District of Columbia Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 370 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to my friend from New York (Ms. Slaughter), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only.

General Leave

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. Speaker, we're here today because we don't have a ``my way or the highway'' system of government. We have a system of government that requires that the people's representatives come together and build consensus, find a common path forward. And that path has been illusive, Mr. Speaker.

Oftentimes, as the reading clerk is reading a bill, you'll see someone ask to waive the reading of the bill, ask unanimous consent that the bill not be read. I'm so pleased that today we had every single word of this resolution read, Mr. Speaker, because the words matter.

I open up a newspaper, it talks about all the division in Washington, D.C. It talks about all the things on which we cannot agree. And what we have before us today, Mr. Speaker, is a bill about things on which we agree.

I hear it from my constituents all the time. They say, Rob, why in the world can't you all get something done? I understand there are things that you legitimately disagree about, ideas about which different parts of the country have different paths forward. But what about those things on which you agree?

That's what we have here today, Mr. Speaker. There's not a Member in this body that is celebrating a government shutdown. What we can celebrate, though, is a path out of the government shutdown. This rule allows for that today.

I want to read those titles again, Mr. Speaker. H.J. Res. 70, to reopen our national parks and museums, common ground on which this body agrees.

H.J. Res. 71, to provide local funding for the District of Columbia. A lot of folks don't realize, but because the District of Columbia is a Federal district, the Federal Government provides a little money, but most of the money comes from the District of Columbia itself. But the District of Columbia is not allowed to spend its local funds without a Federal authorization. This does that.

And then, so important, Mr. Speaker, honoring our promise to America's veterans. I don't believe there's a man or woman in this Chamber that doesn't believe our veterans deserve the very best service that we can provide. I don't think there's a man or a woman in this Chamber who wants to see our VA services halted or curtailed. We solve that today, Mr. Speaker.

Research for Lifesaving Cures Act, Mr. Speaker, H.J. Res. 73, to continue funding at the NIH. NIH makes us all so proud. We do so many first-in-human trials at the Winship Cancer Institute down just outside of my district in Georgia.

Mr. Speaker, lifesaving research, lifesaving opportunities caught up in this government shutdown, not one of those things on which we disagree; one of those things on which we agree. We have an opportunity to get that done today.

And, Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3230, Pay Our Guard and Reserve Act.

Again, there's a lot to be frustrated about here today. And I know folks back home, Mr. Speaker, in your district and in mine, they have a lot to be frustrated about too. But one bright moment in this debate came late on Saturday night when we came together unanimously and said, whatever our disagreements here, our men and women in uniform should not get caught up in it. Pay our troops first. It brought us together.

Not just in this House, Mr. Speaker, we have the ability to come together, but also in the Senate, where, by unanimous consent, they passed that bill. It went to the President's desk.

But what that bill did not include, and what I believe we all believe it should have included, was funding for our National Guard and our Reserve. This bill gives us the opportunity to solve that today.

Mr. Speaker, we tried to bring up three of these five bills yesterday under a process they call suspension of the rules. It requires two- thirds of the House to support it. But because we unanimously supported our troops last week, we assumed that we would be able to unanimously support our veterans, unanimously support our folks here in the District of Columbia, using their local forums, unanimously support our parks and our monuments, and we were wrong.

I'll say to my friends, I don't know if they looked at the numbers-- 80 percent of my friends on the other side of the aisle said no. They said yes, this is something on which we agree, but no, we are not going to participate in solving that problem. We want that problem to persist until you solve all the problems.

Mr. Speaker, I'll close with this. One of our great patriots during the American Revolution, Edmund Burke, said, No man does worse than he who does nothing because he can only do a little.

Mr. Speaker, I concede that some of the things we're working on today might seem like a little. But we have the opportunity to help people. We have an opportunity to make a difference, and shame on us if we do nothing because we can only do a little.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds just to say to my friend that we have an opportunity to do something today. There's been a lot of talk on this floor. We have an opportunity to actually do something, and I don't think there's going to be a single Member on the other side of the aisle that challenges the notion that, if we pass these bills, we will make a difference for American veterans, we will make a difference for American families, and we will make a difference for American Guardsmen and Reservists.

And I do not believe that the heart of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle is that, because we can only do a little, we should do nothing.

At this time, Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Roe), a good friend and great leader in this institution,

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 60 seconds to say to my friend that there's a little revisionist history in that recitation.

You will remember, Mr. Speaker, that the House passed its package, and the Senate said, No, it's our way or the highway. So the House said, Well, let me give you a different package--one that is a little closer to that position. The Senate said, No, it's my way or the highway.

Then the House said, Let me give you a third position that's a little closer to you. And the Senate said a third time, No, it's my way or the highway. And then the House said, Well, come and sit down with me at the table so that we can find a way through our differences. And the Senate said, No, it's my way or the highway.

The American people know who's looking for common ground and consensus in this body.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Mrs. Miller), a real supporter of finding that pathway forward, the chairwoman of the House Administration Committee.

Mr. Speaker, it's clear we're going to hear more ``it's my way or the highway'' from the other side throughout today.

I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Indiana (Mrs. Walorski), a freshman Member of this body who believes that there is a pathway forward and that we can make a difference.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I would say to my friend from Virginia, before he leaves the floor, that I'm grateful to his nephew for his service. I, too, represent a part of the world where service is not an opportunity but an obligation.

I would say, as my friend knows very well, this body, this United States House, in June, passed our Veterans and Military Construction appropriations bill. This whole idea that you're supposed to fund the government in one giant bill is more of that revisionist history. That's exactly the wrong way to fund the government.

The way the government is supposed to be funded, as you know, Mr. Speaker, is that we're supposed to fund it one piece at a time--that's the way it always has been, the way it always should be--because you end up looking to see where those funding priorities are.

So this House, Mr. Speaker, in June, with only four dissenting votes, passed a bill affirming the financial commitment that this Nation should have to our veterans, and it has been sitting, gathering dust, in the United States Senate since June.

Funding for all veterans ran out on September 30. We all knew that. We knew it last September 30 that funding was going to run out this September 30, which is why this House has moved forward on appropriations bills. The Senate has moved forward on zero, Mr. Speaker. That's why it's my way or the highway.

There's a right way to get this done, and we've been trying to do it here. The Senate won't do it the right way. They want to do it their way--and a way that doesn't serve folks back home the way you and I, Mr. Speaker, know that they are entitled to be served.

You have not heard one voice on this floor today dispute that the bills we have before us would make a difference in the lives of American families. You've had folks say it doesn't do enough, but you haven't had folks say it doesn't do what it's intended to do. We have an opportunity to do some good. Let's do it.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

My colleague in the Rules Committee earlier said if we could just get a few of us together around the table we could sort this out. I believe that. I absolutely believe that. If we could just sit down around the table and talk to each other, get together on the facts, we could sort this out. But we're not even together on the facts, Mr. Speaker.

My colleague just talked about how we're taking away 250 years of American governance with this government shutdown. I don't celebrate this shutdown. I wish the Senate would have come to the table so we wouldn't have had a shutdown. But the truth is, Mr. Speaker, in the 16 years that Republicans have controlled this body, this is the third shutdown that has the great misfortune of occurring.

I came along in the Carter administration. I'm from the State of Georgia; President Carter is from the State of Georgia. You go back to the Carter administration, come 16 years forward, Democrats controlled this institution, shut the government down 15 times. In the Carter administration, Mr. Speaker, it was all Democrats--Democrats in the White House, Democrats running the U.S. House, Democrats running the U.S. Senate, shut down the government five times for more than 50 days. I don't celebrate that, but I do recognize that when people refuse to sit down and talk to each other that is sometimes the outcome. It didn't have to be the outcome this time, but here we are.

So we can either throw up our hands in disgust or we can start pointing the fingers of blame or we can do something about it. Again, Mr. Speaker, not one Member of this body has come to

the floor to attest that the passage of this rule and the passage of these underlying bills wouldn't make a difference for American families--and the reason they haven't is because they would.

I understand we're going to continue to disagree, but let's do those things on which we agree. These five bills contain the first of those ideas. And I commit to my colleagues, if we can begin this process today, we can be right back here tomorrow doing more of it.

Wonder of wonders, Mr. Speaker, if we start working together and doing those things that we know our constituents want us to do, we might just find a way out. We might just make constituents back home proud. We can and we should.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 60 seconds to ask my friend from Texas whose words had an impact on me.

My friend from Texas who was talking about the bill we passed in June, I happen to share his commitment to that legislation. It is my understanding that that legislation is sitting today, as it has been since June, in the Senate, and they could take it up and pass it and not fund veterans just for a week or 10 days, but fund those programs at those levels for the entire year.

I would ask my friend if he would join with me in calling on the Senate to do exactly that.

I would be happy to yield to my friend from Texas.

Reclaiming my time, I say to my friend that the clean CR that he is advocating so passionately for cuts the exact same $6 billion that he said is a problem. I agree with him that that's a problem. I hope we won't do that. I hope the Senate will take up that bill.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Radel), a new Member of this body, but one who brings commonsense idea after commonsense idea, bipartisan idea after bipartisan idea to the Rules Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 60 seconds to agree with my friend that folks are not entitled to their own facts. The fact is that the law of the land is the budget number that the Senate is proposing. There is no set of circumstances you can spend a penny more than that. In fact, as all of my colleagues know, beginning on January 1 that number is going to drop another $19 billion.

To suggest that the Senate is compromising by agreeing to follow the law of the land says a lot about where we are in this town, but it says absolutely nothing about genuine compromise.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, at this time, it gives me great pleasure to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Holding), a new Member of this body, but a growing leader in this body.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 60 seconds to say to my friend I know he has a lot of Federal employees in his district, as do I--certainly not as many as he does. I know he speaks from the heart in terms of the struggles that those families are going through.

But I would say to my friend that while that might be his goal, we could have taken a step towards it yesterday and all of your VA employees would have been back and all of your park service employees would have been back and all of your folks who are in the D.C. Government would have been protected.

We could have done it yesterday, and the Democrats defeated it. Now we are bringing it back today, but we could have made a difference yesterday, and we didn't.

I would just say to the gentleman that I know his concern for everyone is heartfelt, but I wish that he would join me in helping at least someone today. We might get all the way there. I believe that we can, but we have got to get started. These bills today get us started in that direction. Again, I appreciate the gentleman's commitment.

I yield myself an additional 30 seconds, and I yield to the gentleman from Virginia.

I yield myself an additional 30 seconds to say that it encourages me that what I hear from my friend is that he doesn't like our proposal because he thinks it's a policy of divisiveness, and he would like to move toward those things that unite us. I happen to feel the same way about these proposals before us.

I think where the Senate is pushing us is a place that divides us, but that these ideas are common-ground ideas that unite us. While we may disagree on that, it does give me great encouragement, as I know it does my constituents back home, that the goal is to find those things that unite us, to focus on those and to move America forward.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, at this time, it gives me great pleasure to yield 1 minute to a leader from the great State of South Carolina (Mr. Rice), a good friend of mine and a new Member of this body.

I very much thank my friend. I do not have any speakers remaining.

I thank my friend from New York for joining me on the floor today.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, it is sad for the House that we have come to define a CR as any sort of success whatsoever. Every Member of this body knows that, when we talk about CRs, we are just talking about varying degrees of failure, because there was a better way that the House was obligated to do that we didn't do.

I want to say to my friends again that no one has said this bill won't help. Absolutely, everyone knows this bill will help, but I want to reach out my hand once again, Mr. Speaker, and say what my friend from South Carolina said moments ago: take your pick. I will meet you on your terms. Either let's take these things that we agree on in government, and let's fund them--let's pick and choose those things we agree on, and let's fund them--or let's fund it all, and let's stop the picking and choosing in ObamaCare of what we like. If it's all good, let's fund all of the government, and let's obey all of ObamaCare, giving those waivers to individuals that Big Business got. If it's not good, then let's focus on these things that we unanimously agree are good.

There is a path forward, Mr. Speaker. We can find it together. I believe the rule and the bill we have before us today begin to take us down that path.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.

Mr. Speaker, good day to you. I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I think if Edmund Burke were alive today he would say that what we're really doing is so very little it's shameful, when we could do so much.

I want to say this, and I want to say it about every chance I get. We could stop this today.

We have just come from a 3-hour Rules meeting and hearing people on the floor and a lot of my colleagues, I have the sense that they don't have any idea what a government shutdown was. All of a sudden it's starting to hurt. Let's pick this piece over here, that one over there, and we can fix that.

800,000 people who work for the United States Government are being used as pawns. We are hurting all of the citizens of the United States who need the services that those 800,000 people provide.

We have one thing to do, Mr. Speaker, one thing: we can take from this desk and concur with the Senate CR. That's it. It doesn't have to go back to the Senate. It can go directly to the President of the United States, maybe even before the big meeting today. Sign it and it's over with. But no, we're not going to do that.

Now, don't believe that this bill was written today because there is a particularly sympathy for patients at NIH or the visitors to the national parks or the citizens of the District of Columbia. These proposals are cynical attempts to make these things pinch just a little bit less.

Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported that 30 sick children, most with cancer, were turned away from NIH clinical trials because of the government shutdown. Should they be pawns in this political, cynical game to hurt the health care bill?

This morning, the majority proposes to reopen NIH, or part of it. Yesterday, the TV cameras were dispatched around the country to capture the footage of museums and monuments closed. This morning the majority proposes they're going to open those sites.

The majority's making itself clear: anytime they see a bad headline, they're going to bring a bill to the floor to make it go away. At this rate, it could be a year from now before we ever finally come to some conclusion thereon, because nobody has said anything about what the end game is here.

How long are you going to hold the government, the country hostage?

Surely it doesn't have anything to do with health care anymore, after yesterday.

Now, if the majority really cared, we'd reopen the entire government, all of NIH, national parks right here, right now on this floor in this action we're taking today.

If the majority held a simple vote on a clean version of the Senate CR, the government shutdown would be closed upon the President's signature.

This afternoon I will give every Member of this Chamber a chance to do just that, as I did just in the Rules Committee. I want you to know that the opportunity to vote for the CR, end the government shutdown, failed 9-4 on a party-line vote. That tells us something about why we're here today and what the purpose is for all of this.

Let me be clear. This amendment is the only chance that this Chamber may ever have to end the government shutdown. If this Chamber supports my amendment, we will pass a clean CR this afternoon.

Now, if the majority really cared about helping those cancer patients' access to health care or letting the World War II veterans visit the monuments and reopening the doors of the Nation's parks and museums, they will vote for my amendment.

The VA, by the way, has announced today that they are running out of money. Furthermore, passing a clean CR would actually do more to help the Nation's veterans than the majority's proposal to fund the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Under the majority's proposal, the VA would receive $6 billion less than if we simply passed the CR which, in other words, has $6 billion more for the veterans than what you're proposing today.

So for all the cries of concern, the majority's desire to shortchange the veterans by $6 billion tells you all that you need to know. And the veterans understand that. They know that they're being used as a pawn in this cynical, political game, and they resent it.

Far from honest policy, today's proposals are more cynical politics. For almost a week, the majority has found itself in a legislative box, or at least I thought so until a little while ago, and the Rules Committee vote, and when they voted 9-4 not to open up the government, I realized that that was the aim all along.

Now, because the Senate voted for cloture on a clean funding bill, a simple majority of Senators have been able to put an end to the repeated attempts to dismantle the Affordable Health Care Bill.

Now, under these circumstances, the majority knows they can't keep proposing ransom demands, so they've broken cloture and returned to a 60-vote threshold in the Senate. The need to break cloture is why they tried to go to conference 15 minutes before the government shutdown, and that's why they are continuing to avoid a clean vote on the Senate CR today.

Mr. Speaker, two paragraphs in The Washington Post this morning sum up what this fight always has been and continues to be about: defunding the Affordable Care Act and taking health care away from 300 million Americans who have no insurance.

Referring to yesterday's events, Ezra Klein of The Washington Post wrote:

The top story all day was that Republicans had shut down

the Federal Government because President Obama would not

defund or delay the Affordable Care Act. The other major

story was that the government servers were crashing because

so many people were trying to see if they could get the

insurance through ObamaCare. On the one hand, Washington was

shut down because Republicans don't want citizens to have

ObamaCare. On the other hand, ObamaCare was shut down because

so many Americans did want that insurance.

Yesterday was, indeed, a historic day for our Nation and for every American who's ever been denied access to health care. In my home State of New York, there were more than 2 million visits to our online exchange in less than 90 minutes.

And by later in the day, the last number that I have, just for yesterday, 10 million people had visited the Web site at the end of the day. That is about 12 percent of the entire population of the State of New York, yesterday.

Meanwhile, 4.7 million people visited healthcare.gov yesterday-- that's the national database--while almost 100,000 more visited online exchanges in Illinois, in Colorado. Most importantly, in States from Kentucky to California, in red States and blue States, thousands of Americans went to sleep last night having purchased health insurance through the newly launched exchanges.

Now, while these Americans went to bed realizing their long-awaited dream, the majority woke up this morning realizing that their worst nightmare had come true. Despite their best efforts, the American people were finally given access to safe and affordable health care.

Now, the only question that remains is if the majority will finally acknowledge reality, or if they will keep the government closed while they continue their quest to take American's health care away.

I'm extremely grateful to the chairman of my committee this morning, when he said, when we called for a vote on funding the government today, he said, and I quote, ``I would say on behalf of the majority, what we think we are doing here today is probably some straight-line Republican viewpoints.''

I strongly urge my colleagues to reject the majority's latest gimmicks by voting ``no'' on the rule and the underlying legislation, and vote ``no'' on the PQ so that we can put our amendment on the floor.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds to say that it would be the best of common sense for us to end this charade today. But I understand now, because I've heard it twice, that the intent really is to wait and whittle down the government. As Grover Norquist, I believe, famously said, he would like to shrink it down to drown it in the bathtub.

I think we're in the process of doing that today by funding it a little piece here, a little piece there, and the devil take the hindmost.

I am happy to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Butterfield).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds to say that the three bills that everybody is so proud of that they've put out to try to re-fund the Government have a dagger at the heart of the health care bill and would have destroyed it.

I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), a member of the Committee on Rules.

Mr. Speaker, just 10 seconds to say let's not do the least we can do. This is the day we can open up the government and serve our people.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Connolly).

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McNerney).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

(Ms. JACKSON LEE asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gene Green).

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Farr), ranking member on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, and Food and Drug Administration.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews).

(Mr. ANDREWS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff), a member of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran), the ranking member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior.

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire if the gentleman from Georgia has any more speakers. If not, I am prepared to close.

I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, I am going to offer an amendment to the rule that would allow the House to vote on the clean Senate continuing resolution so that we can send it to the President for his signature today. I don't want that to be lost on anybody. This will probably be the only chance in this House that you will get to vote on what everyone has been asking for.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of the amendment into the Record, along with extraneous material, immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.

Mr. Speaker, we found out already this morning in the Rules Committee, admittedly by the chair, that they don't intend to open the government back up. I brought this very same motion today to the Rules Committee. It was defeated 9-4 on a party-line vote.

My hope today lies in all of the people from the other side, my good friends, who have said that, if they had an opportunity, they'd open up the government again. They would put people back to work and stop the terrible pain that we are simply laying on our Federal workers. What we have done is simply punish them. What we have done to medical science cannot be turned off and on like a faucet, as well as what we have done to our security and what we are doing to our intelligence--all of it, Mr. Speaker. We cannot do this multiple choice of what we will save today, and maybe we will do something else next week if we get a bad headline.

This is terribly important, this opportunity. I want to give notice to all of my friends on the other side to stand up for what you said. Today, please put your voting cards where your mouths have been. Vote because you know it is the right thing to do--to get this government back to work.

I will remind everybody that the Senate has not been holding us up here. The Senate sent a clean CR over early. We have simply ignored it, and everything that we have sent back to them has had nothing to do with the running of the government, but has had everything to do with trying to kill health care.

Today, let's get ourselves back on track and get this magnificent government working again. This country of which we are so proud is looking pretty bedraggled right now because we don't know, with this lurch from crisis to crisis, what is going to happen from one day to the next. This is the day, Mr. Speaker. This is the time. This is the opportunity. I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' and defeat the previous question. At that point, we will have our opportunity to vote on the clean CR that does nothing but continues the spending and allows the government to reopen.

I urge a ``no'' vote on the rule, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

I rise, reluctantly, to oppose this bill. While, of course, we support freeing up D.C. to spend its own local funds, a policy we've asked to be made permanent, this is a sham of a process and a fake bill designed by the Tea Party, for the Tea Party, and of the Tea Party.

It's not a sudden concern or awakening to realize that D.C., this morning, needed all this help. My God, to those of you who've been around for a while, you know that I've made an appropriations career out of telling people to treat the District of Columbia with respect.

And all of a sudden, as part of its continuing attack on ObamaCare, your party comes up now and comes with a piecemeal approach to a major issue.

Instead, it's part of a strategy to try to draw attention away from the legislative hostage-taking which is hurting people around the Nation.

Additionally, I would be remiss if I did not point out that this bill continues an unnecessary and harmful rider that prevents the District of Columbia from expending its own funds, its own funds, on abortion services. No other State in the Nation has such a restriction.

Although, I repeat, I support D.C. being able to spend its own money, I do

not know why this is the only portion of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee bill being considered to date.

I must tell you, and I don't know how my leadership will feel about this statement, but I've got to give you credit, because just when I thought you had run out of gimmicks to bring to the floor, this one takes the cake, a piecemeal approach of three bills that do not speak to any resolution of any issue.

Many agencies under our jurisdiction have suffered, or will suffer, devastating problems as a result of the Republican Federal Government shutdown; but you're doing nothing about those agencies in this bill.

The Republican shutdown has forced the Small Business Administration to furlough almost two-thirds of its workforce. This has forced the agency to shutter almost all of its loan programs for our Nation's small businesses, including loan programs for veterans, women-owned small businesses, and small businesses located in underserved areas; but you're not saying anything about that in this bill.

The Federal defenders currently have enough funding to continue operations for a couple of weeks. However, once that time is up, they will be unable to fulfill their constitutional duty to uphold the Sixth Amendment rights of criminal defendants; but you don't speak to that at all in this bill.

The CPSC has been cut from 540 employees--listen to this. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has been cut from 540 employees to 22, making it difficult for the agency to perform its duty of fully reviewing thousands of different kinds of products. This will clearly increase the risk to the public, but we don't speak to that.

The IRS, the agency that always takes the biggest hit during this period of time, has been forced to let go most of their workforce, preventing the agency from providing taxpayer assistance to those who have questions, examining questionable tax returns, or even to accept paper tax filings. The IRS brings in the vast majority of our Nation's revenue. The Republican shutdown is harming our ability to pay our bills.

All of these agencies need and deserve a continuing resolution so they can perform the many functions of government that remain essential to American consumers, investors, taxpayers, and small businesses.

Let me try to save you some time. Some of you newer folks will get up and say: Oh, my God, you are attacking the District of Columbia. No one, except for Ms. Norton, has a clearer record on supporting the District of Columbia. I have said often enough on this floor that having been born in an American territory called Puerto Rico, I take very seriously how I look at and the respect that I have for the District of Columbia. But this is a joke. This is simply another approach at trying to get around the real issue, which is we need to bring a clean CR to the floor, and we will continue to push for that.

I urge a ``no'' vote on this bill when it comes for a vote, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey), the greatest State in the Union, the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

It's very interesting to hear my colleague, Mr. Speaker, speak about that. I wish we had recorded him--maybe we have--how many times Mrs. Lowey got up during appropriations meetings and said, Let's go to conference. In fact, once, she said it in Spanish, just to please me. That's how serious it's been.

All of a sudden, the big cry on the Hill is, Let's go to conference. But let's not really go to conference. Let's just go to conference and do what we want to do and not what should be done.

I yield to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee) for a unanimous consent request.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. Esty) for a unanimous consent request.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Arizona (Mrs. Kirkpatrick) for a unanimous consent request.

Mr. Speaker, I don't think it's ever dilatory for Members of Congress to speak.

I now yield to the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Bonamici) for a unanimous consent request.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Kelly) for a unanimous consent request

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Danny K. Davis) for a unanimous consent request.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Cartwright) for a unanimous consent request.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Barber) for a unanimous consent request.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton), a person who we all know has been a champion on behalf of not only the District, but all areas of our country.

I yield 3 minutes to my colleague from New York (Mr. Meeks).

I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Duckworth).

Mr. Speaker, just to inform the gentleman, I am the last speaker. We have no further speakers.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

This is not an easy time. You would hate to think that 23 years of agreeing with Ms. Norton on the issue of the D.C. budget and how we should treat D.C. goes up in smoke in one afternoon. We have never disagreed, and I know that starting in about 30 seconds or 1 minute or 2 minutes, we won't disagree again.

But we also cannot be ignorant of the fact that this is a sham, that this is part of a trick. It is a good trick; it is one that sells. In fact, the results may show that it is one that sells, but it is still a trick. It is a trick still to get at ObamaCare on the day that it starts to take place all over this country. It is still a trick to keep the government closed. It is a trick to say that we will single out certain people, certain monuments, certain areas, certain needs, but not others.

It is easy for me personally to say ``yes'' to this bill on the District of Columbia. But I also know that in another territory or in another place without congressional representation, they had to close down this morning the WIC offices because there are no people to be able to run that office. In other parts that do have representation, they had to close down areas of services where people need those services.

We know what the game is. I know it is not easy for some of us to get up and oppose certain things, but we have to. We have to because if we continue to allow the House to be run by a Member of the other body, we will never get anywhere. It is funny how much time we spend among ourselves knocking the other body, and yet we have a situation now where a Member of the other body is telling everybody over here what to do on one side. That's the problem we have.

As painful as this is for me and as difficult as it will be to stay out of the way of Ms. Norton for the next day or two, I still think that the proper vote here is a ``no'' vote because we need a clean CR and we need a full approach, not a piecemeal approach.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 72) making continuing appropriations for veterans benefits for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous materials on House Joint Resolution 72, and that I may include tabular material on the same.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Throughout human history, whenever there has been disagreement in ages, ages past, that has been settled with armed conflict. But in a civilized world, we settle those disputes in an amicable way under the law.

In this remarkable House Chamber, we are surrounded by images of great lawmakers from throughout human history. It is, I think, incumbent upon us as lawmakers, as civilized human beings, to use a little common courtesy and common sense to find areas of agreement and set those aside, get those behind us, and then move on to those areas where it is more difficult to find agreement.

In the House of Representatives, the constitutional conservative majority in the House has attempted to do so many times here over the last several weeks. When it comes to funding the government, the House of Representatives has sought to do so and, in fact, has done our job.

In the first week of June, the House of Representatives passed legislation to fully fund the Department of Defense. In the first week of June, the House of Representatives passed legislation to fully fund our Department of Veterans Affairs and Military Construction requirements of our men and women in uniform around the world.

We also made sure in the first month of the summer that the House of Representatives passed legislation to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security and sent that to the Senate as well. We have even passed an appropriations bill to fund the departments of the government that are responsible for the Department of Energy and the Department of Water. That legislation was also passed out of the House this summer and sent to the Senate.

It is common courtesy and just common sense that where you have a disagreement, you sit down and you work it out. If you've got serious disagreements, you, again, find those areas where both sides can agree there is common ground and put those behind us.

What better place to start, Mr. Speaker, than with the veterans who have served our Nation in defense of our freedom who make it possible for us to enjoy the prosperity, the liberty passed on to us by our ancestors. It is a real privilege for me to serve with my good friend from Georgia (Mr. Bishop) and my colleagues on this subcommittee for appropriating funds for the operation of the Veterans Affairs and Military Construction to be sure that our veterans receive everything that they have earned for the sacrifices they have made on behalf of this Nation.

So we have brought the bill to the floor today as an obvious area of agreement in support of our veterans to ensure that not only are their health benefits taken care of, which under current law they are a year in advance, but we are here today to ensure, to absolutely guarantee, that there is no interruption to the veterans who are applying for disability compensation.

We have had a terrible backlog in disability claims that the committee has worked together arm in arm in a bipartisan way to ensure that it is fully funded. We included in our bill, which was sent to the Senate in the first week of June, language that would ensure that the Veterans Administration lives up to their own deadlines on handling those disability claims.

But the legislation before us today would also ensure that veterans receive on-time compensation for their pensions, for their post-9/11 education training, and employment assistance. Again, common courtesy and common sense compels us to do what is right by our veterans to find those areas of agreement.

We bring this bill to the floor today, Mr. Speaker, in order to ensure that these veterans are fully protected, that they have a transition into civilian life that is as easy as humanly possible, and that they don't encounter any delays as they move into civilian life.

This bill, as the other does, provides funding through December 15 for VA disability claims, education, and employment benefits and provides $2.5 billion for claims processing to make sure that we are getting at the claims backlog.

I look forward to hearing from my colleague from Georgia (Mr. Bishop), and reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, at this time, it is my privilege to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers), the chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I think it's important to point out that, as I said earlier, with any disagreement, you find those areas in which you are in agreement. You come to an agreement and make sure you get the most important things done first and set them aside. The House and the Senate have actually done that.

We note that our military has been paid. Legislation to fully pay for our military was passed by unanimous consent in the Senate, and it was passed out of this House. I would also reiterate that the House has done its job in

funding our veterans in passing this legislation in the first week of June and in funding our Department of Defense in the first week of June. We have done our part.

This shutdown that we face today is a deliberate result of the Senate's refusal to take action on the legislation that we sent them over 90 days ago, and that's why we are bringing this bill to the floor today, because this is one area in which we can all agree. Our veterans have earned our help, and they deserve our help. It is our duty to pass this bill as quickly as possible to ensure no interruption in the services that they have earned by their service to this Nation.

At this time, Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Nunnelee).

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I would point out that the only people who would be holding our veterans hostage would be those who would vote ``no'' against this legislation which we have brought to the floor today in an earnest, honest, commonsense, courteous way to ensure that our veterans are given everything they need for the service they have given this country.

It is my privilege at this time to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Miller), who is the chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee.

Mr. Speaker, can you tell me how much time I have remaining?

I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Salmon).

Mr. Speaker, there's only one question before the House tonight: Will we unify in support of our veterans and ensure their peace of mind for themselves, their families, and their survivors, that they don't miss a moment of the benefits that they've so rightly earned?

At this time, it's my privilege to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Benishek).

Mr. Speaker, the only question before the House tonight is whether we will unite and fund the veterans who have served this Nation. That is the only question before us.

And at this time, it's my privilege to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bentivolio), a veteran of Vietnam and Iraq.

Mr. Speaker, at this time, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton).

Mr. Speaker, if I could inquire how much time remains.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time we have remaining on each side.

Mr. Speaker, at this time, it's my privilege to yield our remaining 1 minute to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Cotton), a distinguished Army Ranger who served this Nation both in Iraq and Afghanistan, to close.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 71) making continuing appropriations of local funds of the District of Columbia for fiscal year 2014.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on House Joint Resolution 71, District of Columbia Continuing Appropriations Resolution, and that I may include tabular material on the same.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I bring to the floor today a continuing resolution which is narrow in scope and allows the District of Columbia to spend their own funds.

As some of the Members may be aware, some may not be aware, due to the city's unique status as a Federal city, Congress must appropriate their locally raised funds before the city can spend them.

And despite the multiple attempts by the House of Representatives to fund the Federal Government, we're here in day one of a government shutdown. This continuing resolution provides that the District of Columbia, it gives them their funds through December 15, under the same terms and conditions that they have under the spending bill in 2013.

So passing this bill today will allow the Appropriations Committee time to negotiate a full year's funding bill with the Senate.

Now, the District of Columbia has passed their own fiscal year 2014 budget. The Mayor presented a budget to the city council. The city council debated that. The city council approved, and the city's independent chief financial officer certified the budget as balanced.

So, therefore, the District's locally raised funds should not be withheld from them during this current Federal shutdown. This disagreement that the Republicans and the Democrats are having over Federal spending shouldn't stop the District from using its own locally raised funds like any other city in America.

The District is currently using reserve balances to stay open. However, we can't expect the District of Columbia to deplete all of its cash reserves to make up for the Federal Government's inability to pass a Federal budget.

We've got school teachers out there, we've got policemen, we've got firemen, we've got garbage collectors, we've got librarians, we've got all these city employees, and they're paid with D.C. local funds, and they should expect to be paid for their services. The citizens of the District of Columbia, they shouldn't suffer because Congress and the administration can't agree on a budget.

So this continuing resolution fulfills our responsibility under the law to appropriate the District of Columbia their local funds.

Mr. Speaker, I urge the adoption of this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I'm just surprised to hear my friend say it's okay that the citizens of the District of Columbia suffer just because Congress can't figure out how to fund the government.

With that, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers), distinguished chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I just want to remind folks that we could have avoided this shutdown if the Senate had passed the first resolution we passed them. That would have avoided a shutdown. If they had passed the second continuing resolution, that would have avoided a shutdown. If they had passed the third continuing resolution we passed to them, that would have avoided the shutdown. If they would agree to sit down and talk, we might even find a way to end this shutdown.

But I just hope everybody remembers that for Republicans, the last thing we want to do is be shut down. We go it. We would like to sit down and talk. But the arrogance of the United States Senate says we can't even talk.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa), the distinguished chairman of the Government Reform and Oversight Committee.

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining?

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

This is a bill that talks about the most unique city in our country, the District of Columbia. It is a Federal city. It is unlike any other city in the USA. Because of that uniqueness, we have to appropriate the local funds that are going to be used.

The gentlewoman from the District has made an impassioned plea--a very clear and reasoned plea--as to why we need to pass this legislation. There are school teachers, there are police officers, there are folks that are picking up the garbage, there are people that work in the libraries, and they are working and they need to be paid for their services.

We shouldn't penalize the people of the District of Columbia because we can't come to some conclusion on our spending bills. We don't have to be here, Mr. Speaker. We have had ample opportunity.

As you know, this House has sent continuing resolutions to the Senate not once, not twice, but three times. Each time the answer was ``no.'' Now we simply ask for a conversation, for a reasoned discussion, about how we can end this shutdown. Once again, the answer is ``no.''

It is disappointing, Mr. Speaker. In fact, I am sure we are all a little bit angry, but we're here. The least we can do is pass this resolution. It fulfills our responsibility under the law. It appropriates to the District of Columbia the funds that they have raised locally. It is the right thing to do, and I urge the adoption.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.