Floor Statements

Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to a wonderful man, Ivey Lee Armstrong, Sr., who died last month. He was just 62. He worked for nearly 30 years cooking and preparing delicious food in the Senate Carryout. The entire Senate community will miss him dearly.

Many of our constituents may not appreciate that the Senate truly is a community. Our partisan or regional differences of opinion are made public on C-SPAN2, in the newspapers, and on the campaign trail. But here, where we work day in and day out, we are surrounded by thousands of hardworking and dedicated people who mostly toil in anonymity. They are the fabric of the community here. They are the ones who keep the Senate functioning. We have our own staff, and the committees have staff, and leadership has staff, and there are the floor and cloakroom staffs and the Parliamentarian and Senate legislative counsel and the Bill Clerk and the Senate reporters, and so on. But we also have Capitol Police, who protect all of us and the thousands of people who visit the Capitol campus daily. We have plumbers and electricians and carpenters and painters. We have people who man the elevators and the subways and help guide the public through the buildings and up into the Galleries. And we have people who work in the cafeterias, including the Senate Carryout in the basement of this building.

I eat lunch at the Senate Carryout frequently because it is convenient and because the food is excellent. It is really home cooking. And I always enjoyed catching up with ``Mr. Ivey,'' as everyone knew him. But it wasn't just his culinary skills that we will miss. Mr. Ivey was a fine gentleman. He was unfailingly cheerful and polite and he made everyone feel at home.

Meredith Shiner and Niels Lesniewski wrote a nice article about Mr. Ivey in Roll Call, noting that he was often the first person at work in the morning and the last one to leave when the Senate Carryout finally closed for the night. They also noted that he was an Army and Army National Guard veteran who earned the National Defense Service Medal, a Good Conduct Medal, and M16 Sharpshooter awards. I am proud to say he was a constituent and there will be a memorial service for him tomorrow at From the Heart Church of Ministries in Suitland.

Mr. Ivey wasn't just devoted to his country, to the Senate, and to his job, he was devoted to his family and to his faith. According to the Roll Call article, Mr. Ivey re-enlisted so that he could get the health care coverage needed for a sick daughter. It is a big family--8 siblings, 4 children, 10 grandchildren, and 4 great-grandchildren, among others. I want to send my deepest condolences to his family and friends and coworkers. The Senate community has lost one of its finest and kindest members. We will miss his cooking but, more important, we will miss his good cheer, his demeanor, and his friendship.

Mr. President, the legislation that is currently pending before this body, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, S. 815, provides a historic opportunity for us to advance civil rights in this country and end employment discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders, the LGBT community.

The United States has shown international leadership against discrimination, promoting better understanding and tolerance around the globe. That has made the security of countries better. It has provided opportunities for minority communities. The United States has been in the forefront of those efforts. We have shown leadership internationally and we have done that because we have taken action in our own country to protect against discrimination. Action at home helps us provide that credibility for our international leadership. Passage of S. 815, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, would demonstrate that action, that we have taken the right action at home and, therefore, we have the standing to promote better understanding globally.

The U.S. leadership has been shown in many different ways. I am very proud that one of the primary organizations the United States has participated in that has advanced human rights is the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Our local arm in participating is the Helsinki Commission. I have the honor of chairing the Helsinki Commission, which includes Members of both the House and the Senate, along with members of the administration. We have used that role in the Helsinki Commission to promote an international agenda to deal with best practices to end discrimination on ethnic communities, religious communities, and racial discrimination. As a result of U.S. leadership, we have made a difference. We made a difference in Europe, we made a difference in North America, and we made a difference around the world.

Today there are special representatives under the OSCE to promote tolerance in regard to minority communities on race, the Muslim community, and Jewish communities. We have made a difference in the Roma population in Europe, which has been badly discriminated against. We have had conferences to deal with anti-Semitism to help the Jewish communities of Europe, and we have helped religious minorities around the region.

U.S. leadership is needed to help the LGBT community. We have seen countries in Europe take discriminatory actions to marginalize lesbians, gays, and those who, because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, have been discriminated against. In order to do that, we need to pass the legislation before us to give us the moral ground and to promote the core values of our country. America's core values are based upon equal rights for all citizens, and that is what we need to promote by the passage of this legislation.

I must tell you it also is important for economic advancements. If we are going to be able to adequately compete globally, we need to empower all of the people of this country. We can't leave anyone behind.

I am proud of what has happened in my own State of Maryland. Maryland has had a proud history of advancing civil rights for all of its citizens. Two weekends ago I had the opportunity to join in the 25th anniversary of Equality Maryland. In 25 years, they have changed the landscape in regard to the LGBT community in my State of Maryland. We passed many laws that have advanced protection for all of our citizens in our State.

The State of Maryland has passed laws. We have had local governments pass law. Baltimore City has passed a law, Baltimore County, Montgomery County, Howard County, and the list goes on. In Maryland, not only did our legislature pass marriage equality, it was a petition to referendum and the voters of Maryland approved marriage equality. We have taken steps in our State to advance the rights of all of our citizens, including the LGBT community.

It has been nearly half a century since we passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prevents discrimination in employment based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. That has been our law for almost half a century. ENDA, the legislation before us, would expand that to sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 has worked. It has worked. It has provided enforcement mechanisms for those who have been discriminated against in their employment because of their race or because of their religion or because of their national origin or because of their sex. It has worked. ENDA would expand that protection for sexual orientation and gender identity. It is time we do this. Twenty-one States have already acted, including my State of Maryland. We have passed laws. Seventeen States include gender identity. Federalism has worked.

What do I mean by that? We have seen that there is a national law. The law is the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It set up the framework so that everyone understands we won't tolerate discrimination in the workplace. It has had a workable way where those who are victimized can get remedy, but the real remedy we want is equal employment opportunity for all the citizens of this country. It has worked.

Our States have said we can go farther, we can protect the LGBT community. They have and it has worked. Those who have said: Look, we are going to have problems because of religious organizations or we are going to have problems because of this group--that has not been the case.

Federalism has demonstrated it is now time to pass a national law to protect against those who discriminate in employment on a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. We need a national law.

I can give you many specific examples that have been shared with us. We could talk the numbers. We know the numbers. I want to speak about specific cases and to mention two people.

Kimya has a master's degree in social work and nearly two decades of experience in the field. She was the manager of a unit of a long-term care facility for those suffering from Alzheimer's and dementia. She enjoyed her job and was good at it but suffered through nearly a year of threatening messages, vandalism to her car, and slurs uttered in the halls. In 2003, she was fired, her supervisors telling her: ``This would not be happening if you were not a lesbian.''

Next is the case of Linda. Linda is an attorney who relocated to this region when her partner accepted a faculty position with a local university. Linda was invited for a second interview with a local law firm. During the interview, Linda was asked why she was moving to this region, and she replied that her spouse had taken a position at a local university. The law firm asked Linda

to come back for a final interview, which would include a dinner with all the partners and their spouses ``to make sure we all got along.'' At that point, Linda told one of the partners at the law firm that her spouse was a woman. Soon after, Linda was told that the firm would not hire a lesbian and she should not bother coming in for the third interview.

In Kimya's and Linda's cases, they live in States that do not have protection for the LGBT community, and therefore there was no way to address this wrong.

The legislation before us has been endorsed by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights that represents over 200 civil rights, religious, labor, and women's rights organizations. It has broad support. It is supported by the American people. It is the right thing to do. It represents our core values.

Our former colleague Senator Ted Kennedy said civil rights was the great unfinished business of America. We are on that path. The passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act would be a major step forward to making us a more perfect union.

I urge my colleagues to support the legislation.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I rise today to remember those who perished and suffered during Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, 75 years ago on November 9 and 10 in Germany, German-occupied Austria, and German-occupied Czechoslovakia.

Earlier that year, in March 1938, Germany absorbed Austria--the so- called Anschluss. Then, at the September 1938 Munich conference, France, Britain, and Italy allowed Germany to annex the western rim of Czechoslovakia and to claim its 3 million Sudeten Germans as its own. In both acts, the concept of loyalty to the state was equated with ethnic identity.

Then, in October 1938, Germany expelled 17,000 Jews with Polish citizenship from Germany into Poland. These families were arrested at night, transported by train to the Polish border,

and effectively left in limbo, as Poland initially refused to accept them. The son of two of these expellees, a Polish Jew in France, took revenge: He assassinated a German diplomat in Paris.

Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels subsequently asserted that ``World Jewry'' was responsible for the assassination and gave the signal for the start of the first large open pogrom in Germany: ``The Fuhrer,'' he stated, ``has decided that . . . demonstrations should not be prepared or organized by the Party, but insofar as they erupt spontaneously, they are not to be hampered.''

As described by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum:

The rioters destroyed 267 synagogues throughout Germany,

Austria, and the Sudetenland. Many synagogues burned

throughout the night, in full view of the public and of local

firefighters, who had received orders to intervene only to

prevent flames from spreading to nearby buildings. SA and

Hitler Youth members across the country shattered the shop

windows of an estimated 7,500 Jewish-owned commercial

establishments, and looted their wares. Jewish cemeteries

became a particular object of desecration in many regions.

The pogrom proved especially destructive in Berlin and

Vienna, home to the two largest Jewish communities in the

German Reich. Mobs of SA men roamed the streets, attacking

Jews in their houses and forcing Jews they encountered to

perform acts of public humiliation. Although murder did not

figure in the central directives, Kristallnacht claimed the

lives of at least 91 Jews between the 9th and 10th of

November. Police records of the period document a high number

of rapes and of suicides in the aftermath of the violence.

Kristallnacht was thus a crucial turning point in the Holocaust-- moving from a policy of removing Jews from Germany and German occupied lands, to murdering them. It also stands as an enduring example of the danger of associating citizenship with ethnicity, of tying loyalty to the state with blood identity.

Kristallnacht is but one example of how hate can proliferate and erode our societies and why I have worked tirelessly to advance global efforts to ensure atrocities such as this never happen again. In my capacity as a chair of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe and decades-long work as a Member of Congress, I have advanced efforts to combat anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance and discrimination in North America and Europe.

This work has ranged from commission hearings to raise awareness of the continuing scourge of anti-Semitism to leading interparliamentary efforts to create personal representatives or high-level officials within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to combat Anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance. Sadly, the election of anti-Semitic political parties in Europe coupled with efforts to adopt circumcision, ritual slaughter, and other laws in Europe that would alter Jewish life and continuing incidents of anti- Semitic violence let us know that the work to eradicate anti-Semitism is not yet complete.

As we honor the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht, I ask that you join me in honoring the victims and families of that horrible tragedy and join me in fighting hate and bias in all its forms.

Mr. President, today I rise to introduce bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the Veterans' Advisory Committee on Education, a panel that provides much needed assistance to our Nation's veterans by advising the Secretary of Veterans Affairs on existing VA education benefit programs, new education initiatives, and long-range education planning and development. This legislation is entitled the Veterans Advisory Committee on Education Improvement Act, and I wish to thank my colleague, Senator Inhofe, for joining me in this effort.

I am proud to introduce this companion bill to House-passed legislation which was introduced by Representatives John Delaney and Jim Renacci and 12 other Members. This bill will reauthorize the Veterans' Advisory Committee on Education through December 31, 2015, and it expands the make-up of the Committee to include post 9/11 veterans. Absent Congressional action, the Advisory Committee's authority will sunset on December 31, 2013. In addition to preserving its traditional role, our bill will require the Advisory Committee to expand its reach to include veterans who served after September 11, 2001. Currently, the Committee only provides assistance for veterans who served through the Persian Gulf War. The Committee is particularly interested in ensuring that educational opportunities are available to eligible veterans and enabling them to readjust to civilian life and become members of a highly educated and productive work force. The Committee focuses on improving the benefits provided by the GI Bill.

I believe that a true marker of our Nation's worth is our willingness to serve those who have served us. As we continue to wind down our commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan after a decade of war, we need to gear up our commitment to our veterans. This legislation will ensure that the brave men and women who serve our country in the armed services receive the most effective education and training opportunities available. I am proud of the support that organizations have provided in this effort. The Military Officers Association of America, MOAA, Students Veterans Association, SVA, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, IAVA, and Veterans of Foreign Wars, VFW, have provided invaluable insight in crafting this

I am committed to making sure that our veterans receive the services and benefits they earned, and the support they were promised and deserve. The United States is the strongest nation in the world and we owe veterans our gratitude and our respect. This legislation is just a small token of how Congress can help veterans have all the tools they need, including education and job training, to ensure an easier transition to civilian life. By making sure that post 9/11 veterans have a voice at the VA this legislation encourages more effective and efficient government.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, today I rise to introduce bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the Veterans' Advisory Committee on Education, a panel that provides much needed assistance to our Nation's veterans by advising the Secretary of Veterans Affairs on existing VA education benefit programs, new education initiatives, and long-range education planning and development. This legislation is entitled the Veterans Advisory Committee on Education Improvement Act, and I wish to thank my colleague, Senator Inhofe, for joining me in this effort.

I am proud to introduce this companion bill to House-passed legislation which was introduced by Representatives John Delaney and Jim Renacci and 12 other Members. This bill will reauthorize the Veterans' Advisory Committee on Education through December 31, 2015, and it expands the make-up of the Committee to include post 9/11 veterans. Absent Congressional action, the Advisory Committee's authority will sunset on December 31, 2013. In addition to preserving its traditional role, our bill will require the Advisory Committee to expand its reach to include veterans who served after September 11, 2001. Currently, the Committee only provides assistance for veterans who served through the Persian Gulf War. The Committee is particularly interested in ensuring that educational opportunities are available to eligible veterans and enabling them to readjust to civilian life and become members of a highly educated and productive work force. The Committee focuses on improving the benefits provided by the GI Bill.

I believe that a true marker of our Nation's worth is our willingness to serve those who have served us. As we continue to wind down our commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan after a decade of war, we need to gear up our commitment to our veterans. This legislation will ensure that the brave men and women who serve our country in the armed services receive the most effective education and training opportunities available. I am proud of the support that organizations have provided in this effort. The Military Officers Association of America, MOAA, Students Veterans Association, SVA, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, IAVA, and Veterans of Foreign Wars, VFW, have provided invaluable insight in crafting this

I am committed to making sure that our veterans receive the services and benefits they earned, and the support they were promised and deserve. The United States is the strongest nation in the world and we owe veterans our gratitude and our respect. This legislation is just a small token of how Congress can help veterans have all the tools they need, including education and job training, to ensure an easier transition to civilian life. By making sure that post 9/11 veterans have a voice at the VA this legislation encourages more effective and efficient government.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Madam President, this afternoon I joined with Senator Warner and Senator Klobuchar and Senator Casey to point out just how much harm is caused to this country because we are governing from one manufactured crisis to another. The cost of the government shutdown, the cost of coming so close to defaulting on our obligations, the fact that we are governing through automatic across-the-board cuts known as sequestration, is hurting our economy.

This has been particularly difficult for the people in the State of Maryland, the State I represent. In our region we have so many Federal workers, so many Federal facilities--10 percent of our workforce works for the Federal Government--that we saw many small businesses in our communities that depend upon the Federal workforce literally having nobody in their restaurants and in their shops. Consumer confidence was at an alltime low.

There have been estimates as to the amount of harm caused by the government shutdown. Standard & Poor's said $24 billion was taken out of our economy as a result of the government shutdown. Add that to the extra cost because we came so close to defaulting on the debt. Add that to the fact that since 2011 we have been living under sequestration. The estimate is we have lost about 900,000 jobs from this self- inflicted crisis management.

I could give many examples, but I will give a few.

I am very proud that the National Institutes of Health is based in the State of Maryland. Their impact is all over this country, including in the State of Massachusetts. As a result of sequestration and then the government shutdown, hundreds of grants could not be awarded. I think it was 700 by sequestration alone.

What does that mean? That means young researchers don't get a grant. They may stay with research, they may go to a different field, they may go to a different country. It means that maybe the cure for Alzheimer's will be put back a little bit or the influenza vaccine will be put back a little bit. Literally, lives are at risk. But also, our economy is at risk because the research supports so many private sector jobs. I could give the same example at FDA, NIST, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, or Fort Meade. We have many examples of how our country has been harmed. We cannot govern from one manufactured crisis to another.

My message is I hope we will get a budget agreement--I know the budget conferees met this week--which will give some predictability to our economy, eliminate sequestration, a progrowth budget so we can invest in education, research, and modern roads, bridges, and transit systems.

I am very optimistic about America's ability to globally compete if we stop these self-inflicted crises. I have been doing a ``made in Maryland'' tour throughout the State where I have visited many businesses. I give credit to my colleague in the House, Congressman Hoyer, whose saying, ``Make it in America'' has really caught on. So I took my friend Congressman Hoyer's suggestion, and I went around Maryland to meet with different companies. Maryland businesses are the best in the world. I know I am a little biased about Maryland, but they are the best in the world on innovation and creativity. I will give a few examples which may not be self-evident.

The Paul Reed Smith Guitar Factory is located on the eastern shore of Maryland in a small community called Stevensville. Over 200 people work there, and they produce the best guitars in the world and are sold all over the world. Santana's guitar was produced there. It is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it is such an incredible instrument--not only in beauty, but in sound--and was made right here in Maryland, USA.

Another company I visited during my ``Made in Maryland'' tour was the Volvo Mack truck plant located in Hagerstown, MD, one of the largest employers in western Maryland, with good-paying jobs. They make the most efficient truck engine in the world and it is produced right in Maryland, in the United States of America, the most innovative and creative ways to deal with the problem of efficiency in trucks.

I visited Ernest Maier, which makes brick pavers with concrete. It is very close to the Nation's capital. We can do manufacturing in America and we can compete in manufacturing. They are developing the technology for pervious concrete. It is critically important to our environment.

I take great pride in the Chesapeake Bay and the work we are doing to clean up the Chesapeake Bay. One of the major sources of pollution comes every time we have a storm and all of the runoff goes into the tributaries that lead into the Chesapeake Bay, causing a lot of pollutants to come into the bay, creating dead zones. If we have pervious concrete, allowing the water to seep rather than to flow, it cuts down dramatically the amount of pollution. The Ernest Maier Company is doing something about cleaning up our environment as well as selling a product that is well received around the country.

We have Marlin Steel located in Baltimore. It is a small specialty steel company. Their jobs are growing. One hundred percent of the ingredients come from the United States, and their product--steel, manufactured in Maryland--is exported around the world because it is a quality product.

Atlas Container is another Maryland manufacturer with a national market. I visited them. They are doing great. Their sales are up, their employment is up.

An area which I think is particularly important to the Presiding Officer is the craft beer industry. I have been up to Massachusetts and enjoyed some of their craft beers. There are over 100,000 jobs in the craft beer industry in this country, and it is growing. Times have been tough--but not in the craft beer industry. It is growing.

I visited Flying Dog in Frederick and Heavy Seas in Baltimore. They are coming out with new and seasonal beers, which is keeping a market growing, using creativity, besides having a very fine product.

It is not just in the craft beer industry, it is also in the wine industry. We have about 64 wineries in our State. I visited one in Montgomery County, MD. I don't know if most people know that Montgomery County, MD, produces one of the best wines in this country and can compete internationally. We are very proud of what is done at Sugarloaf Mountain Winery in Montgomery County, MD.

I wish to talk about some of the high-tech jobs done here. Brain Scope has developed a portable device available in the battlefield which can tell the severity of a head wound, as to whether the warrior needs immediate attention in order to save his life because of a brain injury or whether they can take a little more time before treatment. It is inexpensive in its operations and gives the data necessary to determine brain waves and the severity of the head injury. I think the total cost was about $10 million to develop. The military is very appreciative of this discovery. Think about the lives it will save, and think about the application of this technology to our community life. I think we are always nervous when we see our children and grandchildren on the playing field at sporting events, knowing how common head injuries are. This technology can be used on the playing field to determine the severity--whether a person who suffers a head injury needs to seek immediate medical attention because it is life threatening or whether they just need to sit out for a while.

This is the type of innovation and creativity taking place in Maryland. I can name dozens more small innovative companies working in biosciences, life sciences, and cyber security areas.

At Brain Scope they started with two employees. They now have over 20. This is a common story. These are good-paying jobs created here in Maryland, in the United States of America.

Lions Brothers in Owings Mills, MD. If you have ever seen a uniform with emblems on it, it was most likely done at Lions Brothers. They have figured out a way in which they can produce this product--which is used not only for sports gear, but the U.S. Government for uniforms, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts.

What is common in each of these companies? They are innovators. They find creative ways to create and expand markets. They are creating more jobs, and they are creating good-paying jobs.

We could name every State in this country where we have seen this creativity. We have duplicated this throughout our country. But the message is clear: Our country can take off, but we have to give predictability to our businesses. That is why the work being done in the conference committee on the budget is so important. We can't go through another manufactured crisis, another shutdown, another threatened default on our debt, the continuation of sequestration. It needs to end. We need to have a budget which allows for the type of government partnership for that type of economic growth--the basic research, the educated workforce, the modern roads and infrastructure and energy systems. That is what we need to have so the companies I mentioned can continue to lead the world in innovation, creativity, and creating the jobs we need--the good-paying jobs in America.

If we act, I am confident America will compete and win the global competition. ``Made in Maryland'' has been a huge success and has been duplicated all over our country. Let us act and get our work done so we truly can make it in America.

Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I wish to pay tribute to an extraordinary individual, Bernard ``Bernie'' Wynder, who passed away at the much too young age of 58 this past June while serving as the president of the Allegany County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP. Bernie overcame the challenges of a childhood on the streets of East Baltimore and made it his life's work to mentor young Black men and help them to succeed as students, professionals, husbands, and fathers. Bernie generously gave his time and inimitable leadership to numerous community organizations, including Maryland Salem Children's Trust, Western Maryland Food Bank, Potomac Council Boy Scouts of America, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Allegany County Multicultural Committee, American Red Cross, and the City of Cumberland Mediation Advisory Council. He also served on the Allegany County Human Relations Commission and as chair of the Friends of the NAACP.

Most recently, Bernie's loving attention help reignite the local NAACP branch as a powerful voice for social justice in Mountain Maryland. I was privileged to spend time with Bernie on my visits to Allegany County and get to know his love for his community and to be inspired by his passion for social justice.

Bernie was born in Baltimore on January 4, 1955. He graduated in 1974 from Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School, where he served as president of the Student Senate for the Baltimore City School System. He is a 1978 graduate of Frostburg State University and received his master of education from FSU in 1984. Bernie started his professional career in January 1979, accepting the position of admissions counselor & minority recruiter at FSU. He became coordinator of minority recruitment at Slippery Rock University and then returned to FSU in 1982 as associate director of admissions. He served in this role until 1986, when he was promoted to be the director of the Office of Student Human Relations & Minority Affairs. In this capacity, he developed an academic monitoring program which is still in use today. In 1996, Bernie took over the management duties of both the Admissions and Financial Aid Offices at FSU. In 2001, he moved to the Athletic Department, where he served as the assistant director of athletics and worked with coaches and the Office of Enrollment Services to develop recruitment activities for athletes and to increase their retention and graduation rates. Later, Bernie served as assistant vice president of student services.

Bernie Wynder's lifetime of service has been recognized and appreciated by others. In 1986, Bernie received the Trio Achiever's Award for the State of Maryland. He was inducted into Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School's Hall of Fame in 1993. He received FSU's Alumni Achievement Award in 1997 and received the College Admissions Representative of the Year Award given by the College Bound Foundation for service to Baltimore City high school students in 2002. In 2005, Bernie received the NAACP Image Award. In 2010, Bernie was one of three Marylanders honored as a ``Living Legend'' by the Associated Black Charities for his ``profound achievement in higher education.'' He is also an alumnus of Leadership Allegany.

Mr. President, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said, ``Everybody can be great . . . because anybody can serve . . . You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.'' Dr. King could have been describing Bernie Wynder, who devoted his life to service to others. The NAACP and FSU students, faculty, staff, and alumni mourn his death, as do his brothers in Omega Psi Phi to whom he was a mentor and a source of inspiration. His love and concern transformed the lives of so many generations of Frostburg students.

I send my deepest condolences to his wife of 32 years, Robin Vowels Wynder; their son, Bernard ``Bear'' Wynder Jr.; their daughter, Brandie McIntyre; and the rest of his family. Bernie Wynder was a man of uncommon integrity, wisdom, compassion, and commitment. We will miss his courage and vision and voice.

Mr. President, I rise to recognize the 25th anniversary of the National Center for Biotechnology Information--NCBI--part of the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, America's world-renowned research institution in Bethesda, MD.

The late Senator Claude Pepper, for whom a major building on the NIH campus is named, authored six separate laws creating individual institutes at NIH. In 1987, while a Member of the House of Representatives and chairman of the Select Committee on Aging's Subcommittee on Health and Long-Term Care, Pepper introduced H.R. 393, the National Biotechnology Information Act, which established the NCBI. At a March 1987 hearing on H.R. 393, Pepper explained that ``we are dealing with nothing less than the mystery of human life and the unfolding scroll of knowledge, seeking to penetrate that mystery, which is life itself.'' He noted that his bill was intended ``to facilitate the development of advanced computer and communication systems that will make it possible for the vast expanding knowledge of the gene to be assimilated into a computer system and made available for distribution to researchers and to people generally all over the World.''

Soon thereafter, Congress embraced the importance of the biotechnology field, recognized the pressing need to harness the large volume of data emanating from the genetic revolution in science, and endorsed the establishment of NCBI to manage this valuable resource for the benefit of human health. With strong bipartisan support in Congress, Pepper's bill was enacted as part of Senator Ted Kennedy's comprehensive measure, the Health Omnibus Extension Programs of 1988, on November 4, 1988.

Today, biomedical research encompassing genomic and genetic knowledge is a major driver of medical progress. The foresight of Congress in establishing the NCBI, combined with the innovative leadership of Director Dr. David Lipman and the expertise of the agency's dedicated staff, has led to the emergence of an impressive national resource for molecular biology information. In June of this year, Dr. Lipman was honored by the White House with the ``Open Science'' Champions of Change Award for his work at NCBI. By organizing and integrating genomic data for developing diagnostic and clinical applications, the Center serves as a bridge from research to the medical community. Each day, more than 3 million users access NCBI's 40 interlinked genomic and bibliographic databases and download more than 30 terabytes of data.

I am proud that Congress has continued to support funding for the NCBI over the past 25 years. Recently, by requiring that the results of NIH-funded research be made public through the Center's PubMed Central Database, Congress has opened to everyone the full text of published journal articles that are essential to advancing scientific research and public health.

The biomedical research funded by the NIH provides knowledge essential to combat debilitating diseases, and continuing this research is dependent on the resources and tools that NCBI has developed so successfully for the benefit of the biomedical community. As NIH Director Francis Collins has noted, we are entering an era of precision medicine in which a patient's genetic makeup may determine the exact treatment that is provided. Surely, the NCBI databases and tools will be needed on the front lines of this new effort.

On the occasion of this 25th anniversary, I ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating Dr. Lipman and the outstanding staff of NCBI, who through their skill and vision have built this unique biomedical resource.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, we are obviously pleased that our Senate leaders, Senators McConnell and Reid, have negotiated a bipartisan way to end this crisis. This agreement will open government, will allow us to honor our bills, and it sets up a mechanism, using the regular order of the Senate, to resolve the budget impasse and to hopefully negotiate a budget for this country.

The good news is that in passing this compromise agreement we will end this self-inflicted harm on our country that has been caused by the government shutdown and the threatened failure for us to honor the obligations of this country. Make no mistake about it. We have harmed our country. The shutdown, which started on October 1, has hurt America's economy. The threatened default on our obligations has hurt America's creditworthiness reputation. Consumer confidence has been damaged.

Consumer confidence is important. That is where people are willing to go out and buy or travel or go to restaurants. As a result of the uncertainty caused by this self-inflicted crisis, consumer confidence has fallen dramatically. That has an impact on so many businesses in our communities--so many businesses. Many small businesses have been hurt very badly.

This morning I joined Senator Boxer in bringing some small business owners here to demonstrate the harm that was done. We heard from the operator of Blackwater Paddle and Pedal Adventures, located on the eastern shore of Maryland near the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. That refuge, as you know, is closed. This company has two locations, one in the very historic part of our State where Harriet Tubman conducted her Underground Railroad, which is right next to the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge. So this is a place people want to go, but they also want to go into the refuge for many reasons. Some get permits to hunt, some fish, some bird watch, some ride bikes, some like to look at the eagles, of which we have an incredible display there. But the fact Blackwater was closed meant this small business owner lost a lot of revenue. She related exactly how much money it was. She said: On Saturdays, I was doing about $1,500, and that went down to about $150.

That is life and death for this small business owner. That is what this shutdown has meant. We can multiply that by hundreds of thousands of small businesses across this country that have been harmed dramatically as a result of the shutdown. All that added together means our economy has been dragged down.

We had a hearing yesterday of the Small Business Committee on which I serve. Senator Landrieu conducted the hearing. We had a roundtable with about 8 or 10 people. Some were small business owners, giving very similar stories as to what we heard about Blackwater Paddle and Pedal Adventures. Some represented financial groups that did SBA loans, and they gave specific examples of how the SBA loans could not be processed.

What does that mean? They gave an example of a company located right near me in Owings Mills, MD. They had a loan that was ready to be closed but was not closed. That person is in the process of buying equipment that might have to be foreclosed if they do not get the SBA loan, and they will lose their deposit. The one near my house was opening a new motel-hotel. That could be delayed or jeopardized as a result of this.

We had all types of examples given, putting real faces on those who have been harmed as a result of this shutdown.

Our economy has suffered dramatically. The private contractors who rely upon Federal payments in order to pay their workers laid off thousands of private contract employees in my State and throughout our country. Businesses had to lay off additional people, major damage to our economy.

I take this floor many times to talk about our Federal workforce. I am honored to represent a large number of Federal employees, consisting of about 10 percent of the workforce in the State of Maryland. Over 100,000 of these workers were put on furlough. They had to go through the anxiety of not knowing whether they could pay their bills. We hurt American families and we hurt our economy.

So what do we need to do? How do we move forward? First and foremost, we have to get this agreement to the President and signed as quickly as possible. Every day hurts our economy. I hope we can figure out a way to get it done today and to the President today and signed today and get our economy back on track.

Next we have to deal with the economic problems we have. This agreement gives us a little breathing space. It sets up a way we pay our bills, we keep government open, and we negotiate. But we are going to have to negotiate an agreement. What this country needs more than anything is predictability. We can't keep leapfrogging from crisis to crisis. That is not governing. We have to govern. The American people expect us to govern. They expect us to work out our problems. They do not want to hear the House is under one party and the Senate is under another party and it is tough for us to work these things out. They expect us to get the job done. They expect us to govern, and governing means we need to negotiate a budget that covers more than just a couple of months, but that takes us through the end of the next fiscal year. That is what we need to do. That will put us on a glidepath for economic growth.

Shutting down the Federal Government and teetering on the edge of default killed middle-class jobs, cost our Nation billions of dollars, harmed our economic competitiveness, and severely damaged consumer confidence. We can't go through that again. It worries me that in 1990 we said we wouldn't go through this again--and we did. So we need to establish the right legacy, and that means starting now, with Democrats and Republicans working together on a budget that makes sense for our country. We need to seize this opportunity to bring long-term stability and predictability to our economy.

The world needs to know America is open for business. One of the most damaging editorials I saw during this shutdown appeared in the state newspaper in China on October 13. It read:

It is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start

considering building a deAmericanized world.

We need to let the world know that America is open for business and that we have got our house in order and we are not going to continue to govern from crisis to crisis. We need to get that done.

What we need to do is negotiate a budget that makes sense for this country. Get this agreement done, get government open, pay our bills, but then negotiate a budget that allows for economic growth.

The very first thing we need to negotiate? Getting rid of sequestration. Sequestration is mindless across-the-board cuts. It says every priority in government is equally important. That is not true. If you have a problem with your family budget, you don't cut every spending item exactly the same percentage. You will make sure you have shelter for your family, make sure you have food on the table, maybe you will postpone a vacation or something, but everything is not the same priority. Sequestration says everything is the same priority. We need to get rid of sequestration and we need to do that in the context of this budget negotiation.

Yes, we want to make sure we have long-term financial stability and that we pay our bills. I was proud to be part of a Congress that actually balanced the budget when President Clinton was President. I know there are tough decisions. But we know how to do it.

We need to make sure we invest in job growth. We need more jobs in America. So, yes, we need to invest in transportation and roads and transit systems. We need water infrastructure to modernize our water systems in this country to allow for economic growth. We need to invest in education. We need to invest in research----

I ask unanimous consent to speak for an additional 3 minutes.

I thank my colleague from Virginia for that extra time.

We need to end sequestration, we need to invest in job growth, and we need to have a balance between revenue and spending so we have a way in which America can continue to grow.

We need to deal with our Federal workforce. Shutting down the Federal Government was a punch in the gut to Federal workers and contractors. Make no mistake about it. This agreement intends to hold our Federal workers harmless as far as pay, and more particularly it brings them back to work to do the essential work of these agencies.

I have talked before about the important work done by many of these Federal agencies--the Environmental Protection Agency, protecting our public health, protecting our environment; the Small Business Administration, processing loans for small businesses; the National Institutes of Health, doing ground-breaking research to make the next great discovery for America; NIST, working to give us technology so that we are competitive; the FDA's food safety programs; and the list goes on and on and on.

The bottom line is we need to work together. We not only need to open the government and pay our bills, but we need an agreement for a responsible budget that will give us predictability, job growth, and economic competitiveness to meet the world's global economy. I hope we will take advantage of the time this agreement gives us to put our country first and do what is right with America's future.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, may I ask my colleague to yield?

I thank my friend from Virginia for yielding.

Through the Chair, I thank Senator Warner for his help in making sure we do what is right for our Federal workforce. They suffered through furloughs because of sequestration, furloughs because of a government shutdown, freezes in their pay, attacks on their retirement, attacks on their health benefits, and they are asked to do more with fewer people because of freezes in hiring. Yes, we will try to hold them harmless as far as this furlough is concerned, but we have to make sure we attract the very best in public service because of the critical work they do. I thank the Senator very much for his help.

Mr. President, let me say to my friend that she is absolutely right. We have heard from a lot of contractors who employ individuals, from large contractors such as Lockheed to smaller companies that employ 30, 40, 50 people. The range is around 20 to 25 percent of their workforce has been laid off. There is no assurance whatsoever they will ever get paid. There are some contractors who don't know whether they are going to survive; it is that serious. So the private sector direct employment loss as a result of the shutdown is growing every day, and it is having an incredible impact throughout the country in every State.

The Senator mentioned Maryland, which I have the honor of representing along with Senator Mikulski. Ten percent of our workforce works directly for the Federal Government. The overwhelming majority of them have been put on furlough. We have estimated the number to be in excess of 125,000 in our State of Maryland. Add the private contractors who are laying off workers as a result of the shutdown.

Last week I stopped by a restaurant right off the Baltimore Beltway to get a sandwich. I know the owner. I asked him how things were going. He said: Terrible. He said: About half of my customers are not here because they are Federal employees that would normally come in during the workday and are not coming in.

The margins are very small for these businesses to be able to remain open. So the direct impact on Federal workers and the direct impact on those who have contract work with the Federal Government and the impact on our economy--it is in every State of the country, but it is particularly in the State I represent--has been devastating.

One more number. The Metro system depends upon the Federal workforce here. They need a fare-box revenue in order to keep the system operating in a moderate way. Their ridership is down 23 percent. Their revenues are down 23 percent. What is the Metro going to do?

The impact of this shutdown has had an incredibly damaging impact on our economy and on families. We have a lot of two-parent households working for the Federal Government both on furlough. So many Federal workers live paycheck to paycheck, and they are now recognizing there might not be any paycheck. How are they supposed to pay their bills?

I spoke to one of my constituents in Maryland who works for a Federal agency. He and his wife have both been furloughed. They just recently bought a home and have a mortgage payment to make. The mortgage company isn't going to say: Sorry the government is shut down; don't pay your mortgage. He has to pay his mortgage. How is he going to be able to do that?

We have hurt people. This shutdown, which should never have happened, has had a huge impact on our economy. The tragedy is for the taxpayers. It is a waste of money, with over $2 billion wasted as a result of this shutdown.

So I thank my colleague for allowing me to interject to underscore the point she has made. She has been on the floor just about every day, and I admire her very much for what she has been saying because she is absolutely right. The damage is clear. We never should have shut down government. We should pay our bills. It is difficult to understand the Republicans' original position that they want to negotiate the end of ObamaCare on a bill that just keeps the lights on in government.

Now we are talking about paying our bills. They are talking again about dealing with some policy issues. If we are going to get into that discussion--which we should not unless we turn the lights on--let's open government and then turn the lights on and then sit down and negotiate. That is what we have to do. We have some major issues we need to deal with, including how we are going to grow the economy, create jobs, have a modern transportation infrastructure. As chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, my colleague fought so hard for a multiyear reauthorization of our surface transportation systems, for modern roads, well-maintained--a modern transportation system.

To Chairman Boxer, we have three major transit initiatives in Maryland that need to move forward. We have to have funding for that. That is how our economy will grow.

Yes, I look forward to sitting down with my Republican colleagues to negotiate a budget for next year but first open government and pay the bills.

Could I ask my colleague to yield?

I thank the Chair, and I thank Senator Boxer. She points out the hardship of people not getting a paycheck. Senator Boxer points it out very clearly. Some of these people are the same people who were just furloughed as a result of sequestration, so they already had smaller paychecks because of sequestration.

Let me remind my colleagues that sequestration was put in 2 years ago as a placeholder. I don't know of a single Senator who wanted to see sequestration take effect. It was a placeholder to get to a budget negotiation. What did we do? We passed the budget. We passed the budget almost 7 months ago. We said: Let's negotiate. We knew it was not going to be our budget. We know we have to negotiate with the House to get a budget to get rid of sequestration.

I mention that because once again we have a very simple request today: Open the government and pay our bills. Sit down and negotiate. It is pretty simple. We have not brought forward our policy objectives in this, which is to have a budget that makes sense for this country, that allows growth of employment, invests not only in roads and bridges but energy and research and education so we can build a competitive economy for the 21st century. We want a budget that is balanced on how we reduce spending--not just on what we call our discretionary spending accounts but also as we look at our entitlement spending. We want to see our health care system more efficient. We want to work to make it a more efficient system. We started that with passage of the Affordable Care Act. Now we want to implement that. That will bring about some additional savings.

We believe we should pay our bills. We should have the necessary revenue. Our revenue code is full of inequities that hemorrhage revenue. My colleague from California is well aware of the fact that in our Tax Code--I serve on the Senate Finance Committee. I think my colleagues understand that we are now spending more money in our Tax Code than we do in appropriations bills. We spend more money in the Tax Code. That is tax breaks some people get--not everyone. We certainly can review those tax expenditures and close those that are inefficient, which will not only provide more equity in our Tax Code but will provide more revenue to pay our bills and reduce our deficit.

It is that type of negotiation we want to get into, but we cannot do that when the Republicans have put a gun to the head of the U.S. economy. That is what they have done by shutting government and by threatening not to pay the bills. We say very simply, put down the gun. Let's negotiate these issues.

The Senator is absolutely right about the private contractor issue. When you look at 800,000 Federal workers who have been furloughed, that does not include the private contractors, which are clearly going to be an additional hundreds of thousands who are not working today, yes, it is a huge drain on our economy, and there is no reason for this.

For all those reasons, we say very clearly on day 14, day 14 of this shutdown, let's open the government, let's pay our bills, and, yes, let's develop a sensible way to negotiate our budget. Let's not try to threaten the American people and then try to pass an extreme agenda as a result of that.

Through the Chair, I thank Senator Boxer.

Through the Chair, I just have to say to my colleague that she is absolutely right. She is the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee Agency. She has given great examples that show how critically important the Environmental Protection Agency is in protecting public health and protecting our environment. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is important to protect the public safety.

The Senator from California is absolutely right. I want to give another dynamic, and that is jobs. The fact that the EPA is not in full force is hurting economic growth. I will give one example: Harbor Point in downtown Baltimore, which is an RCRA site, which means it was an environmental cleanup site that has a court order on its development requiring the EPA to sign off to make sure the environmental issues are being protected in its development.

Everything is fairly well understood here, and it has gone through a long process. We are now at the point where we are ready to develop this prime spot. It is the most iconic spot in downtown Baltimore. It is going to help our city grow. Our city needs economic growth. It is on hold. Why? Because the EPA does not have its people in the office to be able to review this application in a timely way. That is just one example. The Environmental Protection Agency is critically important for public health. It is critically important for our environment and also for economic growth.

I will give another example: The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau is not at full complement either. We have microbreweries in Maryland that are doing very well. Every time they add a new product, they have to get approval from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. That is on hold. Their economic growth is on hold.

I could give many more examples. Senator Boxer mentioned our refuges.

The Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge is located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. It is one of the most beautiful spots in the world. This is hunting season. The Eastern Shore of Maryland depends upon the hunting season for its economy.

I can't tell you how many hotel operators, restaurants, and shopowners depend upon the fall season being in full force with the hunting season, and now we put a real damper--not just the weather we had over the past weekend--but the fact that the government was closed has put a damper on the economy. Actually, it was good weather for hunting. They lost that. They are not going to be able to recover that. It is lost.

As my friend pointed out, our request is pretty simple. Our request is to open the government, pay our bills, and let's sit down and negotiate. The point I hope everyone understands: The funding level we sent over to the House of Representatives is the Republican funding level. We didn't negotiate that number. That is the current fiscal year 2013 number. We didn't negotiate between that number and our budget number that this body passed. We gave up on that and said: Look, it is more important to keep the government open. We have already negotiated.

Bear with me for one more minute. Senator Boxer has given the Baltimore Sun a lot of credit today, and I would like to quote from their editorial because I think it is important to point out.

Passing a ``clean'' continuing resolution keeping

government fully operating at funding levels the GOP has

already endorsed is no compromise. It's the status quo.

Raising the debt ceiling isn't a concession either--it allows

the nation to pay the bills Congress has already incurred and

prevents the possibility of a government default, which would

hurt the economy, raise borrowing costs and increase the

federal deficit.

So when Speaker Boehner lashes out at President Obama for

failing to negotiate, one has to ask, what is this thing he

describes as negotiation? House Republicans are not merely

leveraging their political position--as some dryly claim--

they are threatening to do grievous harm to the global

economy and the American public.

The gun isn't raised to President Obama's head or to the

Senate. The Democrats have no particular stake in passing a

continuing resolution or in raising the debt ceiling other

than keeping public order and doing what any reasonable

person expects Congress to do. No, the gun is raised at the

nation as a whole. That's why descriptions like ``ransom''

and ``hostage'' are not mere hyperbole, they are as close as

the English language gets to accurately describing the GOP

strategy.

I hope we are close to reaching an agreement to open the government. It should never have been closed. A lot of damage and harm has already been done.

We are on a motion to proceed to the debt ceiling. If we were not to pay our bills, that would cause irreparable harm not just to our economy, but to the world economy. That is something we should not be playing around with waiting until the last public minute.

I urge my colleagues to put the interest of this country first. This is a serious matter that affects our economy, America's future, and the global economy. If we turn the global economy into further economic disorder, it is going to have a major impact on the United States, and it will be our fault.

I urge my colleagues to immediately cease this strategy of threatening our economy. Let's open the government, pay our bills, and sit down and negotiate, as we should, a budget agreement which will not be what the Democrats want or the Republicans want, but it will be a compromise, as it should be, between the parties. We owe that to the American people.

Through the Chair, I thank Senator Boxer again for underscoring these points and pointing out the wide impact this has on all parts of our country. We have to end it. I hope we can end it tonight.

Mr. President, once again I wish to thank Senator Boxer for her comments and for her strength in coming to the floor and pointing out the danger and harm caused by the government shutdown and the risk of defaulting on our debt.

Let me make it clear: Open government. Keep it open at the level the Republicans had in their budget as we continue to negotiate. We want to negotiate a budget for fiscal year 2014. We want that budget to be fair. We have been trying to do that for 7 months. We are not going to negotiate a budget in the next 48 hours. It is going to take more time than that.

We need to extend the ability to pay our bills. That should be done for a long time--for a longer period of time--because of the predictability here. We don't want to go from crisis to crisis. There should be no concessions for either one of those two issues; that is, opening government or paying our bills.

Let's work back and forth, Democrats and Republicans, on a budget in which there will be give and take. That is what we are encouraging our colleagues to do.

I join Senator Boxer in hoping there is a productive meeting at the White House today. I hope we find a game plan that will allow us to open government and pay our bills in a way in which we can sit down and negotiate the fiscal year 2014 budget, respecting each other's views and doing what our political system always envisioned; that is, true compromise, particularly when we have a House of Representatives controlled by Republicans and a Senate controlled by Democrats.

With that, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senators be permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, we are in the 11th day of the government shutdown. We have caused great harm to the people of this country. We have already caused harm. We have hurt the United States on the international front. The President, as I mentioned previously, was absent at the Asian economic summit. The Asian economic summit was the opportunity for America, the President of the United States, to be the headliner. Instead, the President of China, President Xi, became the headliner. There were questions asked about whether America is ``open for business'' with our trading partners. We have been hurt by this shutdown, make no mistake about it.

Our economy has suffered. Just the threat of defaulting--of not paying our bills--has hurt consumer confidence. Consumer confidence measures whether consumers are ready to go out and buy that car, buy that home, go on vacation. After the terrorist attacks on the country on September 11, 2001, consumer confidence dropped by about 8.8 percent. I could go over other calamitous moments in history, but the debt ceiling debate today is about twice as damaging to consumer confidence as the 9/11 attack. We are talking about paying our bills when we talk about raising the debt ceiling--bills that have already been incurred. We are just paying the bills.

Mr. President, we are hurting our country. We are hurting our economy. We are wasting taxpayer dollars. We all talk about dealing with the debt. But in the government shutdown, we have wasted over $2 billion of taxpayer money as a result of it.

As the Presiding Officer knows, in this region--Maryland, Virginia, the District--we have over 300,000 Federal workers who are on furlough of the 800,000 who are furloughed nationwide. That has a direct impact on families as well as our economy. These Federal workers are not buying in their local shops, they are not eating in the local restaurants. I stopped into a restaurant for a sandwich over the last weekend. I said: How are things going? The shopowner said: Terrible. Social Security employees are not here. I cannot keep my business open without their business.

We have seen the direct impact. I have tried to put faces on these numbers. We could talk about the statistics and the numbers. Let's talk about people, the individual people I hear from--I know the Presiding Officer has received calls from constituents in Virginia. It is the same story.

Over a week ago we brought in Amy Fritz who works at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Adminstration (NOAA). She is a Federal worker who is furloughed. She tracks weather conditions and works on the computer models to predict how storms will behave. It is a pretty important position she has. She was telling of the hardship to her family. The Baltimore Sun reported today that at NOAA it is not just the Federal workers, it is the contract workers who are suffering. The Sun cited the example of Tiffany House, a person who lives in Hyattsville, MD. She is a single mom, a contract employee of NOAA, who has been laid off as a result of the shutdown. It is more than just 800,000 Federal workers; we have the contract workers who have been laid off as a result of the shutdown.

She said, ``Even though we're furloughed and we are not getting paid, the bills keep coming.''

There are a lot of hard-working families who live paycheck to paycheck. We are 11 days into this government shutdown. Families are wondering what they are going to do when it comes to paying their bills.

The Sun reported about Keith Tate from Hyattsville. He works for FM Talent Source in Silver Spring. Almost 30 percent of their contract employees, 92 people in total, have been laid off. He

was starting work on October 1--his luck. He was looking forward to it. He went to work on October 1 but then was furloughed as a result of the government shutdown.

The effect goes well beyond individual people that you would expect, like Federal employees and contractors. I have a friend, Hugh Sisson, who started Heavy Seas Brewery in Baltimore. It is one of America's great craft breweries. He is doing a great job and hiring people. You may say, ``How does this affect him? He sells beer.'' Well, beer sales are affected by furloughs and a drop in consumer confidence, but it's worse than that. The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) employees at the Department of the Treasury have been furloughed. They're the people who review and approve new breweries, recipes, and labels. Hugh told me, ``We have eight labels waiting for approval and 10 formulas we would like to start the process on but can't at this time.''

Craft brewers like Hugh Sisson are innovators, constantly introducing new beers and seasonal beers, fresh products. They are being hurt all over the Nation as a result of the TTB staff being furloughed. They don't just hire their own staff; they support jobs in agriculture for barley and hops and other ingredients; in manufacturing for stainless steel kettles and fermenters and bottling and canning lines; and in distribution and retail. These are blue collar jobs and white collar jobs. All across America. These are jobs that won't be outsourced overseas. And this shutdown is hurting America's craft brewers.

This shutdown is hurting our economy, hurting our country, hurting individuals, hurting taxpayers, hurting businesses. We can do much better. In my State of Maryland 10 percent of our workforce works for the Federal Government. The dedicated employees at these agencies do work that's important to all Americans, not just Marylanders.

As I pointed out previously, Harbor Point is one of the most important economic developments in downtown Baltimore, but it's RCRA site--that stands for the Resource Conservation & Recovery Act--which means it requires the consent of government, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), before this enormous economic development project can move forward. The people at EPA who would approve this project have been furloughed. This economic project now is on hold.

I could mention other examples of agencies that are critically important. I could also talk a lot more about private employment. It is not just government employment, it is private employment. Convergence Technology Consulting, located in Glen Burnie, MD, does cloud computing services for the Department of Defense. Twenty percent of the firm's 65 employees have been laid off.

TW Corporation in Hanover does cyber security work, and one-third of its 700 employees were furloughed. The list of the damages caused by the government shutdown goes on and on.

My message is pretty simple. We have to make sure government is open. We have to make sure we open government, and we have to pay our bills.

I understand we would like to have an agreement on a budget. I would like to have an agreement on the budget. For 6 months we have been trying to go to conference. The Senate passed a budget, the House passed a budget. They are different. The Senate budget, one that I supported, the Presiding Officer supported, would provide more resources for job growth by investing in infrastructure, by investing in education, by investing in research. Yes, we do provide more revenues by closing tax loopholes. We also start to rein in government spending and continue to do that. The House-passed budget has fewer of those investments. It does not close the loopholes in our Tax Code. That is what we have to negotiate between Democrats and Republicans. That is what we need to do. But the first order of business is to reopen government--all of it--and pay our bills, and then let's sit down and negotiate. We cannot wait. We must have government open.

I quoted before from the Baltimore Sun and the paper's analogy of negotiations. It is difficult when this is all one-sided. As Sunpapers said:

So when Speaker Boehner lashes out at President Obama for

failing to negotiate, one has to ask, what is this thing he

describes as negotiation? House Republicans are not merely

leveraging their political position--as some dryly claim--

they are threatening to do grievous harm to the global

economy and the American public. The gun isn't raised to Mr.

Obama's head or to the Senate's. The Democrats have no

particular stake in passing a continuing resolution or in

raising the debt ceiling other than keeping public order and

doing what any reasonable person expects Congress to do. No,

the gun is raised at the nation as a whole. That's why

descriptions like ``ransom'' and ``hostage'' are not mere

hyperbole, they are as close as the English language gets to

accurately describing the GOP strategy.

Our message is clear to House Speaker Boehner: Put down the gun. Put it down. Open government. Allow us to pay our bills. And, yes, we want to sit down and work out our differences. Let the democratic process proceed. Open government, pay our bills, and then let's negotiate a fair and comprehensive agreement on the budget.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, on October 13, 1775, Congress enacted legislation providing for the outfitting of America's first two warships, manned by crews of 80, to be sent out on a 3-month cruise. Their mission was to intercept transports carrying munitions and supplies to the British army in America. Navy missions have evolved significantly over the last 238 years; however, the essential role America's maritime forces play in defending our Nation and allowing prosperity to flourish is unchanged. The United States Navy has the finest men and women in uniform on, above, and below the high seas safeguarding America's interests at home and around the globe.

This Sunday we celebrate the U.S. Navy's 238th birthday. We remember the great sacrifices made by sailors who came before, we mourn those we lost along the way, we celebrate their successes and we applaud the new generation of sailors serving our great Nation today. The United States Navy is comprised of over 323,000 active duty sailors, over 109,000 on ready reserve, and a civilian force around 201,000. The United States Navy cannot exist without the commitment of its active duty, reserve and civilian forces, in addition to the support of Navy families. The sacrifices made by over 630,000 proud men and women serving the Navy provide the freedoms all Americans enjoy daily; freedoms paid for by those in uniform, many who are aboard the 102 ships deployed around the world as I speak right now, serving on the front lines in defense of freedom.

There are no finer men and women in uniform anywhere in the world than those who serve the United States Navy. Today, the value of having a strong naval power cannot be underestimated; 70 percent of the Earth's surface is covered by water and 90 percent of international trade travels by the sea, which means our sailors need to be 100 percent on watch. No other branch of the military conducts missions on all fronts like the Navy does. The seas are America's lifeline; our Navy protects vital shipping lanes ensuring prosperity and free trade for our Nation and our friends abroad. The Navy is essential in protecting our Nation's cyber security at a time when, according to former Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead, 95 percent of digital information is traveling on cables at the bottom of the seas. Our national security is ever-dependent on our Nation's sea power. For each of these reasons and more, the United States Navy deserves our thanks and admiration.

I must also pay tribute as today marks the 168th anniversary of the United States Naval Academy. When Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft founded the Academy in Annapolis, MD, I think he could only dream that it would continue to inspire and help create the high caliber graduates it does today. I truly must commend those graduates and their brothers and sisters serving in arms. The incredible flexibility and can-do attitude of the Navy were instrumental to the withdrawal of military forces in Iraq and the drawdown of military forces in Afghanistan. From the Seabees to the Navy Seals, the entirety of the Department of the Navy is integral to securing our national defense around the world.

Artfully inscribed above the chapel doors at the Naval Academy are the Latin words ``non sibi sed patriae.'' Though the Navy has no official motto, these words, translated as ``not for self but country,'' encapsulate the sacrifice and dedication of our amazing Navy Men and Women serving across the globe today so that our society may be free. The real strength of our Navy is not the ships or weapons or technology at our disposal, but the highly trained, motivated, and professional sailors who make our Navy the envy of the world. For 238 years, the U.S. Navy has witnessed many changes in missions, in geopolitics, and in technology. But in all that time, the one thing that has not changed is the importance of quality people, for it is the sailors who make it all happen, and who make the real difference in a Navy's effectiveness. To all who serve: thank you for your continued vigilance. Let us remember our Navy sailors and Naval Academy midshipmen for their historic achievements in defense of our Nation and in defense of freedom, and wish them a happy birthday.

Mr. President, I join my colleagues in taking the floor to stress the urgency of action. I agree with my colleague from Massachusetts and her comments about the devastating impact the failure to pay our bills would have on our economy, on our Nation's reputation, and on the worldwide economy. That would make absolutely no sense at all and would put our Nation at great risk.

I thank the Senator for taking the time to explain the specific consequences if we were to allow the U.S. Treasury to be put in the position where it could not honor all of the obligations that have already been incurred.

This is not about increasing spending. This is about paying the bills we have already incurred. Whether it is for those who hold our bonds, those who are entitled to a payroll check or those who are entitled to a contractor's check, we have to honor our bills. That is what America's great reputation is all about.

I thank the Senator for bringing that up.

The combination of a government shutdown combined with not paying our bills will have an impact on our economy that will be very hard for us to overcome. We have already been harmed. This government shutdown has already hurt America. It has hurt us internationally.

This past week President Obama was supposed to be at the Asian economic summit. The Presiding Officer--the Senator from Delaware who serves on the Foreign Relations Committee--knows very well the importance of that particular conference.

The headliner of that conference should have been President Obama pointing out how important the rebalanced Asia is to America's economy and that we are open for business; instead, America was closed for business. The headliner at that economic summit was President Xi of China. That is not what this Nation needed. We were harmed by that government shutdown and the President's inability to travel to Asia. Make no mistake about it, it hurt America.

Our economy has already been hurt by the shutdown. Every day that the government is shut down, it hurts our economy. I can give a lot of specific examples. For instance, there was a report in this morning's paper about the State of Colorado and how it recently experienced one of the worst floods in its history which caused a devastating impact on its economy. They are now telling us that this shutdown is approaching the economic damage to Colorado that nature did to it a couple of weeks ago by the floods. However, there is a major difference: We can't stop what nature does--we can try to mitigate it--but we can stop this government shutdown. This is a government problem that we have imposed on the people of Colorado, the people of Maryland, the people of Delaware, and the people of our entire country.

This shutdown has hurt the taxpayers of this country. I have heard my conservative friends say that we want to make sure we don't spend so much money. We want to help the taxpayers. In this short period of time already the shutdown has cost the taxpayers of this country a reported $2 billion. That is just wasted taxpayer dollars. We have a responsibility to care for the public funds. The way to do that right now is to open government and stop wasting taxpayer dollars.

I have been on this floor many times to talk about the harm we are doing to the Federal workforce. Yes, we are harming the Federal workforce; there is no question about it. I am particularly sensitive because this region has more Federal workers--of the 800,000 who have been furloughed, over 300,000 come from this region. By the way, 30 percent are veterans. The people who have served our Nation are now being furloughed because of this government shutdown. Maryland's workforce is about 10 percent of Federal workers. So this has had a real impact on the State I have the honor of representing in the Senate. Each one of those 800,000 people whom we represent is real. They are not just numbers. These are real people who have been harmed by the closing of the Federal Government.

Let me speak about a couple of people whom I have heard about or who have called me. Kayla is a 15-year-old who I spoke to on the telephone. She told me about how her parents are worried. Both of her parents are Federal workers, and she, a 15-year-old, sensed the fear in her parents as to whether they will be able to pay their bills. We put that family at risk by failing to keep government open.

Melissa Ayres is a furloughed Federal worker at the Social Security Administration. Her husband was unemployed for 2\1/2\ years as a result of our economic downturn. Now his company is recovering, but Melissa was the principal wage earner. She stated:

I have always been the primary earner until Monday. Now I

think: What do I do to support my family?

The government shutdown has hurt Melissa Ayres and her family.

I heard from a farmer on the eastern shore of Maryland's Cecil County. He is part of the conservation stewardship program. I know the Presiding Officer, the Senator from Delaware, is well aware of that. But what this person has done is taken some income away from his farming activities by planting buffer crops. Those buffer crops help with reducing the amount of pollutants that run off into the Chester River, in this case, which will flow into the Chesapeake Bay. So he is being a good steward of the environment, and he enrolled in the conservation stewardship program. As part of that, he gets a payment from that fund, because he is giving up some of the income of his farming activities in order to help us preserve the Chesapeake Bay. During this shutdown, that payment is not being made.

He has put himself in a tough position. He did the right thing. He has put his family at risk. He told me he has a young child who is undergoing certain treatment for his eye. He doesn't know whether he has the money for his child to continue in that medical treatment. He needs the check for his participation in this program.

This government shutdown has had a real impact on real people.

Johnny Zuagar who works at the Census Bureau--I should say used to work at the Census Bureau because he has been furloughed. Of the 5,000 employees at the Census Bureau, less than 40 are currently working-- forty out of 5,000. The budget he has for his family is based upon his paycheck. If he doesn't get his full paycheck, he can't pay his bills. So his question is which bills should he pay and which not pay.

That is the situation we are putting people in as a result of this government shutdown.

Marcelo Del Canto was here earlier this week. He works with helping in the fight against substance abuse. He has been a Federal worker for 8 years. He is in the unenviable position that he and his wife both work for the Federal Government, and they have both been furloughed. He is a Marylander and just recently bought a home in Maryland. He has a mortgage. If he doesn't get a paycheck, how does he pay his mortgage? The mortgage company is not going to say: Oh, government shutdown. You don't have to pay your mortgage payments.

This shutdown is having a real impact on real families in my State of Maryland and in every State in this Nation.

Then there are agencies that just can't do their work that will hurt our country. The Environmental Protection Agency currently has 93 percent of its workforce on furlough. That means we are at risk with our public health--clean air, clean water. Our environment is at risk. The Chesapeake Bay is at greater risk because the people out there doing the monitoring and doing the enforcement are not there. Scientists are not doing what they need to be doing in order to help us with public health and to deal with our environment.

Let me tell my colleagues that it is also directly hurting our economy. In Baltimore, one of the most important economic development sites, Harbor Point, in downtown Baltimore, which is being developed is a RCRA site, which requires the approval of the Environmental Protection Agency in order to move forward with the economic development plan. The people who would do that approval process are on furlough. That project is now on hold and the economic development that would help Baltimore and our State economy is now on hold.

The shutdown is having a real effect on real people.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST, which is located in the State of Maryland, does work that is so important for innovation, for science, and technology. They do work to help us have a competitive edge internationally. Ninety-one percent of their workforce is on furlough. How do we expect to be competitive?

This year, the SAMMI Awards were recently given out. The SAMMI Awards are given to Federal workers who excel in public service. These are our frontliners. These are the people who are serving their nation, and we want to honor them. I want to recognize some of the people who were being honored at the SAMMI Awards this year. One is Daniel Madrzykowski. He works at NIST. I mention him because he has been there for 28 years. The work he does is to figure out how he can keep our first responders who fight fires safe. He does the research as to how they can go into a building in a safer way. Well, he is furloughed, and our first responders are at a little bit greater risk today as a result of the government shutdown.

The shutdown is having an effect on real people.

I read with interest how we celebrated the Nobel Prize in medicine going to James Rothman and Randy Schekman for the incredible work they did. I don't know if I can explain what they did, but I will tell my colleagues that it is incredible. They were able to reach that pinnacle in their careers and reach their accomplishments because during their career they were supported by the National Institutes of Health. NIH does basic research which is so important--the building blocks for discovery in America. It provides incentives for young people to go into science and to go into research.

Will we have the next group of Nobel laureates? Today it is less certain than it was a week ago. NIH cannot support those types of research grants today. Their people are on furlough. America is not open for business. Real people are being hurt by what is happening.

It is not just in government employment. I can talk about private sector employment.

It was just reported today that Lockheed will be laying off 400 Maryland workers as a result of the shutdown. I can give many more examples of private companies that are laying off people as a result of this shutdown.

The bottom line is this: We hear from some of our Republican colleagues in the House that we have to negotiate, we have to pick winners and losers; we have to wait for a crisis to occur in a particular agency before they will consider a special bill to open some of those agencies. So let me just conclude by the quote I cited once before on the floor of the Senate from the Baltimore Sunpapers. It says, in regards to negotiations and what we should do:

The gun isn't raised to Mr. Obama's head or to the

Senate's. The Democrats have no particular stake in passing a

continuing resolution or in raising the debt ceiling other

than keeping public order and doing what any reasonable

person expects Congress to do. No, the gun is raised at the

nation as a whole. That's why descriptions like ``ransom''

and ``hostage'' are not mere hyperbole, they are as close as

the English language gets to accurately describing the GOP

strategy.

It is time for Speaker Boehner to put down the gun. It is time for us to open government and to make sure we pay our bills, and then, yes, we want to negotiate. For 6 months, we have been trying to negotiate a budget. Open government, pay our bills, and then let's negotiate a responsible budget for this Nation.

With that, I yield the floor.

I want to join with most of my colleagues who have talked about the urgency of us getting the government open. It is causing great harm to our country. Make no mistake about it, it is hurting our economy. I could talk about my own State of Maryland. Our Governor has estimated that we are losing $15 million every day. So every day is precious.

I could talk about over 100,000 Federal workers in Maryland who are furloughed out of the 800,000 nationally, having a huge impact on our economy.

This morning Senator Boxer held a news briefing where we talked about the impact on the Environmental Protection Agency where 93 percent of its employees have been furloughed. We can talk about the direct impact of those employees not being there.

There was a representative from the Ding Darling Refuge in Florida saying not only did it hurt the local economy directly, but she talked about one of the contract services that provided the touring service to the refuge had to lay off 20-some employees.

There are private sector jobs that are directly being lost as a result of this furlough. It is going to be very difficult to get back that loss in our economy the longer the government shutdown lasts. It is wasteful to the taxpayer. The last shutdown cost the taxpayers $2 billion. Here we talk about conservatives who want to do something about the national debt and they are wasting taxpayer dollars by keeping government closed.

Yes, it is hurting our Federal workforce. I joined with Senator Mikulski in the comments she made a little bit earlier. Our Federal workforce has had to endure freezes in salaries, furloughs as a result of sequestration, freezes in the number of employees who can be hired, doing more work with less, and now furloughs again under a government shutdown. Those who are working do not know when they are going to get paid. It is not what we should be

doing to our Federal workforce. They have suffered. This is wrong. It is totally avoidable.

The furloughs at the Environmental Protection Agency are jeopardizing our public health. We had experts come in today and talk about the fact that we do not have the people on guard to protect our waters, to protect our air, to protect our environment. It is jeopardizing public health. It is jeopardizing our environment.

I mentioned this morning, and let me mention again, the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, in Cambridge. This is a community in which that refuge is a huge part of their economy. This is a popular month for visitors to visit Blackwater. Well, the local businesses are hurting. The restaurants have less customers; the hotels, less rooms are being rented. It goes on and on and on, the damage to our economy.

Harbor Point is one of the most important economic developments in downtown Baltimore. It is an RCRA site, which means it is under court order requiring the Environmental Protection Agency to sign off on the development plan. Well, we have a development plan. The city council is acting. We are ready to move forward. But guess what. We cannot get EPA to sign off on it because the people responsible are now on furlough. That is holding up economic growth and economic development in Baltimore. That is what this is doing. It is harming us.

Maryland farmers on the Chesapeake Bay are doing what is right to try to help our bay. They depend upon the protections of the programs that are out there on soil conservation. The Senator from Michigan knows through how hard she has been working on the agriculture bill to provide the tools that are necessary to help our farmers be responsible farmers on land conservation.

I received a call from a farmer near Centerville, MD, on Monday that sums up pretty well how important the Natural Resources Conservation Service is to their work. This person is enrolled in the Conservation Stewardship Program, the CSP. That means he is planting bumper crops in an effort to help us deal with the runoff issues of pesticides and insecticides into the bay, helping us in helping the bay.

He receives certain payments as a result of participation in the program. He is no longer getting those payments. We are asking him to make sacrifices, but we are not giving him the Federal partnership. That is not right. He is hurt. He said: What am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to continue to do this? He told me he has a son with a medical condition that requires regular clinical eye treatment. He does not know whether he can afford that this month. He was helping us with the environment. Now what do we do? We back off of what is necessary.

I could give you many more examples. There is no piecemeal way you can correct each one of those.

On our foreign policy issues, I have the honor of chairing the East Asia and Pacific Subcommittee of the Foreign Relations Committee. President Obama was supposed to be the headliner at the East Asia Economic Summit this past week. Guess who stole the headline. President Xi of China rather than our President. Asia is wondering whether America is open for business. We were missing at the table. That is no way for America to be conducting its business. We need to be open. We need to get government open.

I hear my colleagues who want to negotiate budget deals. I am all for that. I think I have a reputation around here and people know I am interested in getting Democrats and Republicans together and getting a budget that makes sense for our country. But let me quote from the Baltimore Sun from this morning, because I think they say it better than I could say it. This is an exact quote from the Baltimore Sun about negotiations and how we have to go through negotiations.

Passing a ``clean'' continuing resolution keeping

government fully operating at funding levels that GOP has

already endorsed is no compromise. It's status quo. Raising

the debt ceiling isn't a concession either--it allows the

nation to pay the bills Congress has already incurred and

prevents the possibility of a government default, which would

hurt the economy, raise borrowing costs and increase the

Federal deficit.

So when Speaker Boehner lashes out at President Obama for

failing to negotiate, one has to ask, what is this thing he

describes as negotiation? House Republicans are not merely

leveraging their political position--as some dryly claim--

they are threatening to do grievous harm to the global

economy and the American public.

The gun isn't raised to Mr. Obama's head or to the

Senate's. The Democrats have no particular stake in passing a

continuing resolution or in raising the debt ceiling other

than keeping public order and doing what any reasonable

person expects Congress to do. No, the gun is raised at the

nation as a whole. That's why descriptions like ``ransom''

and ``hostage'' are not mere hyperbole, they are as close as

the English language gets to accurately describing the GOP

strategy.

The editorial ends by saying:

It's time for Mr. Boehner to put down the gun and put more

faith in the democratic process.

We need to negotiate a budget for next year. We absolutely need to do it. We tried to go to budget conference many times. The majority leader has repeated that request today. The formula of what is right for this country to do--and it is not one side getting advantage over another-- the right thing to do is open government, pay our bills, and, yes, let's negotiate a budget that will not be what the Democrats want, will not be what the Republicans want. We are going to have to compromise as the Framers of our Constitution envisioned that we would do. That is what we should have done months ago. We passed our budget in March. We should have been negotiating months ago.

But what we need to do right now is open government, pay our bills, and, yes, then it is ripe for us to sit down and negotiate. I can tell you, we are ready to do that. But it is up to Speaker Boehner now to vote, to vote on the resolution that will keep government open, to vote on a way we can make sure that we will continue to pay our bills, and then accept our offer to sit down and negotiate a budget for the coming year. That would be the best thing we can do for the American people.

I urge my colleagues with a sense of urgency that we move this immediately because of the damage we are causing to our country.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, yesterday we had a hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as the Presiding Officer knows. We had testimony by Secretary Sherman as to the enforcement of sanctions against Iran in order to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear weapon state, which would be a game changer.

During the course of that hearing, it came out that as a result of the government shutdown, we are not as effective as we could be. There is always more that can be done in working with other countries, and the shutdown is affecting our full preparedness for enforcing the sanctions internationally against Iran.

One of my colleagues started to challenge the representative from the State Department as to why they couldn't do more. Of course, it was the Treasury Department's budget that was primarily affecting the attention to this. The Secretary assured us that we are enforcing our sanctions.

Senator Kaine made the observation--and the right observation--don't blame the administration; blame the Congress. It is the Congress that has the responsibility to make sure the government is functioning with all cylinders. This tea party shutdown is

jeopardizing our national security. It is not putting us where we should be as far as taking care of the needs of the people of this country.

I was on the floor a couple of days ago, and I quoted from the Baltimore Sun as to the responsibility for the shutdown, and I'm going to quote a little bit more from that article. It said:

It would be tempting, of course, to write that this

impasse--the inability to agree on the continuing resolution

to fund government past the end of the fiscal year--was the

fault of Democrats and Republicans alike. But that would be

like blaming the hostages for causing the perpetrator to put

a gun to their heads.

As President Obama noted, he and congressional Democrats

put forward no agenda other than keeping government operating

temporarily at the current levels.

I want to review how we got here on October 1. It was 6 months ago that the Senate passed the budget. It was different than the House budget. Then, we, the Democrats said: Let's go to conference. That is what we should do, negotiate a budget, so that when it comes to October 1, we have a budget in place to fund government at the levels we agreed to--Democrats and Republicans. The Republicans refused to go to conference.

Fast forward to October 1. We didn't have a budget, and, therefore, it was necessary to pass a continuing resolution. That is what you do. When we can't pass a budget, we keep government operating at the current levels until we can agree on a budget. So that is what we decided to do, but we went further. The majority leader met with the Speaker of the House, and rather than negotiating about what level we thought should be in the continuing resolution--what the Democrats and the Republicans thought--we went along with the lower number. We negotiated the continuing resolution at the lower level, and that is what we passed.

The Republicans in the House decided they would not go for that, and they attached their changes in the health care system as a condition to passing a continuing resolution. Make no mistake about it; it is a tea party shutdown.

Now the Republicans are saying to us: Why aren't we negotiating? Well, let me quote from this morning's editorial in the Baltimore Sun. I think this morning's editorial really captures where we are as far as negotiations. The headline says:

There is no room to ``negotiate'' when extremists take the

federal government hostage--and threaten to do the same to

the economy.

How can the tea partiers in the House expect to be offered

anything for doing the equivalent of strapping C-4 and a

detonator to their chests and holding the government hostage?

The editorial goes on to say:

Reward these tactics and you'll only see more of it in

Congress. And that's critically important given that the

stakes are about to rise. Should Republicans engage in

similar behavior with the debt ceiling, they risk not only

the health of the U.S. economy but the global economy. To

default on the debt--to refuse to pay bills already incurred

by the federal government--has the potential to pull the

nation back into recession and put thousands, if not

millions, of people out of work.

It is very clear: We have compromised, and the tea party Republicans have shut down government. We can't negotiate with a gun to our head. It reminds me of a football team that played a game and didn't like the results, so they say: Let's just play that game all over.

Last Sunday the Baltimore Ravens didn't play a very good game. They lost. They didn't say: Let's play that game over. They are going to be here this weekend playing again and trying to improve their record.

I heard one of my colleagues use another sports analogy. He said we could do a mulligan on ObamaCare. We are the big leagues. There are no mulligans at the U.S. Open. There are no mulligans in golf. Let's use the regular order.

Yes, we want to negotiate a budget for the next year, but we can't do it with a gun at our head and say: Open government and pay our bills.

Then the Republicans are saying: Well, let's do this piecemeal. Why don't we just take up small provisions.

This is another quote from this morning's Baltimore Sun:

Even the little fixes the GOP is offering is outrageous if

they slow down the return of a fully-funded government.

Reopening parks would be great, but what about cancer

patients denied treatment? And for every National Institutes

of Health reopened, what about the funding for inspectors

that are making sure our food isn't tainted, or intelligence

officers monitoring the next al-Qaida attack, or FDA

scientists reviewing the next miracle drug? It's impossible

to even keep track of all of the hardships the shutdown has

created, and why do so when the solution is at hand?

This shutdown is hard on our country. My colleagues have talked about it. It has affected our welfare, it has put our Nation at risk, and it has hurt our economy--including my own State of Maryland. Senator Mikulski is here, and she will be speaking as chairman of the Appropriations Committee. The State of Maryland loses $15 million every day in our State economy.

We literally have over 100,000 workers who are on furlough and not getting paid, and it is costing the taxpayers money. The last shutdown in 1995 cost $2 billion. What a waste of taxpayers' resources.

Let us put an end to this tea party shutdown. Let us also assure those who are on furlough that they will get paid. I have introduced legislation in this regard. I believe the House is going to be passing that legislation. Let's make it clear that our Federal workers--who have endured 3 years of pay freezes, furloughs under sequestration, and have been asked to do more with less--will be made whole when this shutdown ends.

Let's put an end to the shutdown and make sure we pay our bills. Let's meet together to work out a budget for the coming year, as we should.

The tragedy here is that the votes are in the House of Representatives to pass the Senate continuing resolution. If Speaker Boehner would just vote on the resolution we sent over, the shutdown would end and we could get on with the business of this Nation.

I yield the floor