No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, we are 26 days into President Trump's completely unnecessary government shutdown--26 days of pain and uncertainty; 26 days of missed paychecks and missed bills--26 days, the longest in our country's history.

I have heard from so many constituents in my home State of Washington who have been impacted by this shutdown. These are heart-wrenching stories of workers who do not know how much longer they can make it without a paycheck. Members of our U.S. Coast Guard--the very men and women who stand ready 24/7 to make harrowing rescues and keep our country safe--didn't get paid yesterday. They did not get paid yesterday, marking the first time ever that servicemembers have not been paid because of a shutdown.

There are small business owners who don't know when their SBA loans will come through; people who are dedicated to our national parks--our national treasures--who are in despair as they hear about trash piling up and irreparable damage being done; people waiting in lines at airports; people worried about food inspections; worried about losing their homes or their cars or their jobs. Entire families, entire communities are impacted, uncertain, and scared.

In my home State of Washington and in every State in this country, I have come to the floor time and again to share these stories, along with many of my Democratic colleagues. We have called on Republican leaders to stand with us, stand with their constituents, and schedule a vote to end the shutdown. All it would take is a vote. We know it would pass, and we can move it through the House and send it to the President. S. 109

What have Republican leaders done, instead of scheduling a vote to help workers and families and small business owners and our economy; what have they done, instead of standing with their constituents to reopen this government and end this madness? Well, they have done what they have always done when they don't know what else to do. They scheduled a vote to attack women and their healthcare.

I almost couldn't believe it when I heard it. This government is shut down. People are hurting. They want solutions. They want the government to open, and Republicans are going to vote to effectively ban abortion coverage. That is the business on the floor.

Instead of voting to pay Federal workers, they are trying to tell women what kind of health insurance they can or can't have. Instead of working to make sure our airports are secure, they want to undermine women's access to the healthcare they choose. Instead of ending the chaos and dysfunction and getting our country back on track, they want to chip away again at every woman's constitutionally protected right to make her own healthcare decisions. Instead of working with us to end the shutdown and then having a debate on border security or anything else they want to talk about, they are planning a vote that will not do anything but tell women across the country what they already know: Republicans in Washington, DC, think they know better than you about your healthcare.

Let me be clear. They don't.

This is disgusting. Women and men across the country are not going to stand for it. We can vote right now to open the government. We can vote right now to help our workers and our families. We can vote right now to end governing by Presidential tantrum. If Republicans don't do this--if they choose, as they have, to attack women and to throw their healthcare under the bus instead of doing their basic jobs--then the people across this country are going to see exactly where they stand-- not with them, not with their families, not with their constituents, and certainly not with women.

I urge the Republicans to end this madness--to pull this anti-women health vote--and to, instead, schedule a vote to reopen the government. That is what we should be focused on. That is what Americans want us to do. We need to end this. Let's reopen the government, not attack women one more time.

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