Reopen Federal Government

Floor Speech

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing a resolution, along with Representatives GEORGE MILLER and NITA LOWEY, which is designed to reopen the Federal Government.

House Republicans have shut down the government in an effort to push their reckless agenda, allowing a small group of Tea Party Republicans to hold the entire Federal Government hostage. And they think they can distract from that by cherry-picking pieces of government to re-open, and leave the rest of it to die on the vine. They are playing games with peoples' lives, leaving families, small businesses, veterans, and our economy to pay the price.

The fastest way to proceed is to vote on the clean Senate-passed bill to immediately re-open the government. The President has indicated he is willing to sign it tonight. Unfortunately, House Republicans have manipulated the rules to block democracy in the House, and will not allow an up-or-down vote on the bill.

So today, House Democrats are offering an alternate way to end this irresponsible shutdown and allow our public servants to return to the work of the American taxpayers. We are introducing a petition that will compel consideration of legislation to open the government. By signing this discharge petition, both Democrats and Republicans can finally stand up and demand a vote as early as October 14 on a short-term extension of government funding consistent with what the Senate has passed. This would allow Congress to finally get back to the work of boosting job growth and reducing our long-term deficit in a balanced way. And it would allow government to get back to the work of helping to keep our nation safe, fight and cure diseases, help veterans, and provide vital services that touch virtually every family in our country.

Speaker BOEHNER has made it very clear that he is afraid of democracy. But that is why we were all elected to the peoples' House. It's time to stop playing partisan games and stop this damaging shutdown.

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