Hire More Heroes Act of 2015

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. President, I think many of us today have been struck with a serious case of deja vu because once again, with a government shutdown looming, some Republicans continue to pander to their base with a political show vote instead of working with Democrats to prevent a budget crisis. Once again, it is women's health that is being used as a tea party political football, with Republicans attempting to cut off women's access to care, and once again workers and families across our country are watching Congress and wondering whether their elected officials can do the absolute bare minimum.

The government shutdown that Republicans pushed us into in 2013 did nothing to help them repeal the Affordable Care Act, but it did have real consequences for families and communities we represent. Workers didn't know when they would get their next paycheck. Businesses felt the sting of fewer customers. Families across the country lost even more trust that elected officials in Washington, DC, could get anything done.

In my home State of Washington, thousands of employees at Joint Base Lewis-McChord were sent home with no return in sight. Startups couldn't get small business loans, national parks such as Mount Rainier shut down. It kept families away from true national treasures and customers away from small businesses that rely on their tourism.

After all of that, I had hoped Republicans would learn their lesson, especially because once that economy-rattling exercise in futility came to an end, 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--negotiate a 2-year bipartisan deal that prevented another government shutdown. It restored critical investments in priorities such as education, research, and defense jobs and showed our families that government can get something done when both sides are willing to come to the table and compromise.

That deal was an important reminder that governing by crisis simply does not work. Unfortunately, now it seems that some of my Republican colleagues have forgotten that, because instead of working across the aisle on another bipartisan budget deal, as Democrats have pushed them to do for months, some Republicans are once again using a looming fiscal deadline as an opportunity to pander to their base, no matter what that means for our workers and families who are wondering whether government will still be running in a few days.

Since they clearly need another reminder, attacking women's health does not keep the government open and these shutdown threats will not work. It didn't work in 2011, when House Republicans tried to defund Planned Parenthood in the budget at the very last minute. It didn't work in 2013, when extreme Members of the GOP were dead set on repealing ObamaCare, and they will not work today.

I am going to be proud to vote against this partisan attempt to defund Planned Parenthood and take critical health care services away from millions of people.

Then I hope that finally Republicans will remember what they should have learned last Congress: accept that enough is enough and make sure that women, workers, families, and our economy are protected from a completely unnecessary crisis.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source