[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2012]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             SEQUESTRATION

  (Mr. LOWENTHAL asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LOWENTHAL. Mr. Speaker, unless we do something, Friday will be a 
day that none of us want to see but that very few of us seem to have 
the courage or conviction to prevent.
  Today, we stand here with two options: devastating, meat-cleaver cuts 
or political courage.
  Last week in my district I met with the leadership of the Los 
Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base. California military cuts of almost 
$70 million would put this base at risk.
  Who are we talking about? These are our first responders, our 
firefighters, our citizen soldiers. These are the people that will be 
affected by sequestration.
  If we must choose between cuts or political courage, I choose 
political courage. We must come together to do what is right.
  I ask for a balanced approach to deficit reduction that eliminates 
sequestration. I support Congressman Van Hollen's bill, H.R. 699, and I 
ask unanimous consent to bring this bill to the floor.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the guidelines consistently issued by 
successive Speakers, as recorded on page 752 of the House Rules Manual, 
the Chair is constrained not to entertain the gentleman's request 
unless it has been cleared by the bipartisan floor and committee 
leaderships.

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