Relating to consideration of the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 59) making continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, it is very disturbing that we are here on day 12 of the Republican government shutdown, but it is even more disturbing when we heard the point of order that was made just a little while ago, the point of order on October 1, about a special rule that was passed. What has happened by that vote--the vote, again, by the majority party--says that only the majority leader or his designee can bring the matter of calling up by motion the ability to rule, the ability to ask people to vote on the continuing resolution as amended by the Senate.

In this process of not only shutting down government, what we have also done is shut down the people's right to have a representative form of government. So, out of all of us--435, who are mandated by law to be the Members of the House of Representatives--only one or his designee has the right to bring forth this critical, critical issue on which the people throughout this Nation are asking for a resolution. Only one can do it. Yes, it passed by the majority of the Republican votes in this House. Now, not only have we shut down government, not only have we made things unbearable for the people, but we have deprived them of their representative form of government. That, Mr. Speaker, is something that the people should be absolutely outraged about.

I would like to begin this Special Order by first yielding to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett).

To the gentleman from Texas, I appreciate the inquiry.

As you may probably be aware, because of its unique location and its location before the time we were a State, Hawaii has a large Federal presence, and a lot of them are in the military. Because of the actions of this House, plus the Senate, plus the President, about 20,000 of them are defense. The last time I was able to check, we just had a small handful that were yet not back to work, but we do have a large number who did not work.

What is being impacted now are the other agencies which had some funds like, for example, the courts, the U.S. Attorney's Office and the other people like, for example, the State Department. All of them we are watching very carefully, but we have an additional number-- somewhere between 6,000 to 9,000--who are being affected. As the gentleman knows, it is not only they; it is the people they service, and it is their families who are being impacted.

The gentleman is correct that we as the House of Representatives unanimously passed that bill that we would pay the furloughed workers. You are also absolutely correct that, because the government is still shut down and because the Republican position is to open up government piecemeal, with no concurrence on the Senate's part, that that is exactly what is going to happen.

Many of these Federal workers feel like, Why can't we go to work? We are getting paid to work. Why isn't that happening?

I believe that that is clearly a disservice, not only to the workers, themselves, but to the people of this great Nation. It makes no sense.

I yield to the gentlelady from Florida.

I thank the gentleman from Texas.

I think what everyone needs to understand clearly, what the gentleman from Texas was referring to was the level of funding in the continuing resolution which was amended by the Senate at $986 billion. As the gentlewoman from Florida said, for many Democrats that was unacceptable. But you know what, the Democrats haven't had the opportunity to vote because it hasn't come to the floor, but it is a compromise.

I thank the gentlewoman the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Brown). Do you wish to speak further?

I thank the gentlelady from Florida.

Now I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Honda).

To the gentleman from California, I want to say aloha and mahalo. You are from California; but as far as I am concerned, you have been a great friend of Hawaii all along. Your concern over the shutdown is not only for your constituents in California but the constituents of the United States. And I know we in Hawaii, we also have a special place in your heart. So I thank the gentleman.

I thank the gentleman from California. The gentleman from California makes some great points, including that we are never fully aware of the impacts, and that is what is the saddest part of what has been done with the shutdown, and that is we do not know what are the true impacts. I can say for my Democrat colleagues, that is the reason why we fight so hard on trying to reopen government. But the question is for the majority party and especially for the Speaker, what about the people? The gentleman raises a great point.

I just would like to share something before I call upon the gentlelady from Illinois. I just learned recently in visiting with some of the most decorated members of the Greatest Generation, members of the acclaimed 442nd Regiment in Hawaii, everyone knows about them, and one person came up to me and said, You know, we found out that although our fathers sort of suffered quietly as a result of that war and the result of the rejection by a Nation that didn't want them, that they were suffering from PTSD, we just didn't know that it was called that back then.

I think the gentleman from California makes an amazing point, that we have got to see the hidden injuries, because if we can all look upon the hidden injuries; no one, on either side of the aisle, can let this craziness continue.

With that, I yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Bustos).

If the gentlelady would stay for some conversation.

I had the opportunity to actually go to Rock Island. I know people are probably saying, what is somebody from Hawaii doing in Rock Island? I also want people to know how difficult it must be for Jill because Rock Island Arsenal, what many may not be aware of, is the last foundry of the United States Army we have in the United States. They actually do do things like the necessary plates to keep people safe in the Humvees and the Strykers and things like that. They are also faced with the question as we withdraw or draw-down from Afghanistan, and as we have drawn down from Iraq, of what happens to Rock Island Arsenal, and what they are able to do for the military--the whole idea of reset, and what do we do with that? I can just imagine the uncertainty with sequestration, with the drawdown, and now with this unnecessary shutdown that it must cause her amazing and critical concern about the future of her family, and to put on top of that the concern over veterans benefits.

Because we have talked about this, I would like for you to share how your office has been able to get this kind of information because you have actually adjusted your schedule and what your office does to service your constituents. I would like for you to say that because it is so important as to how you have tried to adjust and make things easier for them.

I thank the gentlelady from Illinois, and thank you for reaching out so clearly for your constituents.

I now call upon the gentlelady from Oregon (Ms. Bonamici).

I thank very much the gentlelady from Oregon, who clearly is in her district looking and hearing what her constituents are saying. I will always remember Beaverton, Oregon, and her 700 constituent employees of that company that is unable to ship, because that is really what this is about. We initially reacted to the immediate impact of the Federal employees, but now we are beginning to see, as the gentlelady from Oregon pointed out, that it is more than just the immediate employees, contractors who deal with the Federal Government; it is also the people who need the Federal Government because of their businesses. So the gentlelady from Oregon has brought forth an amazing story, as well as given us further insight into how this really Republican government shutdown has hurt everyone.

Now I would like to call upon the gentlelady from Florida (Ms. Frankel).

Thank you to my good friend, the gentlelady from Florida (Ms. Frankel). As she always has the capacity of bringing things down to the basics, I would hate to admit that we would be less popular than the Ebola virus; but knowing the gentlelady from Florida, she probably has a basis for what she has said.

Mr. Speaker, my Special Order time is running down, and I would just like to say, after listening to all of the people who have spoken--the gentleman from Texas, the gentleman from California, the gentlewoman from Florida, the gentlewoman from Oregon, and the gentlewoman from Illinois--and all of their stories that they have shared and the concerns of their constituents, you have got to start to ask the question, why, and what does the Republican majority, Mr. Speaker, intend to gain--to gain--from this shutdown?

Let's also look at H. Res. 368 that we passed on October 1 regarding the amendment to clause 4 of rule XXII that says, any motion pursuant to clause 4 of rule XXII relating to House Joint Resolution 59--and we all know that is the CR--may be offered only by the majority leader or his designee. You add this on top of everything else, the inability for people to come forward on behalf of their constituents to ask for unanimous consent to bring House Joint Resolution 59 to the floor, not being able to do that, and the fact that we have a petition, a discharge petition that people are signing up for because that is the only alternative, is this the message we want to give to the people of the United States, that not only does the House of Representatives shut down government because of a minority group within the Republican Party that is the majority, but in addition to that, you have taken away the ultimate form of representative government, which is that each and every one of their elected Representatives has a right to come before this body and to make a motion and to be heard? But instead we have shut that down on October 1 as well. That should be even more problematic to the people of this great Nation, that a motion and a rule such as that was passed. And, Mr. Speaker, I remind you, nine-- nine--of your own Republicans couldn't even stomach that and could not vote for that.

So why are we doing this? Why? It began with, well, we will go along with the continuing resolution that the Senate sent back on the condition that we first defund ObamaCare. We had delays of ObamaCare. We had repeals of ObamaCare, and that sort of lasted for last week and then it stopped. No mention of ObamaCare. No mention at all of ObamaCare.

Then what did we start to do? We started to pick and choose and cherry-pick which part of government we wanted to open up. And you knew that was DOA, dead on arrival in the Senate. But yet, Mr. Speaker, you decided well, maybe the optics would be better. But it hasn't been better. It has not been better.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has come out against not only the failure to address the debt ceiling and saying that the United States cannot default; they also said you shouldn't allow the shutdown. And big businesses have also said that. Banks have said that. People that the average person probably associates more with the Republican Party than they do with the Democrats, and they are saying do not do this. Yet it is being done. It is being done.

The people in Hawaii will know this concept, and the concept is save face. You know, we have a saying back home that what people sometimes need to do is save face. And I think that is what it comes down to. The polls, Wall Street Journal polls are slamming the Republican position, Mr. Speaker. You are being given but a 24 percent favorable rating. So what does that say to you? It says the people are not with you. The people do not support this crazy--I don't know what to call it. I would like to say it is a plan, but I can't see anyone being behind a plan that makes the people of this great Nation suffer.

You heard the story of Jill. You heard the story from the gentleman from California who talks about he knows people are suffering PTSD. You have heard the fears of not being able--not being able--to know when you will be working and when you are not going to be working.

Yes, we in the House passed, we passed 3223--I believe that number is correct--that says we will retropay. But that doesn't give them their paycheck because a continuing resolution hasn't passed; and it hasn't passed the Senate, though we believe the Senate will be with it, and we also believe the President will sign it into law. But for those people, yes, it is like an empty promise, the same empty promise that they believe we had when everyone said we are not going to shut down government. Why would we shut down government? And here we are, this is the 12th day of the shutdown, day 12, and do we have anything to tell them? No.

Instead, we emphasize the fact that their Representatives who want to see a vote, because we believe that there are members of the Republican Party who will support a clean CR and a voting to open up government at the level, at the level of funding which the Republicans wanted, Paul Ryan wanted, but we are not even able to do that because of a procedural move.

Procedural moves are what the people of this great Nation dislike the most, because they feel that it is some kind of hidden deal and we are not being transparent and we are also not giving people true representation. To abdicate the ability to bring something to the floor as important as the government continuing to operate to one person or his designee is exactly what

the people do not want. And that is what we are dealing with, Mr. Speaker. We are dealing with this shutdown for no basis, because you have abandoned ObamaCare now. There is no ultimate plan.

We have the looming debt ceiling crisis, which is what Wall Street is even more concerned about than anything else, and what we should all be concerned about, because the full faith and credit of the United States should never be in question and should never be in jeopardy because we can cause a recession worldwide with that action. There is no plan. There is no plan.

You wanted to show that you could shut down government, Mr. Speaker, so you won. You shut it down. But now, now you must plan how to open it. And that has been always the criticism of our great country, that we always lack exit strategies, and this is another example of a lack of an exit strategy. You win the shutdown, but how do you open up? That is the question, Mr. Speaker. And that is the question that only you can answer to the people of this great Nation. And only you can answer to the people of this great Nation why, why you have taken away the ultimate form of representative government by abdicating the right to bring this most critical measure to this floor to one person or his designee.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 368 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Slaughter), my friend, the ranking member from the Rules Committee, 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 have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 368 directs the House of Representatives to go to conference with the Senate to resolve differences between the two Chambers on how to appropriately fund the Federal Government. Like any other time the House goes to a conference, Mr. Speaker, the minority will have an opportunity to instruct conferees and have their ideas heard.

For nearly 3 weeks, this body, the United States House of Representatives, has made numerous legitimate efforts to find a compromise to avoid a government shutdown. Unfortunately, Senate Majority Leader Reid and Senate Democrats have been unwilling to negotiate and have stonewalled any attempt to find common ground.

No one wants a government shutdown, but Mr. Reid's unwillingness to work with House Republicans to find a solution is what brings us to a point now this evening. I know that we want to get our work done tonight. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the rule, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I hope we really find a way to avoid that by agreeing to a conference. I think a conference is important. The United States House of Representatives will be on a vote here in a few minutes where we are asking for that. I believe the American people see what we are doing is trying to legislatively resolve the differences that we have.

As you know, Mr. Speaker, our first CR was a clean CR at sequester levels and simply defunding ObamaCare. Our second CR was a clean CR at sequester levels with a 1-year delay of the entire ObamaCare law. The third CR was a clean CR with a 1-year delay of the individual mandate and removal of certain benefits for Members and congressional staff.

I have, during these times, found that some of the wise counsel that I have received in the deliberations that I have had, in the duties and responsibilities as the chairman of the Rules Committee, leaned upon several people. One of them is here, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, the gentleman from Kentucky, Mr. Hal Rogers.

Hal Rogers has provided me--and I hope I have provided him--some bit of working knowledge of what we were trying to accomplish, a desire to accommodate House and Senate Members to complete more work on appropriations. That is still a part of the goal that we are going to tonight, to go to conference so that we can fund the government and get it done right.

Mr. Speaker, at this time, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers), the chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

Mr. ROGERS OF Kentucky. Mr. Chairman, thank you for those kind words. It is likewise. I have relied upon the gentleman for advice all through this process as well, and I appreciate his leadership in this body, especially as chairman of the very important Rules Committee.

Mr. Speaker, the Senate has just rejected the House's third attempt to avoid a government shutdown. This body has voted time and time again to keep the lights on in our government and to stop the train wreck that is ObamaCare. Unfortunately, our colleagues in the Senate have rejected these offers and have refused to come to the table to find a solution.

To be absolutely clear, the House has debated and approved three separate continuing resolutions. These bills do what they are named for--they continue government. We do not want a shutdown, and we have done what we can to avoid it. Given the situation at hand and the late hour, we will now vote to send the CR we just passed and a request for a conference to the Senate.

Our challenges are great, but they are not insurmountable. This conference will provide a venue to discuss the differences between the House and Senate, having productive negotiations, and come to a final agreement that most can support.

In some ways, Mr. Speaker, this is a logical next step. When the House and the Senate are unable to resolve their differences on other pieces of critical legislation, the appropriate action is to appoint a conference. That is the time-honored way of this great body.

I understand that this is not the first or the second or the third choice of many Members here tonight. It is not my first choice either. But I believe this motion can help us move forward and provide at least a gleam of light at the end of this very long tunnel.

I urge an ``aye'' vote.

Mr. Speaker, we just entertained a piece of legislation that came from the Senate. There is a lot of business that needs to be done. We had the gentleman from Kentucky, Hal Rogers, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, who was here, who spoke very favorably not only about his optimism of being able to work through this with his colleagues, not only the gentlewoman Nita Lowey, his ranking member, but also the working relationship that the Appropriations Committee has with our Senate colleagues.

I think if there is one thing that is a takeaway from tonight, that is that Hal Rogers, a man who has been in this body for a long period of time and who has great wisdom about not only the intricacies and the running of the government but also, I think, a good bit of esprit that comes with it, not just optimism, but his desire to make sure that good things happen, that is what Hal Rogers was on this floor talking to us about.

Mr. Speaker, at this time, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Lewisville, Texas, Dr. Michael Burgess, a member of the Rules Committee.

At this time, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New

York, Congressman Reed, a second-term Member and one of the clearest thinkers in our party.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, the Republicans came to the floor of the House several weeks ago--we've done it lots of times and have probably had 41 votes on ObamaCare. We've talked about how $716 billion was cut from senior care, Medicare. We think that's a problem. We think that was wrong. We think pushing this off on seniors is the wrong thing to do. We know the cost to employers.

Mr. Speaker, it is my time.

I do appreciate the gentleman because I know what he is going to tell me. He's going to say, Well, we used that money in our budget. In fact, we did, because this was an action that was done 3 years ago, and we are trying to repeal the bill that took $716 billion from seniors. We disagreed with it, but after 3 years, you have to use the money. We promised at that time that we would stay after it.

Look, the gentleman is the one who voted for it. Not one Republican voted to take the money. I know what their dialogue is, and I appreciate the gentleman. He is a very dear friend of mine. I know they're frustrated when we tell the truth about how bad this bill is.

With regard to the cost to employers, Delta Air Lines marched up to the White House in February and said, Hey, guys. Just so you know, you're

going to cost Delta Air Lines over $100 million this year. In the first year, it's going to cost $100 million.

Trust me. They were listening over there. That may be why they said, Whoops, we'll let business off the hook.

They should have done the same thing for everybody. Mr. Speaker, that's part of why we're here--we are here for fairness.

What do Members of Congress hear when they go back home? They hear a lot of things, but here is the one that we hear more than anything. What we hear about is that there have been seven part-time jobs created for every one full-time job in America.

Now, Mr. Speaker, that is not what we were promised. We have talked a lot about what Republicans have said and not said and what's right and wrong. What is true is that the President of the United States stood right here and said: not one dime of taxpayer money, and you can keep the insurance that you've got if you want it. That's our promise to the American people.

Mr. Speaker, since ObamaCare has passed, there have been for every seven part-time jobs that were created, only one full-time job. We're becoming a part-time job Nation. Mr. Speaker, you cannot be the greatest Nation in the world as an economic power, you cannot get kids, our young children, to want to go to college for a part-time job. It's just not working well.

That's why the Republican Party is here. That's why we have Members here tonight. That's why we've sent three CRs. That's why we have meeting after meeting after meeting trying to determine how do we best get after this. We didn't stay after the same way. We sent one offer, a second offer, a third offer. We're now asking something very simple: a chance to appoint conferees, get together face to face, talk about the issues and ideas, find room for compromise, and do something better. That's what we're asking for.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Ennis, Texas, Congressman Joe Barton, the dean of the Texas Republican delegation.

Mr. Speaker, our Republican Members come from diverse districts all over this country. Men and women get together, we meet, we talk, we have clear voices. We listen to each other about what people are hearing from back home.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Dallas, Texas (Mr.

Hensarling), the chairman of the Financial Services Committee. He is one of the clearest voices in the discussion that we've had. He represents a largely rural district--people who get up and go to work every day, people who have a lot at risk, people who care about this country, men and women who provide for their children, and their children are part of the military. They believe in this country, and they know that America's greatest days need to be in our future. It requires vigilance, and every day you have to stay after it.

I yield the gentleman an additional 1 minute.

Will the gentleman yield?

The House has attempted three times to send something over, and it's come back rejected every time.

Well, the question I have is, Did the Senate pass the bill?

If you put back in the language that we asked for, we will be very pleased to agree to it.

And I thank the gentleman from New Jersey.

Mr. Speaker, you know, our great government, on October 1, was going to be open for health care. Mr. Speaker, all anybody has to do is to go online right now and try to sign up for this after years of our friends in the Obama administration

getting ready. And the site says, I'm sorry, your account cannot be done. The system is unavailable.

So here we are at the great day of October 1, at 12:30. Mandatory funding by the government can't get in the way of that. Right here, system unavailable for the American public. Why am I not surprised?

I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I would like to advise my colleague, the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Slaughter), that I have no further requests for time.

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

Mr. Speaker, tonight is a night that we will remember. The things that will be remembered about this night are that our party has attempted to work with, reach out, and deal with our colleagues in the United States Senate.

We have sent a CR, a clean CR at sequester levels and defunding ObamaCare. It was shipped back to us. A second CR, a clean CR at sequester levels, a 1-year delay of the entire ObamaCare law. A third CR at sequester levels, a 1-year delay, and removal

of certain benefits that we believe is fairness.

But the overriding suggestion that we have made tonight goes back to a little bit over an hour ago with the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers), the chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

He is asking for the opportunity for us to go to conference to resolve our differences, people working together, people looking at each other. As was suggested by the gentleman, Mr. Barton, yeah, probably a TV would be in the room and the American people would get a chance to weigh and balance both sides also. We think that's important. That's what we're asking for. That's why we're on the floor of the House of Representatives tonight, and this is what we stand for.

We're after fairness. We're after an opportunity to get these ideas and the issues resolved for the American people. So I'm going to urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the resolution.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Let me be clear: the proposal before us is nothing but another way to run out the clock. I think while we're speaking here, in just a little while we will find in 20 minutes--21 minutes, because I think we will go 1 minute after midnight--that this government will shut down.

This amazing government that we are supposed to be overseeing-- America, the United States--can't manage its business and shows that to the rest of the world over the fact of trying to stop the bill you hate that is the law of the land, that has already been verified by the Supreme Court as to its constitutionality and where our President won election handily when this was the main idea.

I don't believe anymore that this is the product of a few people with strange ideas. This is the Republican Party. I think people who watch the news, jaded--I do; every idle moment I have to be finding out what's going on in the world--were quite stunned to watch a Republican conference over, and the Members coming out absolutely gleeful, many of them expressing glee--one of them said that he was almost giddy with joy about closing down the House.

Earlier this evening, I saw after the 2010 elections some new Members who were saying on the news that their intention was to shut down the House. Well, they've done it.

At any time we could have taken up a clean bill for the Senate. All we had to do was vote for that Senate amendment resolution and pass that here, which could have been done easily with bipartisan votes. It would then have gone to the President of the United States. Government workers could sleep easier tonight if we had done that. They wouldn't have to worry about paying the rent, or being able to buy groceries, or being able to pay the tuition for their child in college.

What we are doing to the psyche of America--not ``we.'' I'm not going to say that again, the universal ``we.'' What Republicans are doing to the psyche of America will be a long time in healing.

I think the absurdity knows no bounds. We want to say again that if anybody has any mistaken notions that the Democrats were involved in it, there are no Democrats' fingerprints on any of these bills. I'll say that again: Democrats had no input at all at any time on what any of these bills were going to say in the greatest matter before the House of Representatives to keep the government going, to meet our obligation to fund the government.

In fact, by cutting out the people's Representatives on my side of the House, almost half of the people in the United States' voices were stilled throughout this whole process. The only time we got to talk was when we were up here, and we were trying to run and catch up to see what was going on. We had no idea what this was about, that this was coming tonight. We were able to pick up bits and pieces maybe off the floor, and people passing around some things that maybe they heard. But the whole Democrat side has been shut out--not just on this measure, but on everything in the world that we have done in this term and last term as well. Now, I don't want anybody to forget that because everybody is going to yell if something goes wrong here, they're going to try to blame it on us. It's not on us. I have never seen anything like this.

In addition, for well over 6 months this Democratic side has begged, cajoled, done everything they could to try to get this House to appoint conferees and to go to conference with the Senate of the United States on bills that each Chamber had already passed. We couldn't do the farm bill--couldn't do much of anything. And I said earlier today one of the reasons is sequestration. So we had only gotten two appropriations bill. They've run out of money, and there was no way in God's Earth we could have ever done the 12 that we needed to do.

But even that hasn't caused any idea of changing what we're doing. And we want to be a part of that. We would like to take the 6 weeks-- imagine, on one hand, we are appointing conferees for a 6-week measure when we wouldn't do it for the budget of the Federal Government.

Now we would like to be as much a part of it as we can while we're trying to deal with the debt limit and certainly to do away with sequestration that even my friend, Mr. Rogers, the chair of the Appropriations Committee, said was far too draconian and that the government would be seriously underfunded.

But tonight, here we are, tragically here. Let me see now, it's 15 minutes

away from time where it will be useless; so I am not going to say anything more about we could take up another bill, we could pass it, it would go to the President, he would sign it, and we could avoid it. It's simply too late. How could you, with any common sense at all, think that, as we have moved to this point without changing from the left to the right with moving ahead, throwing up every kind of thing on a clean CR that would kill it when it arrived at the Senate.

We are hearing--and I hope it's not true--that when we get to the debt limit in about 2 weeks, that the Christmas list that they want to pass--everything that they wanted all their lives and couldn't get-- again, holding the country hostage, is what we have ahead of us.

Now, given a clear choice between serving our country and serving ideology within these ranks, the majority has chosen to stand against the country and shut the government down. Make no mistake about it, there is going to be a lot of hurt.

At this point, all I can do is urge everyone on our side of the House to vote ``no'' for no other reason than because of the rules in the House being broken and regular order being so far from reality. The rules of the House say that any Member can call for a vote on the Senate bill, but this rule takes that away from everybody but the majority leader. Only the majority leader can call for that vote.

Very little is left on our side except to vote ``no'' and to express our great displeasure and hope to goodness that when this is over and all that pain is out there, that we can move as quickly as possible to try to right this dreadful wrong that is about to land on the American people.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Polis), a member of the Committee on Rules.

Mr. Speaker, it is midnight, and the great Government of the United States is now closed.

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

Mr. Speaker, I am compelled to say that, if the Members of Congress are going to be treated like everybody else in the country, we would be the only group that's forced not to take our employer's health insurance.

I now yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen), the distinguished ranking member of the Committee on the Budget, who has tried valiantly to do away with sequestration.

I yield the gentleman another 30 seconds.

Mr. Speaker, although what we're doing here is an exercise in futility, I'm pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey), the distinguished ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, who has been doing a wonderful job.

Mr. Speaker, I'm pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fattah), the ranking member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science.

Mr. Speaker, I'm pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews).

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

I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee), our side of the Texans.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee).

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Israel).

Let me advise my colleague, Mr. Speaker, that I have one further request for time, and then I am prepared to close.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Larson).

Mr. Speaker, I'll tell you, I feel such a combination of both sadness and anger that it makes it really difficult for me to express it. On the one hand, the chaos and the lurching from crisis to crisis that this Congress has continually gone through leaves me not just perplexed but absolutely bewildered.

At the same time, I think what overrides everything for me tonight is a sense of terrible sadness that all of us here who have sworn to protect and defend the United States of America have completely given up on that idea. Because the majority has moved so assiduously towards this moment, this is on them. This government shutdown belongs to them for the rest of their lives.

And now, Mr. Speaker, let me tell you that the great country of the United States, the beacon of light for almost everybody in the world, the defender of all the people in the world is out of a government now. The most important institution of government anywhere ever devised is now closed.

And I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Last weekend, I left. I went to Florida. Many people in church came up to me, and they wanted to know about this. These are not Federal employees; they are contract employees. So, therefore, they do service for the Federal Government, but they will not get paid; is that correct?

Lockheed Martin indicated that they are going to lay off over 3,000 employees. There are many companies that do work with the Federal Government, but because the Federal Government is shut down, they are going to furlough their employees, and they are not going to be paid.

We had the Secretary of the VA come to our committee. He indicated that by the 1st of November, if he did not have his appropriations, over 5,000 veterans and their families and their spouses would not get their benefits in the mail.

The list goes on and on.

For example, we have furloughed most of the HUD employees, so we are going to have more homeless veterans. The list goes on and on. Cemeteries. We have furloughed cemetery employees. The other issue is, if we default on Thursday, then the Social Security payments will not be made.

These people in this House of Representatives want to operate by management. For example, yesterday, I heard over the news the number of cows that had died--or had been killed--because of a storm. We came back the next day and did the farm bill. Because everyone has been furloughed, they can't even provide the assistance they usually provide. We are going to tackle this, but there is a whole array of services that we are not picking up. For example, when you look at the number of, let's say, people who work at the universities, their checks say the universities, but they are really working for national foundations or the Mayo Clinic.

Or on Alzheimer's research. So all of this work is brought to a halt for no good reason.

The sad issue here in the House is that the minority has no rights.

In the Veterans' Committee, members kept alluding to the Senate, the Senate, the Senate. Let's be clear, the Senate passed the bill, and I thank God for the Senate. They passed the bill and took the House number, which was unacceptable to all Democrats, unacceptable, took those low numbers in order to pass a continuing resolution so we could have discussions. But what happened to the House? They are missing in action because there is no leadership on the Republican side.

Would you repeat that again, sir.

Sir, are you saying that the Democrats in the House held their nose and voted for the Republican irresponsible numbers?

Say it again. Say it again. We lost on the compromise.

Sir, a conversation. Can we have a conversation. Can you repeat what you just said again. A conversation. You mean to tell me that the Speaker had a negotiation with the House and with the Senate on the Republican's low levels? That it was unacceptable to the Democrats in the House, we held our nose and voted, would be willing to vote for it if they bring it up in order to move forward and get a conversation going?

Mr. Speaker, we just want a conversation.

Sir, just one other question. I want to know how many times did the Republicans pass their bad bill in the House and then send it over to the Senate, and they think that the Senate is supposed to pick up their bad bill? How many times did they pass it-- 44?

No, I am talking about on the health repeal.

No, I think it was 44.

If the gentlewoman would yield, we have agreed. We have compromised. We have had a conversation. We have agreed to put our politics aside and do what is in the best interest of the United States of America. It is unfortunate that we have people that serve in the House of Representatives, what is supposed to be the people's House, and they do not care about the people of the United States of America. They only care about their petty politics.

I think I have said everything I need to say, but I do want to say one thing jokingly. I went home last weekend, and I was looking for some snake oil since they said that Cruz had given the House Republicans snake oil. I couldn't find any snake oil, but I did find some holy oil, and I asked my pastors to pray for us because we need all the prayer we can get.

It is shameful. The Republican Party, particularly in the House of Representatives, continues to hold the nation hostage in a futile attempt to defund Obamacare.

I am so deeply disappointed that Republicans, especially those tea party Republicans in the House, continue to keep the government closed by appealing to the most extreme members of their Party by refusing to pass a clean funding bill to keep the government working.

Speaker Boehner's Republican Shutdown Must Stop

Republican recalcitrance has once again brought about a manufactured crisis designed to promote right wing ideology at the expense of the needs of all Americans.

Instead of working together to develop a budget that will work for Americans, Republicans let extremists and ideologues drive their agenda and drive us all into a national crisis.

Why did Republicans so carelessly shut down our government? Because they continue to be obsessed with eliminating the Affordable Care Act.

The Republican crusade against providing affordable access to health care for all Americans knows no bounds, and it has become apparent that they are even willing to sacrifice the basic functions of the U.S. government just to prove a point.

Even though millions of Americans were clamoring to sign up for insurance benefits on just the first day the exchanges opened up to the public.

Members of Congress are elected to make sure our government functions, and Americans have had enough with this Republican led shutdown.

There is a solution to this problem.

The Senate passed CR would fund the government for an additional six weeks, and all Speaker Boehner has to do is bring that bill up for a vote to end this stalemate.

In fact according to some reports, there are enough votes to pass a clean CR now.

This short term bill to fund the government already represents a compromise, after a negotiation, by Democrats and is the level requested by Speaker Boehner.

But Republicans cannot take ``yes'' for an answer. They are continuing to play more games by pushing a piecemeal approach to resolving this shutdown. This will not work.

As USA Today put it, it's like seizing a school bus full of kids then offering to release the cutest ones.

The Senate will not pass these bills, because they do nothing to address the real problem--that we need to fund the whole government.

Instead of working together to do our jobs and resolve these critical issues, Republicans have taken a decidedly different approach, one that they seem to have been looking forward to for some time--to make another desperate attempt to stop the Affordable Care Act.

In fact, as one of their chief spokespeople, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann put it, ``We're very excited. It's exactly what we wanted, and we got it.''

Republicans seem not to care too much about the consequences of a shutdown, even though the consequences are significant.

Thousands of federal employees have been furloughed. National parks are shuttered. Loans to small businesses, farmers and families trying to purchase homes have been shelved. Lifesaving scientific research at NIH is halted. People waiting for travel visas and passports will be even further delayed. Those who need assistance to get back on their feet like recipients of the Women Infants and Children program (WIC) are struggling to find other means to get by. Veterans and their families applying for hard-earned benefits are waiting indefinitely for their fair due.

But the plan is in place, the Republican slash and burn approach to governance continues, and they have shown that they are willing to put it all on the line to appease the extreme right wing of their party.

As if their work to dismantle the programs Americans rely on like Head Start and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) wasn't clear enough when they pushed the sequester through, they have now chosen to just stop our government from functioning.

The cavalier attitude on display by House Republicans makes it clear that the Majority is more interested in ideology than action.

Their government shutdown could be the most damaging thing to hit our economy since the budget sequestration they imposed on Americans.

Rather than passing a jobs plan to get Americans back to work, help rebuild our economy and create good jobs with good benefits, the GOP has gotten what they really wanted all along--shutting the doors of the government of the United States.

As the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.

I would ask the gentlelady about the number of Federal employees you have in your area who remain unable to do their work.

That is exactly what I wanted to explore with you.

First of all, all of those public service workers, whether they are at work or not at work, continue to face the uncertainty of whether their paychecks will arrive when the car payment is due or when the rent is due or when they need to buy another round of groceries. They don't know if those checks will be there.

I think that there are some people out there across our country who are watching this shutdown, and they are saying, Well, at least we are saving some money by not paying hundreds of thousands of workers across the country--Federal employees--who are not yet able to return to work.

In fact, isn't it true that, under the Tea Party faction rule here in the Republican Party, they have passed a resolution through this House to pay every one of those hundreds of thousands of Federal workers to stay idle--to pay them not to work--at a time that they could be delivering the services they were hired to provide so that then the taxpayer has to pay them to stay idle and cannot receive the benefits of the many varied services that these public service workers would like to provide?

That is correct.

The other thing that happens: suppose you have a cafe across the street from a major Federal installation. Suppose you have a dry cleaners or a service station or an auto repair. Your business has fallen through the floor because that workforce is not there, not only to do the public's work, but to do business with you.

There is not any plan from this irresponsible Tea Party caucus to reimburse the many small businesses around America as well as the contractors to whom you referred. There is not any plan to give them a dime. So they will suffer at the same time they pay Federal workers not to work and not to deliver the services that they were hired to provide and are willing to provide.

That is one of the reasons I feel that, with every hour that we go through this government shutdown and with every hour that we get nearer to a default--an historic default on the full faith and credit of the United States--we are jeopardizing our security. As to your comments regarding Lockheed, we are talking about the national security of the United States, and I am also talking about the economic security of your fellow church members and of our veterans.

I view that as a real disgrace.

This week in Texas, in San Antonio and in Austin, as we attempted to call the Veterans Administration about problems some of our veterans were

having, they said they had turned off their equipment and that they had furloughed some of the representatives we work with--I am sure that happened in your areas also--so that we cannot be the advocate we want to be for our veterans.

Additionally--I think it is around a fourth or a little over a fourth of our Federal workforce who are veterans. They are people who have served our country and have put their lives on the line, and now they are serving our country in a different way. Those are some of the families who are being paid not to work, and all of them, whether they are at work now or not, are left with great economic uncertainty about when they will get paid.

You are talking about things like cancer research or someone who is working on childhood disease.

For no good reason.

That is why it is outrageous that we could be here on this Saturday and that the Republicans have recessed the House until Monday night. They know that this default is approaching. They have outlined no plan to avoid default. They had one coming up on the floor 2 or 3 weeks ago, and they could not get agreement among their own Members about how to avoid default. Now at a time when you--like all of us who are here-- have signed a petition to reopen the government and are prepared to address the default issue right here, they have gone home.

Mr. Cantor was here on the floor a few minutes ago. He is the only one under the rules--the Republican majority leader--whom they will permit to offer the motion to continue the operation of the government. That is why we turned, as you know, to this petition of all of us coming together. We are approaching now--are headed toward--200 Members of the House. We only need about 17 or 18 Republicans to come join us so we can reopen this House and then move to address the default issue.

Because they were specifically, as you know, cut off in the rules. The rules of the House, which have existed for so many years, would have given the gentlewoman from Florida, the gentlewoman from Hawaii, or any of our colleagues who are here now from across the country the right to say, Mr. Speaker, let us vote on continuing the operation of the government.

Now, why would they deny us that traditional right as Members of the Congress--all Members, Republicans and Democrats--and give Mr. Cantor, as the Republican majority leader, the sole right to do that?

I say it is because of fear. They are fearful that this House will continue the government operations, and they can no longer hijack the country the way they have hijacked the Republican caucus and jeopardize the security of our families.

I want to thank the gentlewoman from Hawaii for the opportunity to join with her on this because the numbers she refers to is back during the summer--and Speaker Boehner acknowledged this last Sunday on ABC. There was an understanding reached between the House and the Senate that Democrats would compromise and agree to a level of government services that we think is totally unacceptable.

There was an understanding, that he acknowledged, reached between the House and the Senate that we Democrats, in order to keep the government functioning, would agree on, for a time this fall, to accept an unacceptable low number that we know won't deliver the level of services that we need for Head Start, for education, and for cancer research.

We have said we will do that now if it will keep our government open and protect our families and avoid default, open the government. And it is that motion, not a motion to give us all that we have asked for, but a motion to take the Republican budget number and put it in place as a compromise, and I might say not a very good compromise, not a favorable compromise.

We agreed to do that. The Speaker indicated that he had agreed to that, and then this Tea Party faction took control, the shutdown caucus.

Absolutely.

I want to yield back to the gentlewoman from Hawaii and in doing so thanking her for this time. The reason that it is alleged that they would not continue to stand by the agreement that was made between the House and the Senate for this bad number was they wanted to shut down the Affordable Care Act and our opportunity to get health insurance for millions of Americans. And as the gentlewoman from Hawaii knows, they have failed utterly and completely to do that. They are now in search of some other rationale, some rationalization, some justification for keeping the government shut down.

They have passed little partial bills many times.

Oh. They have sent that over there, I guess, 40 times to repeal.

Forty-four? One can lose count because they do every time you turn around.

But I thank the gentlewoman from Florida and the gentlewoman from Hawaii. This totally unjustified shutdown must end, and we must stand for American families to avoid the insecurity, the threat to them that grows by the hour.