Pay Our Guard and Reserve Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, my Republican colleagues are once again bringing a bill to the floor in response to the terrible news coverage on their shutdown.

Now, I am very confident that every single Member of the House of Representatives supports our Guard and Reserve men and women. We all want them to receive the pay that they have earned. We could do just that really quickly by passing a clean CR to fund the entire Federal Government and put an end to this GOP shutdown. But Republican leadership isn't serious about stopping the shutdown.

We all know that this bill is not a solution. It is just a distraction. For example, this bill claims to support military pay during the shutdown. However, while this bill does provide them a paycheck, it fails to provide them the materials essential for doing their job.

Let me give you an example of a few of the things that it doesn't fund: it doesn't fund the maintenance of existing equipment, and we need that for readiness; the procurement of new equipment if something needs to be replaced in order to continue a training drill or to be fully prepared; research and development to keep the technology superiority of the U.S. forces; and then, as the ranking member pointed out, keeping the facilities and maintenance moving forward.

This bill fails to ensure that our servicemen and -women will have the equipment and other support materials that they need. It certainly won't ensure that our other Federal law enforcement at the FBI or the DEA are paid even as they continue to work to keep America safe.

Mr. Speaker, this Republican government shutdown needs to end. The entire government needs to be funded. The American people don't want the Tea Party picking winners and losers, deciding what government services are necessary.

Let's do what is right for the American people and pass a clean continuing resolution to fund the entire Federal Government.

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