Government Shutdown Prevention Act of 2011

Floor Speech

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Mr. WOMACK. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Yes, there has been a lot of conversation in Washington about the prospect of a government shutdown. And while I realize there are some in this Congress who might prefer that option, I am not one of them; and let me just add, our leader is not one of them. Frankly, we think it's irresponsible. Our constituents did not send us to Washington to shut down the government. They sent us here to make it more accountable to the people, and that is precisely what House Republicans have been doing.

Examine the facts. When the curtain came up on this Congress, we were already 3 months into this fiscal year with no budget and on a temporary spending plan that went through early March. This House went to work crafting legislation that would fund the government for the rest of this fiscal year while delivering on our pledge to cut spending. The response from the Senate? Not so fast.

So we kept government operational with a 2-week continuing resolution in hopes that the Senate would realize the sense of urgency that accompanies our fiscal situation. And in that 2-week span of time, the response? Not interested.

Again, this House went to work crafting another temporary measure that funds government through next week. My friends, patience is wearing thin, not just my patience and the patience of my colleagues, but the patience of Americans. In our collective opinion, time's up.

Mr. Speaker, we all agree that we have some bigger fish to fry. Pressures on the statutory limit on debt and, more importantly, the 2012 budget loom very large right now for this country. Instead of focusing on these issues critical to our struggling economy, here we are, mired in partisan gamesmanship over funding the government for the remainder of this year. Did we come here to fish or did we come here to cut bait? This bill simply puts the clock in action on this process.

I am hopeful my colleagues will agree that the time is now to move beyond 2011 so that we can turn our attention to the bigger challenges of transforming this institution and restoring fiscal sanity. That is what the people sent us here to do; and every day we fail to do this work, the people lose.

We have been called extreme. H.R. 1, which passed in the early morning hours on this floor on February 19, cuts on an annualized basis $100 billion in Federal spending. That's one-sixteenth of the deficit. Is that extreme? I don't think so.

Mr. Speaker, it's unfortunate that people across America trying to find jobs, trying to pay their mortgages, and trying to have the funds to put their kids through college are victimized by this flawed political process. Instead of removing the uncertainty for small business and job creators by cutting spending and shrinking the size and reach of government, we are playing games with the future of our Nation.

If this is our best, our best falls short of the expectation of those we represent. We can do better. We should do better. And if all we can show for our work is a shutdown of the government, we will have failed our constituency and should not be paid.

The gamesmanship going on right now is gambling with America's future, and it's hard to make progress when you are playing on House money. H.R. 1255 forces Members to have skin in the game. And if passed by both Chambers and signed by the President, we will have the proper motivation to set aside the rhetoric and actually accomplish something that is good for America: a climate for job creation, not a government shutdown.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill so we can do the people's work.

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