Continuing Appropriations
Floor Speech
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Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I woke up this morning feeling like I think most Americans feel today--pretty disappointed in the antics of Washington, DC.
As my colleague from New York just pointed out, we all know why we are here: Speaker Boehner and the Republicans in the House demanded a ransom in order to keep our government open, and their ransom was to repeal a law they do not support--ObamaCare. They made it very clear that the government was going to shut down. My constituents in Washington State who were supposed to go to work today--thousands of them--aren't going to get their paychecks because of that ransom. They made it very clear that they were not going to open the government over a policy about which they care passionately.
I have to say that I started my morning this morning talking to a number of businesspeople involved in the construction industry in the State of Washington. They told me that this uncertainty, this crisis, this shutdown of government is impacting their small businesses at home in the State of Washington because who is going to sign a contract to build something new when it is so unclear where our economy is going to be as a result of this shutdown and the looming debt ceiling crisis. So they are seeing a real retraction of their own businesses right now--not because of the government funding of a program or anything else that is ongoing or in dispute but because of this shutdown today.
Just a few minutes ago, on the other end of a spectrum, I talked to some moms and dads in Head Start from my home State of Washington. A young mom from Bremerton, WA, who has a 2-year-old daughter, told us that a few years ago she was on the streets, homeless, a victim of an abusive partner, and because of Head Start and the wraparound services they provide, they found her a place to stay and got her and her child involved in early childhood education. Because of that support and an early Head Start program, now 2 years later she is back at school working on her degree, her daughter is doing well, and she is back on track.
Thousands of moms and dads such as her exist across the country today, with a helping hand at the right moment from the right program. But because of sequestration and now because of the government shutdown, we are telling moms and dads such as her: Sorry, we are not going to be there for you.
I happen to be a very passionate advocate for early childhood education. I was a former preschool teacher. I am using my skills as a preschool teacher right now. I think all of our colleagues could learn a lot from those kinds of skills. No bullying; it is my turn to talk; be reasonable; teach our children to play well in the sandbox. Those are lessons we teach in preschool. I think we could all learn from that.
I think about that, and I think about those Head Start kids and the children whom I taught before and who are not being taught now because of the sequestration. What lesson are we giving them--that if I don't get my way right now about a bill I fought against and voted against and an election was run and won on, but I lost, and I am so mad that I am not going to let you have anything else because I am just so entrenched in that. That is not a lesson we should teach our kids.
Let's look at the other side of that argument. What if I came out here and said: I am so passionate about funding early childhood education because I know the research and what a difference it makes and I know what that investment will do for our country not just for today but for 10 or 20 years, and if I don't get my way to make sure every child in this country has that start, this government is going to shut down. That is not the way we run a country. I adamantly and passionately fight for any cause I believe in. Any legislator here can. But the way you get your way isn't to hold the country hostage.
We have a country that is counting on us to be responsible adults and to come to the table and work out our disagreements between each other. And they are large, there is no doubt about that, but you don't do it by hurting every family, every neighborhood, every community, every part of this country by holding this country hostage.
We have a responsibility. It is to pass a clean continuing resolution. It is to get our government working again. It is to tell people they are going to get their paychecks. We are going to responsibly do that, and then we, as Members of Congress, are going to take our differences to a negotiating table and hammer them out. I may want $1 million for something. My House counterparts may say no. We may meet in the middle. I may say: I didn't get my way; OK, you got yours. That is what you do in a conference committee. You don't do it by holding your country hostage.
So we say to Speaker Boehner today: Open the government. Let everybody go back to work. Don't hold our economy hostage. And we will then sit down with you and work out our disagreements, as the Presiding Officer knows we have asked 18 times now to do and have been told, no, we are not going to let you go to that negotiating table, we are not going to let you talk--by the same people who want this government shutdown.
I find myself in a very odd place where we have a country that is closed for business. We are sending a very bad message and lesson to the children of this country that we can't work and play well together, that we can't even disagree together in an admirable way. And we are doing it while people are getting hurt.
Speaker Boehner, open the country again, open our economy again and agree to work out our differences the way responsible adults should do.
My understanding is, after trying all kinds of different ways to appease some of his Members with all kinds of different proposals, the latest proposal is to send us over piecemeal pieces of legislation. Well, OK. We feel bad about the veterans--and we all do. I am the biggest veterans advocate in here. We will take care of them now. And, oh gosh, some of our constituents are mad because they have flown out here and the national museums aren't open, so we will open those, and on and on, whatever the cause of the day is. I guarantee that if we began to pass those piecemeal pieces of legislation, my moms and dads in Head Start would be at the end of the line and would never get funded. I am standing up for them today and saying: You are first in line too.
We are all in this together. We need the government open--all of our agencies. Everybody gets a chance and an opportunity in this country. And we are going to stick together and say to Speaker Boehner: Pass a clean CR, and then allow this country and this government and the American way of life to function as our forefathers said--by sitting down at a negotiating table and working out our differences. That is what I have asked for as chair of the Budget Committee 18 times now. It is what we need to say we are going to do again but not while our country is shut down, not while my families in Head Start are held hostage, not while our small businesses are held hostage, not while everybody in this country is looking at us, wondering how we ever got to this.
Open the government, and let's be responsible legislators. That is what I came here to do. I certainly know it is what the Presiding Officer came to do. And let's tell the kids in this country who are watching us today that this country can function, we can work as adults, and we have a responsibility to do that--here and abroad.
Madam President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
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