Making Continuing Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2014

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. SHAHEEN. I am pleased to join my colleagues on the floor, the members of the Appropriations Committee and others who have been down to speak in support of passing this continuing resolution.

I am a new member of the Appropriations Committee, and I have been very impressed with the work our chair, Senator Mikulski, and Ranking Member Shelby have done. They have crafted the appropriations bills that would address the budget for the coming year. Those appropriations bills would replace the harmful cuts from sequestration. Those are cuts that people on both sides of the aisle have said they oppose. Unfortunately, because of the obstructionism we have seen so clearly this week, those bills have not yet come to the floor and so we need a short-term CR to keep the government open.

We all know that the continuing resolution before us is not ideal. It is short term and it doesn't replace sequestration. So it doesn't either deal with the cuts or give businesses and our economy the certainty they need. But this suggestion that we should refuse to keep the government open is irresponsible. There is too much at stake for our economy, for our small businesses, and for our families across this country. Unfortunately, what we have seen this week is that there are some who are pushing this country to the brink of another manufactured crisis as a tactic to prevent health care reform from going into effect.

I am not going to review what Senator McCain said so well about how the democratic process works in this country and the fact that once a law goes into effect, it is important to implement it. I think democracy works, but it doesn't always work the way I want it to either. When a law is passed, we have a responsibility to go ahead and make it work. We have a seen a small minority of this body and of the House who are willing to shut down government to defund the new health care law.

The people I talk to in New Hampshire don't think that shutting down government is a good approach because they understand the serious consequences it would have for them, for their businesses, and for the country. It would especially hurt small businesses, which are the foundation of the economy in New Hampshire and the Presiding Officer's home State of Maine and Rhode Island, Senator Reed's home State. Those small businesses create two out of every three new jobs. Many of those small businesses in New Hampshire and across the country rely on Federal contracts as they figure out how they are going to grow and create new jobs.

We talked to one CEO of an innovative small company in New Hampshire who told me if its contracts were shut down:

Our income would drop to essentially zero and we would burn our very thin cash reserves ..... when that money is burned it is not able to be replaced so our basic financial viability can be irrevocably damaged even after the crisis passes. There will be no way to recover those dollars.

We had a chance to hear from the former Secretary of the Treasury, Bob Rubin, this week. He said: Unlike 1995, when there was a short-term consequence to shutting down the government, if we do that this time, it will be felt not just for years but for decades to come.

A shutdown would close the Small Business Administration's lending programs, and those SBA lending programs are critical to small business in New Hampshire and across this country. On average, SBA supports loans to over 1,000 small businesses per week.

Then there is the housing market. In New Hampshire and across this country, the housing market has been one of the slowest sectors to recover, but in the last year we have begun to see some signs of improvement. The Federal Housing Administration has been a big part of that recovery because they have helped families afford homes and kept our housing economy afloat.

Under the shutdown, it is estimated that assistance to 34,000 homeowners would be delayed. With all of the problems that have been caused by the housing crisis, we should not be stalling one of the most effective programs we have for assisting homeowners, and that is what we would do with a government shutdown.

Then, of course, this would be terrible timing for the tourist industry in New Hampshire and across New England because fall foliage is one of our biggest seasons and tourists come from all over the world. They spend money in our local restaurants and hotels. Many small businesses rely on this time of year to increase their revenues. But if the government shuts down, we will be turning away those customers. Applications for visas will come to a halt. According to the Congressional Research Service, during the 1995-1996 shutdowns, approximately 20,000 to 30,000 applications by foreigners for visas to come and visit in America went unprocessed. That will not just affect the tourism industries in New Hampshire, it will affect airlines and people across the country.

Then, of course, there are Federal workers. In New Hampshire there are 7,400 of them. It is one of the State's largest employers, the Federal Government, and their salaries are not just important to them and their families but to the grocery stores and gas stations and all of the other businesses they support.

The Presiding Officer certainly knows, as I do, about the impact on the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard of a potential government shutdown.

These are just some of the effects on the economy. Considering the many industries that would be affected, it is no surprise that economists have forecast that failure to pass a continuing resolution, as Bob Rubin said, would do significant damage to our economy. Even a 3- or 4-day shutdown would slow growth by 0.2 percent, according to economist Mark Zandi.

It doesn't have to be this way. I was a Governor for three terms. The Presiding Officer was a Governor for two terms. We understand what it is like to work across the aisle. We always passed a budget because we had to put in place a budget.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. SHAHEEN. I thank the Chair.

There were a lot of differences on both sides of the aisle, but we understood the importance of compromising, because it would have been impossible to get something through the New Hampshire legislature and get a budget to my desk if people hadn't been willing to compromise, if they had been continuing to play the kinds of political games we are seeing here in Washington.

It is unacceptable. Congress can do better. We need to work together to pass this continuing resolution, and then to raise the debt ceiling later this year so we avoid the negative effect to families, to businesses, and to our economy.

Thank you very much.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source