Preventing the Next Shutdown

Floor Speech

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Mr. HARDER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to say I am embarrassed by the past month.

This is my first week in Congress without our government being shut down. I came to Washington to help my community. It is a shame that the benchmark for progress so far has been whether or not the government has even been open. It is hard to lower the bar from there. We can't let this happen again.

Alongside some of my freshman colleagues, I have cosponsored legislation that says, even if the government shuts down, Congress will still have the funding to pay our Federal workers.

And it goes further than that. If Congress fails to make a deal, we should withhold pay from Members of Congress, we should stop using taxpayer dollars for travel, and we should end bonuses for the executive branch.

In other words, if the government shuts down, the people at fault should be held accountable, not the workers. If families in my district can't get their paychecks or if farmers can't get their USDA grants, then elected officials need to feel the consequences.

Mr. Speaker, governing from one crisis to the next is an embarrassment. I came here to do better. We have a chance to turn it around right now.

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