E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 113 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION Vol. 159 WASHINGTON, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2013 No. 146 House of Representatives The House met at 10 a.m. and was ing needless disruption on the lives and 140 million fewer people, when there called to order by the Speaker pro tem- costs to the taxpayers—billions of dol- was one-third the number of senior pore (Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan). lars. citizens. f It appears that the public has had a Regardless, their pleas to negotiate hard time figuring all of this out, but ought to mean that they stop refusing DESIGNATION OF SPEAKER PRO has understandably concluded that to negotiate with the Senate about the TEMPORE most of the blame is due to the Repub- budget. If they are serious and not cyn- The SPEAKER pro tempore laid be- lican crusade against health care re- ical, they will appoint their conference fore the House the following commu- form and their reckless choice of tac- committees and stop 6 months of stall- nication from the Speaker: tics. ing. WASHINGTON, DC, Is it possible that something con- Let’s debate whether, at a time of re- October 15, 2013. structive can come from the Tea Party trenchment at the Pentagon, we really I hereby appoint the Honorable BILL debacle? Absolutely. Maybe we can do need to spend two-thirds of a trillion HUIZENGA to act as Speaker pro tempore on our job and look for areas of potential dollars over the next 10 years on nu- this day. agreement. clear weapons we don’t need and can- JOHN A. BOEHNER, Last week, PAUL RYAN and I contin- not use for American security. Ninety Speaker of the House of Representatives. ued a long-standing partnership on ag- percent of the expensive, dangerous f ricultural reform. We led a debate stockpile is unnecessary for even the showing the will of the House to limit MORNING-HOUR DEBATE most ardent believer in nuclear deter- subsidy for the terribly flawed and ex- rence. It has just morphed into a gro- The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursu- pensive crop insurance program by tesque jobs program. ant to the order of the House of Janu- slightly reducing the lavish subsidies Should America sign away its min- ary 3, 2013, the Chair will now recog- to the largest agribusinesses. It is not eral wealth to foreign companies for nize Members from lists submitted by the final answer by any means. There free? Before we cut investments in our the majority and minority leaders for is no guarantee the Ag conferees will people and our future, maybe we should morning-hour debate. pay attention to the will of the House, reexamine the Mining Act of 1872, The Chair will alternate recognition but it is a clear area in that we can re- which remains on the books exactly as between the parties, with each party duce spending and improve programs it was signed into law by President limited to 1 hour and each Member for most farmers and ranchers. Ulysses S. Grant. other than the majority and minority Maybe we could find bipartisan These are areas worthy not just of leaders and the minority whip limited agreement that we should not slash in- debate but of real, honest negotiation to 5 minutes each, but in no event shall frastructure spending even further. and compromise and action. We can debate continue beyond 11:50 a.m. Let’s have a hearing before the House agree on areas to get more value for f Ways and Means Committee and ex- the taxpayer, help those who need it plore how to fund the transportation most, not those who need it least, and LOOK FOR AREAS OF POTENTIAL bill that expires in 348 days and creates allow the process of government to AGREEMENT a devastating infrastructure cliff. work. If you try in good faith, the The SPEAKER pro tempore. The If people are concerned about the def- American system of government is not Chair recognizes the gentleman from icit and government spending, maybe as bad as it looks. Oregon (Mr. BLUMENAUER) for 5 min- the House could finish work on its own f utes. spending bills. My Republican friends Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, it shut down the appropriations process THE TIME FOR SOLUTIONS IS NOW is slowly dawning on some of my Re- more than 2 months ago. It might be The SPEAKER pro tempore. The publican colleagues, who were so glee- instructive, before demanding more re- Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from ful about shutting down the govern- ductions in funding services, to see if North Carolina (Ms. FOXX) for 5 min- ment 2 weeks ago, that there will be no they can actually pass their own utes. reward for not ruining the economy. version of the budget. If they can’t, Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, the time for Some think they should get a prize maybe they would reconsider taking solutions is now. The American people when they stop the senseless punish- government spending down to the lev- expect their elected leaders to come to ment of the American people, paying els of 1962, which is what their budget the table, work together, and put peo- our employees not to work, and inflict- program requires, when America had ple above politics. b This symbol represents the time of day during the House proceedings, e.g., b 1407 is 2:07 p.m. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. H6595 . VerDate Mar 15 2010 00:08 Oct 16, 2013 Jkt 039060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 7634 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A15OC7.000 H15OCPT1 pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with HOUSE H6596 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE October 15, 2013 Today is the 15th day the Federal to this country. Dating back to the gram was passed. But, oh, remember, Government has been shut down, the early 1600s, her family has literally we had to pass it in order to read it to 15th day national parks and memorials given their blood, sweat, and tears for find out what was in it. After we read have been closed to the American peo- America’s freedom and democracy. it the first time, $1.4 trillion. My ple, the 15th day the NIH, WIC, and Nine generations ago, her family source on this is the Congressional Head Start have not had the funding helped build the Mayflower, and not Budget Office, the CBO. Every time it they were counting on. only that, they then helped coordinate has been reviewed, with some of the Today is also 2 days shy of the dead- its voyage. Her family’s ancestors have nearly 13,000 pages of rules and regula- line when America might reach its served in nearly every war in this tions, guess what has happened? The $16.7 trillion debt limit. House Repub- country—in the Revolutionary War, cost estimate has gone up. Now licans, as we have for weeks, will con- the War of 1812, the Civil War, both ObamaCare is a $2.6 trillion program. tinue to offer bipartisan common World Wars—and just recently, she So what we are looking at is a near tri- ground to reopen government and pro- welcomed home her son from Iraq. pling in cost before the program goes tect America’s credit rating. Dorothy said it better than I ever into effect. This is why we continue to More than 70 Senators are on record could myself. She said—and these are say, as we look at fiscal health, fiscal as opposing ObamaCare’s medical de- her exact words—‘‘All of my fore- restraint, you have to look at what is vice tax. Let’s put that tax on hold and fathers would be ashamed of what has happening with the cost projections on reopen government. been going on in this country today.’’ ObamaCare. She went on to say, ‘‘What happened to It is not very fair that Members of Now, for those of us from my State of a government by the people, for the Congress receive special help to pay for Tennessee, this is something that is people?’’ and then said, ‘‘What I want ObamaCare that isn’t available to oth- not new to us. We had the test case for to see is what my forebearers have ers. Let’s remove the special treatment HillaryCare in our State. It is called fought for: equality, job creation, and reopen government. TennCare. What happened with the honor, and respect. They are owed that It is not right that the American peo- TennCare program was it ended up much.’’ ple are on the hook to provide health quadrupling in cost in a period of 5 care subsidies to individuals whose in- We have the votes right now—right here—to reopen our government. We years. comes might not even qualify. Let’s de- Now, this causes us a little bit of mand accountability for taxpayer dol- can end this madness and go back to governing our country the way we concern because we look at what has lars and reopen government. happened with the cost of government- Since the shutdown began, bipartisan should be governing our country. Dorothy’s family and so many other managed and -delivered health care majorities in the House of Representa- services. Well, let’s take a look at tives have voted to reopen government families throughout our country are, indeed, owed that much.