TSA Office of Inspection Accountability Act of 2015
Floor Speech
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Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding, and I thank her for her leadership, as well as that of our distinguished chairman, Mr. Rogers, to bring us to the floor today where we can vote in a bipartisan way to keep government open without doing harm to women's health in our country.
To shut government down is a really bad decision for this Congress to make. The last time we did that, we lost $24 billion. The last time this Congress voted to shut down government, we lost $24 billion to our economy, 120,000 jobs in our workforce. Our Federal workforce, which contains more than 30 percent of veterans in its composition, was furloughed or worse. The American people deserve better.
So as we go forward from this continuing resolution, which is a good outcome of the conversations that have gone back and forth--a strong bipartisan vote in the Senate, and I hope a strong bipartisan vote in the House--let us take heed of the words of Pope Francis, who just, not even 1 week ago, spoke to us in this Chamber.
Pope Francis asked us to work together for the common good of the people. He urged and said a good leader would have a spirit of openness and pragmatism, again, to get the job done for the American people.
As we go forward, we will have some difficult choices to make. We all share the values of strengthening our national security, investing in our children's future, reducing the deficit as we go forward, but as we do so, there are some important differences that we share.
Let's hope that we recognize a good idea, wherever it springs from. Let us also recognize what our responsibilities are to the American people first and foremost.
I consider this a very positive action we are taking today. I wish that we were finished with all of our appropriations work. As an appropriator, I know that that is always the goal of our chairman and ranking member.
I thank our ranking member, Congresswoman Lowey, for her leadership, but also for the optimism she just expressed, that, as we go forward, we will do so in a timely fashion, maybe long before December 11, so we will have removed all doubt in the public's mind that government will work, that it will function, as the Pope had asked us, for the good of the American people.
There are important decisions ahead, though, in terms of what our priorities are in a budget. A budget should be a statement of our national values, and what is important to us should be reflected on how we allocate those resources. We have the omnibus bill to deal with.
We also have investments in the infrastructure of our country and our transportation. That will be an important bill that we will be debating at the same time, but has a relationship in terms of how we offset, how we pay for that.
We have the issue of the Ex-Im Bank, a great job creator for our country and, yet, still unauthorized, long overdue for us to authorize it.
Before Thanksgiving probably we will have the issue of a vote on honoring the full faith and credit of the United States of America. The last time that was put into doubt, it was unfortunate because it lowered our credit rating, even though we didn't follow through with it. Even though the full faith and credit ended up being honored, just the threat, the suspicion, that it could be undermined lowered our credit rating.
We have really important work to do for the good of the people. Again, let us honor our responsibilities in the beautiful spirit of Saint--Pope Francis. I say Saint Francis because that is the patron saint of my city, of San Francisco, and the namesake also of Pope Francis.
But Pope Francis instructed us as to what good leaders do, and good leaders have a sense of humility to respect the views of other people and not be condescending in terms of our views are the only ones that matter.
In that spirit, I look forward to working with you, Mr. Chairman, with the Speaker, with others, and certainly under the leadership of our distinguished ranking member, Congresswoman Lowey.
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