[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16344-16345]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   CONGRESS HAS YET TO TAKE UP THE BIG QUESTIONS FACING THE AMERICAN 
                                 PEOPLE

  (Mr. KILDEE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, here we are just a few days short of the end 
of

[[Page 16345]]

the 113th Congress, and this Congress has yet to take up the big 
questions facing the American people.
  We are 10 days away from a budget deadline, and there is still talk 
among some on the other side of using the sanctity of the budget--the 
economy of this country--as a tool to fight against actions taken by 
this President that the Congress, itself, is unwilling to take up.
  Rather than taking up unemployment insurance, for example, despite 
the fact that we have seen a significant reduction in unemployment 
across the country--in my home State, unemployment is still above 7 
percent--we haven't taken that up.
  Instead of taking up the jobs program, like our Make It In America 
agenda, which would reenergize our manufacturing sector, we have set 
that aside and haven't taken it up.
  Instead of taking up the very subject that has driven some to 
threaten to shut down government--comprehensive immigration reform--we 
haven't even seen a bill come to the floor of the House--not the Senate 
bill, not another bill--that even the Republicans, themselves, could 
put together.
  While we talk a good game about being willing to take on these big 
questions, when it comes time to put something on the floor for us to 
legislate, to vote on, we see no action at all.

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