Providing for Consideration of H.R. 1255, Government Shutdown Prevention Act of 2011

Floor Speech

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Mr. POLIS. Madam Speaker, you know, we do face a real issue here before us today, a government shutdown in a week that could hurt our security and safety as a nation, and hurt our recovery and job growth. And this real issue deserves a real discussion, a discussion and agreement between the House and the Senate and the President.

We have 6 days left to negotiate, and yet here today, instead of contributing to a solution, the House Republicans are bringing about a constitutional crisis on top of the funding crisis. That's the last thing that our fragile economy needs.

Madam Speaker, yesterday in the Rules Committee, and I think this might very well be the first time that this has occurred on the Rules Committee in my just over 2 years, every witness that came to visit our committee was opposed to what we're doing here today. The witnesses were unanimous that this approach is unconstitutional and that this approach is ill-advised. Now, in my time on the Rules Committee I don't think we've ever had such unanimity among the witnesses that have come before us.

Madam Speaker, Article I, section 7 of the Constitution, which I will include in the Record, clearly states that "Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the President of the United States."

Now, what's being done with this bill is entirely different. I'd like to show our friends a very basic lesson in how a bill becomes a law.

This is our friend, a bill. For a bill to become a law, it needs to pass the House and the Senate before it goes to the President. Now, we all know if there are differences between the House and the Senate version, they can be resolved through a conference committee, or it can be sent, with an amendment, back to the other body to accept that, as we routinely do.

What is being done in this case is this little guy, this little guy is deeming from the House that it has passed the Senate. Now, this is particularly unusual because, not only has this bill not passed the Senate, it's actually specifically been rejected by the Senate. And now, a bill is going to the Senate asking them to deem that they have passed something that they have actually rejected. It's some sort of Orwellian doublespeak of conforming some sort of alternate version of reality with regard to this deem and pass measure.

Now, there are some things we could be doing in this House and I hope we do. In addition to the good faith negotiations which this constitutional crisis undermines, we could be taking up Senate Bill 388. Senate Bill 388 would make sure that Members of Congress don't get paid during the government shutdown. Now, this is news to most of the American people because, you know what? Most Federal workers, they're not going to get paid if the government shuts down.

But you know who does get paid? Those of us who are speaking here before you today. That's the current law. We can change that law today.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.

Ms. SLAUGHTER. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. POLIS. The Senate sent over a bill that passed unanimously that would make sure that Members of Congress didn't get paid if the government shut down. We can take up that bill today. It's been sitting here at the House desk because Republican leadership has not taken up that bill. We can send it on to the President of the United States who could sign that bill, make sure that the incentive of Members of Congress is to come to the table, and we are in the same boat as the other Federal workers with regard to a government shutdown.

It's time to get serious about solving how we're going to fund the operations of government and not put a constitutional crisis on top of the funding crisis.

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