have 
shut that down on October 1 as well. That should be even more 
problematic to the people of this great Nation, that a motion and a 
rule such as that was passed. And, Mr. Speaker, I remind you, nine--
nine--of your own Republicans couldn't even stomach that and could not 
vote for that.
  So why are we doing this? Why? It began with, well, we will go along 
with the continuing resolution that the Senate sent back on the 
condition that we first defund ObamaCare. We had delays of ObamaCare. 
We had repeals of ObamaCare, and that sort of lasted for last week and 
then it stopped. No mention of ObamaCare. No mention at all of 
ObamaCare.
  Then what did we start to do? We started to pick and choose and 
cherry-pick which part of government we wanted to open up. And you knew 
that was DOA, dead on arrival in the Senate. But yet, Mr. Speaker, you 
decided well, maybe the optics would be better. But it hasn't been 
better. It has not been better.
  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has come out against not only the 
failure to address the debt ceiling and saying that the United States 
cannot default; they also said you shouldn't allow the shutdown. And 
big businesses have also said that. Banks have said that. People that 
the average person probably associates more with the Republican Party 
than they do with the Democrats, and they are saying do not do this. 
Yet it is being done. It is being done.
  The people in Hawaii will know this concept, and the concept is save 
face. You know, we have a saying back home that what people sometimes 
need to do is save face. And I think that is what it comes down to. The 
polls, Wall Street Journal polls are slamming the Republican position, 
Mr. Speaker. You are being given but a 24 percent favorable rating. So 
what does that say to you? It says the people are not with you. The 
people do not support this crazy--I don't know what to call it. I would 
like to say it is a plan, but I can't see anyone being behind a plan 
that makes the people of this great Nation suffer.
  You heard the story of Jill. You heard the story from the gentleman 
from California who talks about he knows people are suffering PTSD. You 
have heard the fears of not being able--not being able--to know when 
you will be working and when you are not going to be working.
  Yes, we in the House passed, we passed 3223--I believe that number is 
correct--that says we will retropay. But that doesn't give them their 
paycheck because a continuing resolution hasn't passed; and it hasn't 
passed the Senate, though we believe the Senate will be with it, and we 
also believe the President will sign it into law. But for those people, 
yes, it is like an empty promise, the same empty promise that they 
believe we had when everyone said we are not going to shut down 
government. Why would we shut down government? And here we are, this is 
the 12th day of the shutdown, day 12, and do we have anything to tell 
them? No.
  Instead, we emphasize the fact that their Representatives who want to 
see a vote, because we believe that there are members of the Republican 
Party who will support a clean CR and a voting to open up government at 
the level, at the level of funding which the Republicans wanted, Paul 
Ryan wanted, but we are not even able to do that because of a 
procedural move.
  Procedural moves are what the people of this great Nation dislike the 
most, because they feel that it is some kind of hidden deal and we are 
not being transparent and we are also not giving people true 
representation. To abdicate the ability to bring something to the floor 
as important as the government continuing to operate to one person or 
his designee is exactly what the people do not want. And that is what 
we are dealing with, Mr. Speaker. We are dealing with this shutdown for 
no basis, because you have abandoned ObamaCare now. There is no 
ultimate plan.
  We have the looming debt ceiling crisis, which is what Wall Street is 
even more concerned about than anything else, and what we should all be 
concerned about, because the full faith and credit of the United States 
should never be in question and should never be in jeopardy because we 
can cause a recession worldwide with that action. There is no plan. 
There is no plan.
  You wanted to show that you could shut down government, Mr. Speaker, 
so you won. You shut it down. But now, now you must plan how to open 
it. And that has been always the criticism of our great country, that 
we always lack exit strategies, and this is another example of a lack 
of an exit strategy. You win the shutdown, but how do you open up? That 
is the question, Mr. Speaker. And that is the question that only you 
can answer to the people of this great Nation. And only you can answer 
to the people of this great Nation why, why you have taken away the 
ultimate form of representative government by abdicating the right to 
bring this most critical measure to this floor to one person or his 
designee.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________