Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014

Floor Speech

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Ms. PELOSI. Madam Speaker, I come to the floor in many ways: as a mother, as a mother concerned about the children of America, as a grandmother concerned about all of America's children, but as a mother who steps into this Chamber to say, ``This place is a mess.''

Let's get our House in order. We are legislators. We have come here to do a job for the American people, and that job means we have to make the government run for the good of the people. We are not here to expand government, but we're not here to eliminate government. If the idea is to limit government, let's work together to do that; but what is brought to the floor today is, without a doubt, a measure designed to shut down government. It could have no other intent. Its purpose is clear. If our colleagues on the Republican side deny that, then they have no idea of the gravity of the situation or--to quote ``The Music Man''--of the trouble that is contained in this resolution today.

It is a wolf in wolf's clothing. The underlying bill to shut down government--the CR--is reason enough to object to it because that bill will cost at least a million jobs in the course of the next year. It will cost a million jobs. It will not only do that; it will cut our investments in the future in education and in biomedical research.

The National Institutes of Health has the Biblical power to cure. Where there is scientific opportunity, we have a moral obligation to meet that scientific opportunity with resources and to respect the talent, the intellect--the God-given intellect--of the science to cure. And what do we do in this bill? We say, ``No''--we cut that--doing serious damage to science, to health and, not only that, to our competitiveness as a Nation. It's a vote that guts those investments.

Not only that, if the underlying bill were not bad enough--if there were not reason enough to say, ``No. Are you kidding? No''--then they cloak it in wolf's clothing, and say, in their view, that they're going to defund the Affordable Care Act. Do you know what that's about? That's simply about putting their friends, the insurance companies, back in charge of medical decisions for your families--but it goes farther than that.

If that were not bad enough, it slashes the strongly bipartisan Children's Health Insurance Program by 70 percent, effectively eliminating an initiative that provides much-needed health care to millions of low-income children. I will remind my colleagues that that bill passed the United States Senate in a bipartisan way with a veto-proof majority, but that's not good enough for you. You've got to slash it by 70 percent to harm those children, once again, this week.

It wreaks havoc on the health care for our seniors by disrupting provider payments for Medicare and Medicaid. Either you don't know what you are doing or this is one of the most intentional acts of brutality that you have cooked up--with stiff competition for that honor. It cuts billions of dollars, again I say, from the National Institutes of Health, delaying important research and denying medical breakthroughs for future generations.

Democrats have a responsible proposal that balances, that reduces the deficit under the leadership of Chris Van Hollen, our ranking member on the Budget Committee. It reduces the deficit in a responsible way; it ends the devastating across-the-board cuts of the sequester; and it makes investments in the future and keeps government open, as opposed to this bill--intended to shut government down. This keeps government open and working for the American people.

I know my colleague Mr. Hoyer has been very vocal on this subject, and he will quote some Republicans in what they have said about this, so don't take it from us. Take it from you, Mr. Chairman, that this bill does not enable us to do the work of government.

I urge a ``no'' vote on this continuing resolution. It is a terrible proposition for our families and our communities and our country. It's always, always time for us to work together to help ensure, not endanger, the economic security and prosperity of the American people. I urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''

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