[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13622-13623]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    CONGRESS LEAVES WITH WORK UNDONE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Wisconsin (Mr. Ribble) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. RIBBLE. Mr. Speaker, one of the things that I am concerned about 
and I think every American is concerned about is the reputation of the 
Congress of the United States in the eyes of the American people. We 
know what our approval ratings are, and we are well aware of it; but we 
often don't take a moment and pause and say what are the things that we 
could do to have the American people once again view this Chamber, the 
people's House, as a place of honor, as a place that is actually doing 
the people's business.
  Here we are, 48 hours away from a recess. We are going to be going 
back and talking with the people in our districts. Each one of us 
represents around 700,000 American citizens. We are going to go home 
and we are going to spend some time talking with those citizens, and I 
think that is appropriate. However, I also think it is appropriate for 
us to get our work done, and I want to talk this morning, Mr. Speaker, 
about a key fundamental requirement of the law of this Congress, and 
that is to provide the Nation and the American people with a budget 
that is fiscally secure and to provide for spending bills under the law 
so that the money that the taxpayers are sending to Washington, D.C., 
they are aware of how that money is being spent.
  This is 2014, Mr. Speaker. Leaving for the entire month of August was 
a tradition, as I have read, brought to this

[[Page 13623]]

Chamber because of the extreme heat of Washington, D.C., prior to air-
conditioning. But here we are in 2014, the building is air-conditioned 
and the lights are on. It is a relatively comfortable place to work. We 
could stay here and actually finish up some of the work of the people.
  For example, in 1974, four decades ago, the Congress of the United 
States passed a budget act and the President signed into law a budget 
act that required the Congress to actually pass a budget and to do its 
spending bills and complete them by September 30. In four decades, here 
we are on the 40th anniversary of that law. In four decades, it has not 
happened even one time when the Congress did its work and completed its 
spending bills within the amount of time allotted under the law. The 
American people are struck by that.
  How can the Congress of the United States ignore the law? How can the 
Congress of the United States say we are going to find ourselves in 
agreement, Democrats and Republicans, House and Senate and the 
President, and we are going to agree to do these things? Well, quite 
frankly, the law had one weakness: it had no enforcement trigger in it.
  A few years ago, a good friend of mine, a gentleman from across the 
aisle, Congressman Jim Cooper from Nashville, Tennessee, wrote a piece 
of legislation called No Budget, No Pay. A couple of years ago, we 
finally signed that bill into law--a part of it into law--and for the 
first time since I have been in Congress, the Senate of the United 
States actually passed a budget because they found out that if they 
didn't, there would be an enforcement trigger that happened.
  I have recently written a bill called the Do Your Job Act, which 
would require the Congress to do all 12 of the spending bills prior to 
the end of the year or they can't recess for more than 24 hours. They 
have to stay here and do their job so the American people can see 
firsthand what our priorities are.
  I came to Congress in 2011, and in the 4 years I have been here, we 
have been required by law to pass 48 spending bills. The U.S. Senate, 
in those 4 years' time, has passed two. The House has done quite a bit 
better. They have passed 24. But they are required to pass 48. This 
year, the Senate has passed zero. They have done none. The House of 
Representatives has passed seven, and has referred another four out of 
committee that are ready to go. We ought to stay here and pass those 
bills and send them to the Senate.
  Mr. Speaker, this is the people's House. We ought to be here doing 
the people's business for the good of the American people. We should 
stay here and do our job.

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