Hire More Heroes Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Thank you, Mr. President.

Mr. President, right now we are on a course for yet another Republican government shutdown in just 13 days. We know what this looks like and how damaging it is because we saw it 2 years ago when tea party Republicans dug in their heels and tried to use shutdown threats to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

We know that during the 16-day shutdown that followed the tea party tantrum, workers across our country didn't know when they would get their next paycheck, businesses felt the sting of fewer customers, and families across our country lost even more trust that elected officials in our country could even get anything done. After all that--after all the damage families and communities felt--we also know that the 2013 government shutdown actually did nothing to stop the Affordable Care Act.

Once that shutdown ended, I was proud to work with the Republican Budget chairman, Paul Ryan, to do what we shouldn't have needed a shutdown to get done, and that was negotiate a 2-year bipartisan budget deal that prevented another government shutdown. It restored critical investments in priorities like education, research, and defense jobs, and it showed families their government can get something done when both sides are willing to come to the table and compromise.

I was hopeful that after the economy-rattling exercise in futility and the bipartisan deal that came out of it, Republican leaders would have learned a few lessons. Well, 2 years later, as our bipartisan deal is set to expire, here we are with another Republican government shutdown around the corner.

What are the leaders doing about this? What is their plan to avoid a repeat of 2013? Are they working with Democrats to keep government open and negotiate a budget deal as we have been pushing them to do for months? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Instead, just days away from a looming fiscal deadline, Republicans are back as far into their partisan corner as they can get and are focused on their political pastime--attacking women's health.

Instead of spending the coming weeks working to avoid a budget crisis, which is what we should be doing, Republicans are unbelievably planning to vote on yet another restriction on women's health and rights. This is transparent pandering that is bad for women, bad for our economy, and bad for our country.

People across the country are watching this, and they are appalled. This particular bill that is coming to the floor next week is an extreme, unconstitutional abortion ban, which would restrict a woman's constitutionally protected right to make her own choices about her own health and her own body. That bill would mean that if a young woman endures rape or incest, she would have to go to the police before getting the care she needs, and it would take away the right to choose from adult victims of incest entirely. Finally, that bill would allow politicians in Washington, DC, to get between a woman and her doctor by making it a crime for doctors to provide health care their patients need.

This kind of dangerous, extreme legislation might appeal to the tea party, but it is going nowhere. Voting on it certainly will not keep the government open and, just like the Republican attacks on the Affordable Care Act 2 years ago, this latest GOP effort to turn back the clock on women's health is a dead end.

A new report from the CBO shows that if Republicans get their way and Planned Parenthood loses funding, as many as 630,000 women will not be able to get birth control. Hundreds of thousands of women, many of whom do not have convenient access to health care clinics or providers besides Planned Parenthood, would experience reduced access to their health care.

It is appalling that in the 21st century, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are pushing to take health care away from women who need it.

Let me be very clear. Democrats are not going to allow Republican political pandering come before women's health and rights--not on our watch.

I want to be sure that families and communities across the country heard something that the majority leader did say yesterday. He said that ``inevitably'' Democrats and Republicans will have to work together to reach a bipartisan budget agreement.

Well, I think the workers and businesses who struggled through the last government shutdown are wondering what the holdup is. Why do we need another round of drama and brinksmanship before we can work together? Why do we need to see countdown clocks--once again--counting down the days until another shutdown? And why, once again, do women and their health care have to come under attack before Republicans can do the right thing?

I am certainly wondering, and I know my Democratic colleagues are too. I think it is clear that Republican leaders have a choice. As their leader said, they inevitably will have to work with Democrats, now or later. The only question is how much pain they are willing to put workers and businesses through before they drop the politics, stop pandering, and come to the table.

Democrats are ready to get to work, and I hope that, finally, Republican leaders are as well.

Thank you, Mr. President.

I yield the floor.

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