[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5935]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               SEQUESTER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, sequester starts with ``S.'' That stands for 
``stupid.'' It is an irrational policy with no common sense attached to 
it, and it is a policy that we are headlong pursuing as a result of the 
actions of the majority in this House. It is a policy that the 
President of the United States opposes, it is a policy that the 
majority in the United States Senate opposes, and it is a policy that 
all of the Members of the Democratic Party in this House oppose.
  My friend on the floor here shakes his head, but he voted for a bill. 
It was called Cut, Cap, and Balance. And Cut, Cap, and Balance said we 
have a target, but if we don't meet it what happens? Sequester 
happens--sequester happens.
  The Republicans passed that through this House long before any deal 
was made not to default on our national debt, which included a 
provision for sequester so that we would achieve Speaker Boehner's 
objective articulated March of 2011 on Wall Street that we would cut 
dollar for dollar the increase in the debt. That's why we have a 
sequester. It starts with ``S.'' It is a stupid policy. It is a 
negative policy. It is a policy that is hurting America.
  Chris Van Hollen, the ranking Democrat of the Budget Committee, 
offered an amendment four times to replace the sequester and achieve 
the same savings. It was rejected, not once, not twice, not three 
times, but all four times by the Republican majority. They wouldn't 
even allow it to be made in order to be put on this floor to have a 
debate on and a vote. This transparent new leadership that we were 
supposed to have wouldn't even allow a vote on this issue.

                              {time}  1020

  Now the Senate has passed a budget which the Republicans have been 
crying wolf about forever. The Senate passed a budget. It replaces 
sequester. It achieves the savings that we need to achieve over time. 
The Ryan budget was passed, which is tantamount to sequester. So now 
we're asking to go to conference, but we haven't gone to conference.
  This week has been a lost week. You've heard about a lost weekend. 
This week, this House has done practically nothing. Now we're going to 
take 2 days, today and tomorrow, to consider a bill about helium that 
could be passed in 10 minutes, which is noncontroversial and passed out 
of committee by a voice vote.
  Will we deal with sequester, which is causing America such grief 
right now? We will not.
  It is a shameful performance by the Congress of the United States. It 
is an irresponsible performance by the majority leadership of this 
House that we will not have the opportunity to replace this irrational, 
stupid, noncommonsense policy we call ``sequester.''
  Some Republicans say, well, this is the President's policy. That's 
baloney. It's not true. It's a fraud. The President is against this 
policy. The Senate Democrats are against this policy, and House 
Democrats are against this policy. If I were the majority leader, as I 
once was, this policy would not have gone into effect, and I want the 
American people, Mr. Speaker, to know that.
  There were some who pretended, oh, it will have no effect. Well, it's 
having an effect on the flying public right now; and on the Food and 
Drug Administration, in overseeing food safety, it's going to have an 
effect. There are 70,000 children who qualify for Head Start who are 
not going to have a seat in Head Start.
  Ladies and gentlemen of this House, we ought to be doing some real 
work this week, not putting bills on the floor and then taking them off 
the floor because, very frankly, the majority party can't get its act 
together. We're now having a helium bill on the floor for 2 days. We're 
not even going to vote on the helium bill today--we're going to vote on 
the rule--and at about 2:30 today, we're going to adjourn.
  My, my, my. What a hard workday.
  We're not dealing with the budget. We're not dealing with the budget 
conference. We're not dealing with getting this country on a fiscally 
sustainable path. We're not dealing with getting rid of the sequester. 
We're dealing with a noncontroversial helium bill that could pass in 10 
minutes in this House.
  America, Mr. Speaker, is angry, and I don't blame them. I'm angry, 
too. America is disgusted with us. I don't blame them. I'm disgusted 
with us as well. I don't blame Mr. and Mrs. America for saying that 
Congress is not doing its work. They're right. We're not. We were sent 
here to serve the American people and our country and make it stronger, 
and we're not doing that. We're failing to come together and reach 
compromise and consensus for positive action in our country.
  How sad, Mr. Speaker. How sad for our country. How sad for our 
people. How sad for our families. There are good people on both sides 
of this aisle, but we're not coming together to do our duty for 
America. How sad.

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