[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4925]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        ELIMINATE THE SEQUESTER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, most of us came here to this place to 
serve the American people and to ensure that the most powerful law-
making body answers the needs and the cries of those who cannot speak 
for themselves, and yet, as we languish in those values, they may be 
more on paper than they are in action.
  I rise today to ask, maybe even plead, that this House puts on the 
floor H.R. 900, which is to eliminate the sequester from the Budget 
Reconciliation Act and to go to regular order because the people of the 
United States are hurting, and even more so, I would say that they are 
crying.
  It's very easy for us to be able to say there is no impact; we see no 
impact. I hope for those who have been in their districts for the last 
2 weeks that they will realize how inaccurate and untrue that is. In 
fact, it hurts me to see the pain in my constituents' faces and homes 
because of sequester--a reckless scheme to move Congress to act and it 
did not work.
  Some will say whose fault it was, whose idea it was. We really don't 
care because right now there are people who have lost Head Start seats, 
whose parents have been told their children cannot come back to school 
anymore. Grown men crying--grown men crying because their little one 
cannot go back to a Head Start class, and they have nowhere else for 
them to go.
  The WIC program that is so desperately needed for women, infants, and 
children--cut to the bone. This is a scheme that is long overdue for us 
to get rid of.
  Food inspectors. Just recently, a food business was shut down in my 
district. The thought of it is horrible. Many of their products in our 
local grocery stores. If we had not had food inspectors from the FDA, 
which we probably won't have anytime soon because they're being slashed 
and eliminated, this product would still be on the market. $85 billion 
in cuts is too nondescript.
  The Federal emergency management under Homeland Security, $1 billion 
being cut, which means those who are still suffering from Superstorm 
Sandy, many of whom are homeless, 40,000 are still in hotel rooms in 
New York, they won't be able to be helped.
  Department of Transportation, $1.943 billion, and that means the New 
Starts, mobility, people waiting in line for light rail, jobs cut 
immediately. I spoke this weekend to FAA members, air traffic 
controllers. Don't think it's not being felt, and it will be felt more 
and more in the summer increase of travel because of $637 million in 
losses, and almost $500 million of that is jobs.
  We are in trouble. $512 million cut from Customs and Border Patrol 
over the international ports of entry. We're talking about 
comprehensive immigration reform and border security. There's your 
border security--cutting the very personnel that are ensuring the 
security of America. That's wrong-headed, and it's time to stop now.
  But it really pains my heart, if you will, to see the cuts to those 
innocent families with those children in Head Start, to see the cuts to 
workers who have done nothing other than to come to work every morning, 
those Federal workers, and the impact on contractors to the Department 
of Defense, work that is forward-thinking in dealing with technology, 
cut to the bone, slashing employees. We will see the surge of the 
economy going down.
  This is not the fault of the administration. This is the inaction of 
us in the United States Congress, and I think it is immediately 
necessary for Speaker Boehner to put on the floor of the House for a 
full debate H.R. 900, eliminate the sequester, simple sentence, and go 
to regular order. Begin the process of the budget. Whether you like 
this budget or that budget, begin the appropriate process of 
appropriations, for if you don't think that we're going to have one of 
the darkest seasons forthcoming, you wait and see what $85 billion in 
reckless cuts means. It's a trickle-down effect. You cannot recoup. 
Jobs will not come back, and we were moving up, creating jobs.
  Everybody wants to point the finger as to whose fault it is, and I 
believe it is something where we have to come together.
  I want to finish on the note that medical research funded by the 
National Institutes is also being cut, and we were number one in 
medical research. The time is now. Get rid of the sequester and help 
the American people.

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