Veterans Benefits 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.

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

I want to first say that today we've had a reminder again of how much we owe our men and women in uniform. And I want to express the gratitude of the Members of the House, the people of America to our men and women in uniform who keep our streets safe every day, and say that our hearts and our prayers are with those injured officers today, and to express our immense gratitude to each and every one of them all over the country and to our men and women in uniform around the world who make it possible for us to be here today in the greatest deliberative democracy ever created in the history of humanity. We owe it all to our men and women in uniform.

Moment of Silence for Officers Injured Today

Madam Speaker, I ask for a moment of silent prayer for those officers who have been injured today.

Madam Speaker, we are here today to work arm-in-arm in support of our men and women in uniform. I'm pleased at this time to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Roe).

Madam Speaker, at this time I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Lamborn).

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

Mr. Speaker, I want to point out that, today, the only question before the House today is a ``yes'' or ``no'' vote whether or not you support funding our veterans.

This is not complicated. The Veterans Administration has said they will run out of money unless we pass this legislation today to make certain that our veterans who have earned these important benefits receive them.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Southerland).

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

I will remind all Members that the Veterans Administration has said that funds for these benefits will expire at the end of this month. Anytime you have a disagreement, you try to find those areas where you can agree and that are especially important, and set those aside. That's what we're doing today.

The House majority has brought this bill to the floor to ensure that our veterans and their survivors will receive their disability compensation. A ``yes'' vote will ensure that low-income veterans and their families get their pensions. A ``yes'' vote will ensure three-

quarters of a million students will receive their post-9/11 GI education benefits, that unemployed veterans will receive their benefits, and that 67,000 veterans with service-connected disabilities will get their vocational rehabilitation and employment subsistence benefits that they have earned by their service to the country.

Again, I stress the VA has said these benefits will run out at the end of this month. So we've chosen what is our highest priority, looking at our men and women in uniform--an area we are in complete agreement on--and brought it to the floor in good faith. We hope our colleagues will join us in voting ``yes'' or ``no'' in support of our veterans.

At this time I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa).

Mr. LaMALFA I want to thank my colleague from Texas.

Mr. Speaker, we are here to honor our veterans--all Americans--for their job by the work we do here. It's been shameful the last few days to have our veterans come all the way to Washington, D.C.--our World War II veterans and some of the Korean veterans we've met as well--and find themselves blockaded unnecessarily out of what is theirs over the politics of a shutdown.

Now the politics of this shutdown come into this room here. We don't always get to do the perfect bill around this place. I see my Democrat colleagues basically yelling at us over, We want the perfect bill, we want it all in one.

When we can find the things we agree on, including this bill, including other measures put up in the last couple of days, we can all agree on this portion of any CR bill together. We can put this out and stop the hijinx, stop the politics, stop the games, and get this agreement done.

We all agree on this piece of legislation, that it should be done and it's the right thing. It will get veterans served and get them out of this mess, out of this pool of muck that we are in, fighting over this CR, fighting over this shutdown.

So let's agree today to get our veterans served and take the political football out, take the name-calling out--Republicans, Democrats, all that stuff--and get the job done. We're here to get the job done. On my farm, I don't want to get everything done in one day. You make progress a little bit at a time, one field at a time.

This is one field at a time here. We can do this bill. Instead of holding each other hostage because the Democrats want the perfect all- in-one-bill, we can do the pieces we agree on together.

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

I would simply point out very quickly there are no cuts in this bill. We're simply funding essential veterans services through December 15 at a level equal to the amount that we have already passed out of the House the first week of June. There are no cuts.

We want to make sure these essential services continue for our veterans and they don't see any interruption in services.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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

I want to point out very quickly, we are funding the most essential parts of the Veterans Administration, where we have been told they will run out of money within the next 30 days. We want to ensure that our veterans don't have a thing to worry about. We don't want their families, their children, their survivors to worry for one moment whether or not their benefits are going to be there.

We bring this bill to the floor today to ensure that they are taken care of, their peace of mind is secured. And also, this is clearly one of those areas--in support of our veterans--where we can agree.

Again, I stress, common courtesy and common sense tell us when you have a disagreement, you find those areas where you can come together and agree and put that behind you. That's all this is. It's not complicated.

Let's vote together today to make sure that our veterans programs are fully funded.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, could I inquire how much time is remaining.

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

It's important to remember that as we have done in the House and the Senate has done by unanimous consent, we have paid our Active Duty military. Their salaries are paid. So they don't have to worry about it as they stand on the walls of Rome in defense of our freedom.

Today, we bring this legislation to the floor to be sure that past generations of our military men and women who have served this country and defended our freedom and made it possible for us to be here today, that their benefits are fully funded.

We've been told straight up by the VA that the items that are before the House today will run out of money before the end of this month. This is not complicated. It truly is common sense and common courtesy to find those areas of agreement, set those aside, do those in priority order.

We've made sure the current generation of military men and women are paid. We're now, today, making sure that our veterans of previous generations are fully compensated for survivor benefits, for low-income veterans, for student 9/11 GI benefits, for unemployed veterans. We're going to make sure that veterans with service-connected disabilities are taken care of.

What we attempted to do--and as my colleague from Georgia knows, we've always worked arm-in-arm in support of those veterans--is to find those areas where the help is needed most urgently and to set that aside and get 'er done now before these benefits run out.

And the vote today is very simple: yes or no, will you vote to support America's veterans and honor them for their sacrifice and make sure they don't miss a minute, that there's no bubble in the pipeline of the benefits that they have earned by their sacrifices for this great Nation.

This is a simple yes-or-no vote in support of our veterans.

I urge passage of the legislation, and 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 rise in opposition to H.J. Res. 72, the so-called ``Honoring Our Promise to Veterans Act,'' which purports to fund those activities of the Department of Veterans Affairs that are required to cease due to the House Republicans' decision to shut down the government last night.

The bill before us is a cynical attempt by the Republican majority to extricate themselves from the mess they created when they voted to shut down the government.

Mr. Speaker, it would not be necessary to have to devote the considerable amount of time needed to debate and pass this legislation in the House and Senate and present it to the President if the House would simply pass the clean continuing resolution passed yesterday by the Senate.

The CR approved by the Senate funds the government and would bring an end to the unnecessary shutdown engineered by House Republicans that disrupts the lives of innocent and hard working federal employees and their families and the millions of Americans who depend upon the services they provide.

The clean CR passed by the Senate ensures that all the employees of the Federal Government are paid for the valuable and important service they provide to our Nation.

President Obama has reiterated that he will sign that CR--and only that CR--into law.

Mr. Speaker, instead of exempting certain groups and persons from the harm caused by

a government shutdown, we should instead be focused on ending the House Republicans' shutdown, which helps no one and hurts our economy.

Those of us who were serving in this body 17 years ago remember the harm caused when the Republicans shutdown the government on two different occasions, which directly cost taxpayers $1.4 billion. That is $2.1 billion in today's dollars.

The last time Republicans engineered a shutdown of the government:

368 national park sites were closed;

200,000 applications for passports went unprocessed; and

$3.7 billion of $18 billion in local contracts went unpaid.

My State of Texas will again be hit very hard and suffer unnecessarily by this Republican shutdown.

Within days Texas will begin experiencing the impact of cutbacks in the $64.7 billion in federal spending that it receives annually, including the loss of: $518 million in federal highway funds, $411 million for interstate highway maintenance, $130 million in home energy assistance for the poor, $71 million in Homeland Security grants, $55 million in coordinated border infrastructure, and $97 million in federal adoption assistance.

As a senior member of the Homeland Security Committee, I am particularly concerned over the impact of a government shutdown on operations and activities that protect and secure the homeland.

For example, a shutdown would adversely affect the following:

Law Enforcement and Other Training: Law enforcement training would cease, including that conducted through the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and the Secret Service's J. Rowley Training Center. This would impact CBP, ICE, Secret Service, and the Federal Air Marshal Service, and would delay their ability to bring new hires into operational service. TSA would also not be able to conduct training for screeners, Behavior Detection Officers, or canine units.

Frontline Personnel Hardships: The majority of workforces in Custom and Border Protection's (CBP) Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) enforcement efforts, Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) aviation passenger screening, and the Coast Guard, who are heavily reliant upon receiving biweekly paychecks, would not be paid biweekly during a federal funding hiatus.

Grant Programs for State and Local Preparedness: All DHS and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) personnel working on grants programs would be furloughed, ceasing any further activity intended to help build State and local resiliency. Should a federal funding hiatus be prolonged, State and local communities may have to eliminate jobs that are dependent upon grants funding. Further activity under the Securing the Cities program would be suspended.

In addition, a government shutdown will hurt children, seniors, working families, and the economically vulnerable:

Military Readiness: In Texas, approximately 52,000 civilian Department of Defense employees would be furloughed, reducing gross pay by around $274.8 million in total.

Law Enforcement and Public Safety Funds for Crime Prevention and Prosecution: Funding will be halted to Texas on an annualized portion of the $1,103,000 in Justice Assistance Grants that support law enforcement, prosecution and courts, crime prevention and education, corrections and community corrections, drug treatment and enforcement, and crime victim and witness initiatives.

Vaccines for Children: In Texas around 9,730 fewer children will not receive vaccines for diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, whooping cough, influenza, and hepatitis B due to reduced funding for personnel who administer programs that provide funding for vaccinations.

Nutrition Assistance for Seniors: Texas would lose approximately $3,557,000 in funds that make it possible to provide meals for seniors.

For these reasons, instead of wasting time on piece-meal CRs like the one before us which have no chance of becoming law, we should be working to pass H.J. Res. 59 as amended by the Senate. That is the best way to keep faith with all persons who serve the American people as employees of the Federal Government, and those who depend upon the services they provide.