[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 16103]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1215
                                  JOBS

  (Mr. CICILLINE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, last week, Congress finally took action 
to end a painful, unnecessary government shutdown that cost our economy 
$24 billion, forced hundreds of thousands of Federal workers to stay 
home, and brought us to the brink of defaulting on the full faith and 
credit of the United States.
  While the hardworking men and women I serve in Rhode Island's First 
District are relieved that Congress finally did its job, they want all 
of us to get back to work on addressing the urgent challenges facing 
our Nation--creating jobs, strengthening the economy, fixing our broken 
immigration system, repairing our crumbling infrastructure, and finding 
responsible ways to reduce the Federal debt.
  Like all Americans, Rhode Islanders want their elected officials to 
get beyond the political battles of the moment and work together on 
implementing effective policies and innovative solutions that will put 
our country on the right track and get Americans back to work.
  Over the past several years, the House has voted over and over again 
on bills that would repeal ObamaCare, restrict reproductive freedom for 
women, weaken critical environmental standards, and limit collective 
bargaining rights for workers, even though there is no chance these 
divisive proposals would ever be signed into law. It is time now to get 
things done.
  Each of us should commit to abandoning the partisan rhetoric and 
working as colleagues to overcome the challenges facing our country and 
those we have the privilege to represent here in the Congress.

                          ____________________