[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15883]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              LET US VOTE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Huffman) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, this is a critical moment for the 113th 
Congress of the United States. We have an opportunity to let this House 
work its will, to end the government shutdown, to protect the full 
faith and credit of our country, to show the whole world that after a 
3-week bout with insanity, the duly elected Representatives of the 
people in this Congress finally came to their senses.
  But I am concerned that that is not where we are heading here in the 
11th hour of this crisis as we approach the precipice of the debt 
ceiling and the prospect of default. Instead of working together to 
develop a budget that would work for Americans, my colleagues across 
the aisle in the Republican Party continue to let reckless ideologues 
drive their agenda and drive all of us further into a national crisis.
  I have the honor of serving on the Budget Committee; and along with 
Ranking Member Van Hollen, the Democratic members of that committee 
have been calling since the spring for a conference committee so that 
we could actually work out a budget that could work for both parties 
and for the American people, but the GOP leadership in this House has 
refused to appoint conferees, has refused to go into that negotiation. 
Why did they do that? Because they preferred the strategy of taking us 
to this point, into this crisis with the government shutdown, up to the 
edge of the cliff with the possibility of default because they wanted 
to maximize their leverage.
  Why have they shut down the government? Why have they put us in this 
position? Well, we heard for months that it was their obsession with 
the Affordable Care Act, with repealing, delaying, defunding ObamaCare. 
Yet all of a sudden, 3 weeks into this crisis, the goalposts are 
moving. It is not so much about ObamaCare. Sometimes it is in, and 
sometimes it is out on their list of demands. What about the deficit 
and the debt? Sometimes that is part of the stated reason for this 
manufactured crisis.
  Back to ObamaCare. There is no question about it that the CBO says 
that moving forward with the Affordable Care Act will actually improve 
our deficit, will actually help us better manage our long-term debt. We 
know that there are all sorts of things that we could do together if 
reducing the deficit and managing our debt was the goal. For example, 
we could pass bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform, which again 
the CBO tells us would lower our deficits, lower our national debt, but 
that doesn't seem to really be what this Republican-manufactured crisis 
is all about.
  It calls to mind the farewell address of our first President--the 
Founder of our country, George Washington--who warned about political 
parties who were at war with their own government. He warned about 
factions that were driven to defeat other factions by the spirit of 
revenge and dissension and how that itself would become a frightful 
form of despotism.
  Mr. Speaker, it seems to me that we are walking very close to that 
awful scenario that our first President dreaded. Now we are hearing a 
bit of good news from the other House that Senator Reid and Senator 
McConnell are close to a bipartisan agreement to help resolve this 
crisis. I have no doubt there would be enough votes in this House to 
pass that kind of agreement.
  So to my Republican friends, let us vote on that deal or, even 
better, let us vote on the clean CR that has been pending in this House 
for weeks that could get us out of this crisis. It would temporarily 
fund the government at Republican funding levels while we work on a 
longer-term budget solution. Let us vote.
  It seems to me that the GOP needs to simply take ``yes'' for an 
answer, allow this House to work its will and get out of this crisis. 
Unfortunately, we have heard from Senator Reid that there were deals 
reached weeks ago. When Speaker Boehner brought those deals back to 
this House, he found that the Tea Party faction in his caucus wouldn't 
support him, and, instead, they chose to shut this government down and 
take us into this crisis. They did something worse than that. They 
rigged the rules of this House with the so-called martial law that has 
prevented Democrats from offering any alternatives, any off-ramps for 
this crisis. They shut down the government, and they hardwired it to 
stay shut down, and now, like the dog that finally catches the car, my 
Republican friends don't know what to do with the situation they have 
created.
  I have a suggestion. Instead of continuing to grope for overreaching 
concessions and fig leafs, cut your losses. Admit that this scorched-
Earth politics of obstruction--this war against the very government 
that you were sent here to govern--is a bad idea. Let us vote on 
solutions to end this crisis.
  We don't even need an apology for all of the damage you have caused--
for the $160 million a day that has undermined our economic recovery 
and economic losses from this shutdown. We don't even need an apology 
for the thousands of Federal employees indefinitely furloughed, for the 
national parks and forests that have been shuttered, for the loans to 
farmers and families, who are trying to purchase homes, that have been 
held up. We don't need you to apologize for halting lifesaving 
research, for any of that.
  Just let us vote to end this crisis. If you don't, don't bother 
apologizing, because the American people will never forgive the damage 
you have done to this country and to our standing in the world.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to direct their remarks 
to the Chair.

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