Government Shutdown

Floor Speech

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Ms. KAPTUR. I want to thank Congressman Garamendi for bringing us all together this evening, Congresswoman Jackson Lee, Congressman Honda--those who are here and are serious about trying to rectify what happened last night with the GOP shutdown of our departments of the Federal Government. How very irresponsible, how reckless, how it puts our economy at risk to put politics ahead of the national interests, and so, so unnecessary.

I stand here this evening as a member of the Appropriations Committee, the committee and the Constitution that is responsible for operating and providing the funding for the Departments of our government: the Department of Transportation, the Department of Defense, the Department of Education. You can go across the Departments. As of the end of September, we're supposed to have the budgets passed for each of those Departments for fiscal year 2014. That officially began last night at midnight. At the moment, those 12 bills have not been passed. The Republicans are holding them hostage for their efforts to try to contort the legislative process to change the law, to change the Affordable Care Act because they don't like parts of it.

Actually, that is a tangential issue. It has nothing to do with whether or not the Department of Transportation will have the funding to sign contracts to get roads paved across this country, to repair bridges that are in disrepair across the Nation, or to make sure that we have air controllers across this Nation on a regular basis and not just on an emergency basis.

It has nothing to do with whether in Ohio, for example, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the full complement of staff, both military and civilian, can report for work at the 180th Fighter Wing F-16 unit in Lucas County, Ohio; whether the technicians who repair those planes, who were furloughed, over 200 of them, who are, in my view, essential--because you can't fly the plane if the thing doesn't work, right?--but they were let go for the moment and classified as not having to report for work.

This is such a mishmash across the government of the United States and so utterly irresponsible to try to hold every single Department hostage to the GOP's particular view of a bill that they don't like that has nothing to do with the operation of these other Departments.

I stand here tonight to say that they put at risk the entire economic recovery of the country, furloughing over 800,000 people across the Government of the United States, parks--some folks have talked about parks. It's way beyond parks. We talked about the World War II Memorial here and the first time I've ever seen it without anyone on site because it's all cordoned off. It was as though a neutron bomb had hit the site. There were no citizens that could access the site. The fountains were turned off, the Visitor Center, the facilities that are there for people to use were all shuttered. To what end?

The normal constitutional appropriations process works in a way that we pass our bills in the House and in the Senate; and then we meet, the House and the Senate, the Senators and the Representatives together, we work out our differences; we send the bills to the President by the end of September; and the government operates for another year.

The GOP in the House has been very unwilling to follow the rules, very irresponsible. They've now placed the whole country in jeopardy because they can't reach agreement with us. How sad for the Nation and how unnecessary; how reckless to do this to the economy. And we know that when contracts aren't let--and contractors are calling all of our offices wanting to know when those contracts will be signed. Whether it's for unmanned aerial vehicles that we have to develop in this country or whether it's fixing combines or overflows that are a serious challenge in the Midwest and other places, the government simply can't conduct its business. Generals and departmental administrators are spending more time thinking about who's going to be furloughed tomorrow than getting the job done. So it throws a wrench into the gears of a great society, of a great country, the oldest Republic on the face of the Earth.

I thank the gentleman for calling this Special Order this evening to say to the American people that we share their frustration. We are their representatives. We want the Government of the United States to work. To try to use the process that they've used to gerrymander in States like Ohio to suppress the will of the majority of the people by holding the Affordable Care Act out there and every Department hostage, they're contorting the government and its ability to operate in the same way that they contorted the gerrymandering of this country when, in fact, there were 1,500,000 more votes cast for Democratic Members who ran for Congress than Republican. In States like Ohio that vote 50/50, we only have four Democratic Representatives out of 16. There are 12 Republicans, 4 Democrats because of gerrymandering. The very same contortion that they did to the politics of the country in the drawing of those lines, they're now using that same weapon inside this House to try to contort the legislative process that has resulted in shutdown.

I thank Congressman Garamendi for bringing us together this evening, for trying to inject some reason, some responsibility and prudent behavior into the way that this government operates. We share your passion for that end.

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