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[Pages H1004-H1005]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
{time} 1030
DAY 33 OF THE SHUTDOWN
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Connecticut (Mr. Himes) for 5 minutes.
Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, so here we are together in the House of
Representatives on day 33 of the government shutdown. We have all been
back in our districts, and like me, I suspect have all heard from
people who are really starting to suffer as a result of this government
shutdown: TSA agents, other people essential to our security, other
Federal workers, and people who receive food stamps who are wondering
whether 2 weeks from now they will be able to feed their children.
I don't know about you, but I come back to Washington thinking one
thing, which is: We need to stop calling this a government shutdown.
That sort of makes it sound like a machine isn't working somewhere.
Let's call this what it is. The President's decision to sign no budget
until he gets his wall is not a government shutdown.
It is taking the happiness, the prosperity, and the opportunity of
millions of Americans hostage until he gets his wall. It is not too
strong to say that this is torturing millions of Americans with anxiety
until the President gets his wall.
It is saying to Americans that you will work for weeks, and maybe
months, but we won't pay you because he needs his wall. If you are one
of the millions of Americans who rely on SNAP benefits so that you can
look at your child and know that that child has had nourishment that
day, you may not get those benefits because he needs his wall.
If you are a contractor, you are not getting any back pay, and I am
sorry, because he needs his wall.
I have got the stories from my district that everybody else does in
this Chamber. The worst one was when I talked to a woman named Debbie.
Debbie is fighting stage IV melanoma. Her husband is a Department of
Transportation executive who was called back to D.C. to work without
pay, leaving Debbie to raise three children and battle cancer without
pay, with the insecurity of whether she will be able to pay her copays
to keep herself alive.
Why? Apparently, holding hostage the American people is okay because
the President's wall is that important. Well, if that is so important,
why, when the Republicans controlled the House, and the Senate, and
Presidency until a few weeks ago, why did we not hear about the wall
then? Why are we torturing the American people now?
I have been here for 10 years. We haven't ever had a debate or an
argument about a wall, but now it is okay for the President to torture
the American people, to keep them without money, to keep them in
insecurity, to keep them in anxiety, because right now the wall is
absolutely essential.
Let's talk for a second about where this came from and what kind of a
tool
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this hostage taking is. Remember, during the campaign the President
said, we will build a wall from sea to shining sea, a big beautiful
wall that will be paid for by Mexico.
What we are doing right now is not delivering on the campaign promise
of the President of the United States. We are cleaning up around the
fact that he could not deliver on a campaign promise to have Mexico pay
for the wall. Instead, security workers and the American people are
being asked not just to pay for his wall, but to suffer for his wall.
This is a dealmaker. The art of the deal. I was in the majority once
when we had the Senate, and Presidency, and the House. There was lots
of stuff we wanted but we couldn't get done. A public option in the
Affordable Care Act, we couldn't get that done. The American Clean
Energy and Security Act, we couldn't get that done. Something to
address climate change, we couldn't get that done. But we never dreamed
that the tool that we had in our pocket was to say we will torture the
American people unless we get what we want.
I would remind my Republican colleagues that there will be a
Democratic President someday, and they are setting this precedent. Set
this precedent because it is an awesome tool. Maybe we will decide not
to pay the military until we can get truly universal health coverage.
Maybe we will decide not to man the borders or to decriminalize
marijuana because that is what we want, and we won't pay people until
we get what we want. It is a terrible precedent, and my Republican
friends know that.
So what do we do now? There are two things that can happen. The
President can maybe turn off ``FOX News'' long enough to see that this
is hurting his politics very badly. He could maybe experience some
empathy; something that I am not holding my breath for. Or maybe,
Congress could act like Congress and say we are a coequal branch and we
stand for the people who we are currently torturing.
The Senate majority leader said, I will not move a bill that the
President will not sign. Think about that. The United States Senate,
the greatest deliberative body on the planet is, by design now, a
rubber stamp to the President.
It is not hard to override a veto. It just requires us to do what we
are paid to do and stand for the American people who are suffering
right now.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from
engaging in personalities toward the President.
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