[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18689]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          DO-NOTHING CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Michigan (Mr. Kildee) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, this Republican-controlled 
Congress has been one of the least productive Congresses in modern 
times. Recently, the Speaker of the House actually said, ``We've done 
our work.'' This year we passed only 56 bills. That is sad and that is 
wrong. And this month, we are in session here on this floor for only 8 
days.
  Important issues continue to pile up, unresolved and unanswered. And 
yet tomorrow, we are getting ready to leave for the rest of the year, 
even as the Senate will continue to work on behalf of the American 
people. The list of what we have not done is much longer than what we 
have passed. We need to stay here and get the work of the American 
people done.
  We haven't taken up a jobs and infrastructure bill. We could do that 
next week.
  We have not passed a long-term budget deal that tackles the big 
issues that we face.
  We have not voted on comprehensive immigration reform, despite the 
fact that a majority would support immigration reform. All we need to 
do is bring it to the floor. We could do that next week.
  We haven't done our work to extend unemployment compensation for 1.3 
million Americans who will lose their benefits on December 28, yet we 
are going to leave this body having failed to act to protect the 
livelihood of 1.3 million Americans. That is just wrong.
  We haven't considered raising the minimum wage, despite the economic 
boon that it would be to give millions of working class people more 
purchasing power, supporting business, and supporting economic growth.
  And we have a bipartisan farm bill. Sure it has got some problems. I 
don't know how everybody would vote on it, but it ought to come to the 
floor of the House for a ``yes'' or ``no'' vote. We could do that next 
week.
  The list goes on. Unfortunately, it is completely fair to 
characterize this Republican-led House as a do-nothing Congress. 
Sometimes, though, it seems as though the things we have actually done 
have only made things worse.
  In March, we allowed the harmful across-the-board sequester cuts to 
go into effect. Nobody here tried to stop them. On our side, we tried 
to stop them. Nobody did anything on the other side. Those draconian 
cuts went into effect, slowed economic growth, and cost hundreds of 
thousands of Americans their jobs.
  In October, the gridlock and dysfunction shut down the Federal 
Government for 2 weeks--the first such shutdown in two decades. That 
cost this economy $24 billion. We can't let that happen in the future.
  I am only a freshman, just finishing my first year in Congress, but I 
can tell you one thing I know: this is no way to run this government. 
We have got to get back to legislating, doing the work of the American 
people, the way the Framers of this government intended it to be done.

                              {time}  1030

  We can just kind of go back. Some of you might remember ``Schoolhouse 
Rock,'' how a bill becomes a law. The House passes a bill, the Senate 
does its work, passes a bill, we go to conference, we work out the 
differences, and send that on to the President for his signature or for 
a veto. That is the way we legislate.
  Yet, we continue to lurch from crisis to crisis and not let the will 
of the American people be manifest in the laws that we write. My 
constituents, and all Americans, deserve a Congress that is serious 
about the work of the American people and ready to get to work to grow 
our economy, to support manufacturing, to strengthen the middle class.
  I am ready to work in a bipartisan fashion. I think most of us are 
here to take on these big problems that our country faces. Now is not 
the time for more dithering or delay. Now is certainly not the time for 
a vacation.
  Look, I would love to be able to go home and spend the next couple of 
weeks with my family. You know, we spend a lot of time away from home. 
But the folks that we represent expect us to get our work done.
  So I, Mr. Speaker, am one who is willing to just stay here. Let's 
come back to work on Monday, and let's stay here until we get this 
important work done.
  Let's take the Make It In America agenda to support American 
manufacturing; let's bring it to the floor. You don't want to vote for 
it, don't vote for it. But we ought to consider these important pieces 
of legislation that are important to our economy and not leave town 
without taking up the important work that we are charged with doing.
  I represent Flint, Saginaw, Bay City, older industrial cities that 
helped build the manufacturing base of our economy. They depend on the 
Congress to do the work that we were sent here to do. We shouldn't go 
home. We should stay here and finish our work.

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