Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. FLEISCHMANN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.J. Res. 28.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Ranking Member Granger for allowing me to speak and acknowledge my friend and colleague, the full chairwoman, Mrs. Lowey, on the other side of the aisle.

I feel compelled, though, at this point in time to respond to the rhetoric from the majority leader. The majority leader, the gentleman and my friend from Maryland, is very articulate and he pleads his case, but as he is pleading his case, the cure is right in front of us.

I am not going to banter around this Chamber with terms such as ``good faith'' and ``bad faith.'' We are all elected in our 435 districts around this country.

I come from the great State of Tennessee, where the people want the wall, the people want border security, the people want our borders safe and secure. I realize that there are others in this body who perhaps don't want that, but we must remember this as we go through our rhetoric: We owe it to the American people to be precise.

Now, allow me to be precise. In December, in this Chamber, in the 115th Congress, we offered legislation which would have avoided this government shutdown.

And let me be specific. This is a partial government shutdown. I do agree with the distinguished gentleman from Maryland that no government shutdown is good, but to be honest, 76 percent of the government is open.

Perhaps in other times when we have had government shutdowns and more of the government was closed, it gave us more of a catalyst, more of an impetus to come together and open it. But the fact is that 26 percent of the government is closed. The fact is that over 800,000 hardworking men and women and Members of this Chamber on both sides of the aisle-- so that the American people know the truth--many of whom, like myself, have suspended our pay.

But I would argue that the gentleman from Maryland is wrong in one big basic area: We know that the cure that they are offering on the other side will not work. It is analogous to going to a doctor; it is analogous to basically saying, ``I have got a problem,'' and the doctor says, ``This won't cure you. This won't cure you. This won't cure you.''

They are coming back on the other side of the aisle, perhaps with passion, perhaps in good faith, but they are wrong.

What I am asking for is both sides of the aisle, Mr. Speaker, as an appropriator--and there are appropriators sitting right over there, right over here. We are the committee that solves problems. But when we know that the problem will not be solved with the cure or the solution that is offered, you come back to the table and you come up with something that will work.

The President of the United States is willing to talk. The President of the United States wants to see the government open, as do most American people, but the President of the United States and I want to make sure that our borders are safe and secure.

Opioid addiction, drugs are pouring across our border. People are being abused. Children are being abused. We have got to stop this not as Republicans or Democrats, but as Americans.

We have got to come to the table with a new cure, a new solution, and, yes, a compromise, something that will work, that the House, the Senate, and the White House, two of our three respective branches of government, will support and get this government open.

So I feel the pain of a partial government shutdown. It is wrong. The gentleman from Maryland is correct in that assertion. But I also know this: to offer a cure that will not work is wrong as well.

The cure is to come to the table. The cure is to negotiate in good faith with something that will work.

Mr. Speaker, I submit that we can get this government open; we can secure this border; and we all, as American Representatives, can serve the American people and keep our great American Republic safe.

The poisonous rhetoric has got to stop; the partisan bickering has got to stop; and this great committee and this great House will get to work and start working on other issues to fund the government.

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