Waiving Requirement Of Clause 6(a) Of Rule XIII With Respect To Consideration Of Certain Resolutions And Providing For Consideration Of Motions To Sus

WAIVING REQUIREMENT OF CLAUSE 6(a) OF RULE XIII WITH RESPECT TO CONSIDERATION OF CERTAIN RESOLUTIONS AND PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF MOTIONS TO SUSPEND THE RULES -- (House of Representatives - December 08, 2006)

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Ms. MATSUI. Madam Speaker, it is disappointing we are adjourning after passing only 2 of the 13 appropriation bills that fund the Federal Government. We should have done better, and clearly we could have done better. Instead, we are leaving this year's unfinished business to the next Congress. That is far from the ideal way of handling our constitutional responsibilities.

Nonetheless, that is a reality, and we will deal with it as such when Congress returns next year under new leadership. But the American people should be assured that such a turn of events will not alter the focus of the next Congress. We will remain focused on the critical priorities of American families, priorities that were made clear in the recent election: a sensible energy policy, affordable health care for working families, reforming prescription drug benefits, honest wages for honest work, increasing homeland security, and responsible oversight of and a change in direction of our policy in Iraq.

I hope those issues will be addressed next year in a bipartisan manner, with open debate and a focus on concrete results for the American people.

The time to deal with those will come soon. The problem before us now is that the Federal Government shuts down at midnight tonight unless we invoke martial law under this rule. It concludes the 109th Congress on a less than satisfactory note, but it is nonetheless necessary

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