Providing for Consideration of H.R. Continuing Appropriations and Border Security Enhancement Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. NEGUSE. Madam Speaker, I thank the ranking member for yielding.

I would simply say to my colleague from New York, if you don't want a shutdown, if you are trying to prevent a shutdown, prove it.

There is a simple way to prove it, Madam Speaker. Defeat the previous question so we can consider a simple amendment, an amendment that does one thing, that let's this body take an up or down vote on the bipartisan Republican and Democratic Senate continuing resolution that is being negotiated as we speak. That is it. It gives that resolution privilege so that this House can consider it, can take that up or down vote and ensure that the government stays funded, Madam Speaker.

If you are not prepared to do that, if my colleagues aren't prepared to do that, then please spare us these supposed concerns for a government shutdown that you have engineered from the start.

You want to talk about blame, Madam Speaker, here is a quote, and this is not my quote.

This is not conservatism. This is stupidity. The idea that we are going to shut the government down when we don't control the Senate, when we don't control the White House. These people can't define a win. They don't know how to take yes for an answer. It is a clown show. You keep running lunatics, this is what you are going to have.

These are not my words, Madam Speaker. These are the words of the gentleman from New York. If he doesn't want to be a part of this clown show--I don't disagree with him, by the way. I don't think the American people disagree with him either.

Clearly, the House Republican Caucus is in dysfunction and chaos, but there is an easy way for him to leave this clown show and govern with Republican Senators, Democratic Senators, with your colleagues on this side of the aisle, defeat the previous question and support the amendment and let's have the debate on a bipartisan CR that keeps our government funded.

I don't know how a Member can vote for the previous question and deprive this body of an opportunity to vote on that bipartisan CR. I don't know how you go back and tell the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of troops and law enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents who will be forced to work without pay that you decided that this body shouldn't vote on a stopgap measure to keep the government running. I don't know how you do that.

I can tell you this: The American people well understand the Republican plan that they have brought to the floor. You do not get to have it both ways. You don't get to say that you support law enforcement and fentanyl interdiction and then put a bill on the floor that cuts the DEA, that cuts the FBI, that will harm State and local law enforcement officers.

You do not get to say you care about public safety and then put a bill on the floor that cuts, by more than 50 percent, wildland fire suppression in States like Colorado, the State that I happen to be honored to represent in the United States Congress. You do not get to have it both ways.

The time for political games is over.

We have 24 hours to go, Madam Speaker. Let's defeat the previous question and let's pass this amendment to keep the government up and running.

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Mr. NEGUSE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for his indulgence, and I would be remiss to come back to the floor to simply say only in Washington can you have Members who claim they want to avoid a shutdown while they take every step to shut down the government.

Only in Washington can you have Members who claim to support law enforcement while they promote a bill that cuts funding for law enforcement.

Only in Washington can you claim that you want to secure the border while engineering a shutdown that will force Border Patrol agents to work without pay.

Only in Washington can you claim that this so-called debt commission that they have designed will not harm programs like Social Security months after rolling out a plan--the Republican Study Committee in June--rolling out a plan that guts Social Security.

My colleague from Pennsylvania is a member of that group. The gentleman from Michigan who spoke earlier, who apparently has proposed this amendment, is a member of that group. Why don't they be honest with the American people about their plans? Because they know the plan to cut Social Security is deeply unpopular, and, yet, they soldier on.

Mr. Speaker, 24 hours, that is how much time we have. Defeat the previous question. Let's support the amendment to give an up-or-down vote on the bipartisan deal that Republicans and Senate Democrats have been working on. Let's keep the government up and running. Let's avert this extreme Republican government shutdown.

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