Congressional Black Caucus

Floor Speech

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Mr. HORSFORD. Mr. Speaker, the Congressional Black Caucus comes to the floor now entering the second week of the House Republican-led government shutdown. Instead of allowing a simple ``yes'' or ``no'' vote on a bill that funds the government, Republicans continue to play irresponsible games that are hurting our country. The shutdown's impact on our already fragile economy, as previously predicted, is already beginning to take shape and is negatively affecting millions of Americans.

There is a simple solution to this, however, and that is to bring a clean continuing resolution to the House floor for a vote. The Senate has passed it; and if

Speaker Boehner scheduled a vote, it would pass the House as well. But the House GOP is more concerned with catering to a fringe group of their caucus than leading for the American people.

There are serious costs to that inaction for my constituents and constituents throughout our country. In Nevada, an estimated 11,000 Nevadans may be furloughed or directly impacted by the furloughs. At one of our Air Force bases in my congressional district, 1,100 Nevadans are affected by furloughs, processing of claims at the VA and Social Security have slowed for new applicants, and the Head Start program is feeling the pinch of the shutdown.

Tonight, we come to this floor to raise these issues and others to call on our colleagues on the other side and the Speaker to allow a clean continuing resolution to be brought to the floor.

At this time, I yield to the gentlelady from Ohio, Congresswoman Fudge, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, a leader who has been fighting for equality and fairness for all Americans.

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Mr. HORSFORD. I thank the vice chairman, Mr. Butterfield, for his constructive remarks and calling once again for the Speaker to bring a clean resolution to the floor. We know that the votes are here to pass a clean continuing resolution, one that would reopen government, one that would be supported by Republicans and Democrats; and so the Congressional Black Caucus comes to this floor at this hour to ask the Speaker of this House to do the will of the people and the will of this body.

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Mr. HORSFORD. I thank the gentleman from Virginia for his comments and for bringing up a number of key points. The main one that, I think, gets lost is the fact that the President and Democrats in both the House and the Senate have compromised. They've compromised on the lower budget number to get to a 6-week agreement on funding the budget in order for us to have a longer term negotiation for the budget in subsequent years. That is a major point that I think the Speaker and those on the other side tend to forget. That was a number that the Speaker himself offered up in July and said that he would bring a clean continuing resolution to the floor in July at the very number that Democrats are prepared to say ``yes'' to.

What we're here to say, Mr. Speaker, and Members on the other side, is take ``yes'' for an answer. We're ready. There are 195 Democrats who are ready in this House, some 20 Republicans who publicly said that they're ready to support a clean continuing resolution, and there are probably more that would vote for it once it's brought to the floor.

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Mr. HORSFORD. I thank the gentlelady for her remarks and for bringing the real-life names and stories about who this furlough impacts and how government shutdown is really affecting them. Those are the individuals, the public servants who provide critical services each and every day, who deserve to go back to work.

Again, we're asking that the Speaker bring a clean continuing resolution to the floor so the government can be reopened; and like the gentlewoman from Maryland, I, myself, have heard from my constituents who are affected by this. Many have sent emails and called my office. There is one by the name of Alex, a Department of Defense employee, who got married a week before the shutdown and was furloughed a week ago today. Now, is that the Republican Party's idea of a honeymoon gift? This has to end, and it has to end now.

I got some letters today from a fifth grade class of students from Sandy Miller Elementary School in Nevada. They wrote to me because they're planning a trip to the Grand Canyon, but now it looks like that trip may be in jeopardy because the government shutdown is threatening access to the Grand Canyon. They wrote to provide me with some advice on how to solve these problems and to suggest that if Congress could start acting a little more like fifth graders, maybe we could get something done around here.

I would like to share some of the remarks from the letters that they wrote. Stefany writes:

You should be respectful of each other. Be communicators. But most of all, be balanced and open-minded.

Rossie said:

You should be reflective about how you are affecting other people, not just yourselves. If my class can compromise and get along, you and your colleagues in Congress should too.

George wrote:

Congress should start cooperating and working as a team, like we do here in school.

``The message is pretty clear,'' as one of the writers, Bailen, put it, ``if fifth graders can get along, you can too.''

Well, I sure hope that's the case, Mr. Speaker. Because if we can't work together to do the people's business, then we shouldn't be here; and maybe we should turn the gavel over to them.

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Mr. HORSFORD. I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Veasey) for his very constructive remarks. And as he said, the fact that some on the other side want to close down government and keep it closed and now potentially threaten our ability to meet our obligations on October 17 with the debt ceiling over the Affordable Care Act, something that is now the law of the land that's been passed by this Congress, signed by the President, upheld by the Supreme Court, and that's simply not going to happen, it's time for them to come to the table to negotiate without holding the Affordable Care Act as a precondition. And that is what we are here to say, to ask the Speaker to bring to the floor a clean funding bill that's supported by an overwhelming number of Democrats and Republicans, to reopen government and to allow our American workers to go back to work.

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Mr. HORSFORD. Thank you to the gentlelady from California.

I will just conclude, Mr. Speaker, by saying that we demand a vote. We demand a vote on a clean funding resolution, one that's supported by 198 Democrats, 23 Republicans, 221 Members. A majority of the Members of this body are prepared to vote on a clean resolution, and we're asking--demanding--the Speaker bring that clean resolution to the floor so that we can reopen government and allow all of our American workers, those in government and those in the private sector, to get back to work and to meet our obligations as a country.

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