Unanimous Consent Request - H.J. Res. 72

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. TESTER. Madam President, people all around this country--and Montana is no exception--are looking at the actions in Washington, DC, and they are shaking their heads in disbelief. They are shaking their heads in disbelief because the government has shut down, but yet a bill has passed the Senate. If the Speaker of the House would offer it on the House floor, it would pass the House and the government wouldn't have to be shut down.

Then all the resolutions put forth on the other side, and some on this side, quite frankly, about opening different areas of the government, would all be settled because government would be open.

A previous speaker this morning said: We shouldn't be dealing with overall government. We should be dealing with this in piecemeal fashion.

Really? Who determines who gets help and who determines who doesn't? The fact is the government provides some pretty essential services to folks across the board. To stand on this floor and cherry-pick certain pieces of the government to fund and not to fund is totally unfair. Quite frankly, those groups know they are being used as political pawns in this process.

We started out these negotiations with a CR that was at $1.58 trillion. We compromised that down to a point of $986 billion, somewhere around a $70 billion reduction. This is real money, a significant compromise.

The House came back and said: No, that is really not good enough. We want that $986 billion figure, and then we also want to defund the Affordable Care Act.

Why? Because, my goodness, it is the most terrible thing. There are all sorts of reasons given on the floor why the Affordable Care Act is so terrible.

For example, I had a flat tire on my truck last week--it was the Affordable Care Act. I ran out of fuel in my fuel tank--that doggone Affordable Care Act.

Let's get the Affordable Care Act implemented and all of these bogus excuses about why it is so bad will go away. People will get the advantage of affordable insurance once again, not government health care, but affordable insurance so they can afford to get sick.

Aside from that, the repeal of it was turned back. Then they came back with a delay of 1 year and said: Oh, by the way, if you work for Congress or you are a Member of Congress, we are going to take away any sort of insurance benefits you get whatsoever.

This was interesting.

Because, quite frankly, if Members of Congress don't want that benefit, they will turn it back, and I anticipate some will after the Affordable Care Act is put into place. I doubt that very much.

Instead, what happened was we turned that back, and now we are in a situation where we sent back a clean continuing resolution at $986 billion. In the House, if the Speaker would put that bill on the floor, it would pass and we could start doing the business of this country once again rather than sitting here in a government shutdown where things aren't working and we are not addressing the issues that need to be addressed.

But when we take a look at whether we are going to fund certain programs, I want to talk about a few very briefly before I kick it over to the Senator from Colorado.

We have intelligence folks who are not on the ground, but we have folks fighting in theater right now who need that intelligence. Whether they get it is up in the air. The folks who protect our clean water and air are off the job. Clean water is our most important resource, and they are not there to make sure it remains clean. Kids on Head Start, food inspectors, research into energy so we can have a 21st-century economy and affordable energy in that 21st century--they are all off the job. Domestic violence and folks who are impacted by domestic violence--there are shelters that are determining right now whether they will turn away those victims of domestic violence.

The list goes on and on and on. Whether we are talking about the Centers for Disease Control or we are talking about logging and salvage sales or talking about allowing wells to be drilled in the Bakken--that has all stopped. Why? Because of a Speaker of the House--who, by the way, a previous speaker just said they were very proud of. But why has it stopped? It is because of a Speaker of the House who doesn't have the internal guts to put this on the floor and let it pass the House of Representatives. That would put this country back to work so we could start doing the things we need to do in the halls of the Senate and the halls of the House that are important for this country, whether it is the farm bill or housing reform or a defense authorization bill--the list goes on and on. Instead, we are dealing with a totally self-inflicted crisis supported by people who want to shut this government down. Regardless of what they say on this floor, they are very happy because this government is shut down.

It is time, Members of the House of Representatives, that you demand that the Speaker put that bill up so you can vote on it and we can get back to doing the business of this country.

With that, I yield the floor.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source