Congressional Progressive Caucus

Floor Speech

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Mr. JEFFRIES. I thank the distinguished gentleman from Wisconsin, the badger State, for yielding me some time, for your tremendous leadership in anchoring this Progressive Caucus Special Order week after week after week, carrying forward in such a powerful and compelling way the Progressive message to the Americans out there who we represent. It's such a powerful vehicle to use the House floor, to speak in such eloquent, genuine ways about the challenges that we confront here in the United States Congress.

Over the last few weeks, what we've witnessed, I think, can be characterized as both the theater of the absurd and a Shakespearean tragedy. Let me deal with the Shakespearean tragedy aspect of this.

We are in the midst of a government shutdown right now that is unnecessarily forcing pain on the American people. It's a shutdown that was manufactured by the House GOP that has resulted in a situation where Americans all across this country have now been put in jeopardy. That's a tragedy of epic proportions. Children have been put in jeopardy. Tens of thousands of them have been shut out from the Head Start program. Families have been put in jeopardy. More than 800,000 individuals were kicked out of work unnecessarily. As time marches on, faced with the uncertainty as it relates to how they pay their bills, put food on their table, clothing on their backs, pay off the mortgage, more than 800,000 hardworking Americans are collateral damage as a result of a reckless, irresponsible, mean-spirited behavior.

Veterans have been unnecessarily put into harm's way. Children looking for hope and dealing with the cancer that has afflicted them are unable to participate in clinical trials at the National Institutes of Health. Seniors, who otherwise would benefit from the Meals on Wheels program--it's insult to injury. It's bad enough you're trying to cut $39 billion from the SNAP program, but then you've got to inflict additional pain, as a result of the government shutdown, on seniors who rely on the Meals on Wheels program to eat and deal with their nutritional needs.

The other problem that's amazing to me is that you've put in jeopardy expectant mothers who are now unable to receive the nutritional assistance that would be available to them in the absence of a government shutdown. This is a Shakespearean tragedy inflicted upon us by an out-of-control House majority.

Let me deal for a moment or so with the theater-of-the-absurd aspect of this. I asked on the floor of the House of Representatives today, Who's in charge? My distinguished freshman colleague from California just referenced this point. Who is in charge of the House of Representatives? Is it the Speaker who's in charge at this moment? Is it the Heritage Foundation? Is it Tea Party extremists? Is it the junior Senator from Texas, who for the last week, before he disappeared, was barking out orders over on the other side of the Capitol and then Members in the House of Representatives were following those orders in lockstep, executing this extreme agenda that has led us to a shutdown of the United States Government?

The other side of the aisle, my good friends, they're going to say, Well, what are you talking about an extreme agenda? We just have a disagreement as it relates to the Affordable Care Act, and you guys on the other side of the aisle, the President at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, he doesn't want to compromise. Compromise on what? The Affordable Care Act is the law of the land. It was passed by a duly elected Congress in 2010. The Supreme Court of the United States of America declared it constitutional in 2012 in an opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, someone who was nominated to the bench by George W. Bush.

And then a few months later, in November, the President of the United States was reelected in an electoral college landslide with a difference of more than 5 million votes, reaffirming the Affordable Care Act, which was his signature legislative achievement.

What exactly do you want us to compromise on when October 1 was the day that enrollment first began? You claim it to be a train wreck. The train hasn't even left the station yet. But in advance of this government shutdown, you sent a series of ransom notes over to this side of the aisle. I mean, this really is shocking behavior. It was a series of ransom notes. If you don't do what we want to you do, we're going to shut down the government.

Let's go through the ransom notes that were sent over. First you said, Defund the Affordable Care Act; and then that didn't work. And then you said, We want to delay the Affordable Care Act for a year; and that didn't work. And then you said, We are going to deny the ability for contraception coverage; and that didn't work. And then you said, We're going to repeal the medical device tax; and that didn't work. And then you said, Well, let's delay the individual mandate for a year; and that didn't work. And then finally, out of desperation, you said, Well, we're going to jam up our own congressional employees in what effectively amounts to a misrepresentation, because you weren't trying to take away a subsidy. You were trying to take away an employer contribution that is available to the overwhelming majority of Americans whose employers provide health care. A series of ransom notes that were summarily rejected by a courageous Senate majority.

And when you finally realized the futility of those demands included in each of those legislative ransom notes that you sent over to the other side, at the 11th hour, in the height of hypocrisy, you said, Let's go to conference.

Go to conference? As my good friend, the distinguished Congressman from Wisconsin (Mr. Pocan) pointed out, we've been asking for regular order since the spring of this year.

Now, regular order involves the following process:

The House passes a budget, the Senate passes a budget, both of which occurred earlier this year. And then at that point, the two sides appoint conferees to sit down at the negotiating table and try to work out the differences. That's the regular order that you've been screaming about for the last 4 years. And earlier this spring, you finally had an opportunity to bring it about. Senator Harry Reid was prepared to move forward. Even Mitch McConnell seemed like he was ready to move forward. And individual Republican Senators said that it was absurdity for the House Republicans to have been demanding conference committees over the last several years, and finally they get an opportunity to do it, and nothing's forthcoming from the other side of the aisle here in the United States House.

Why is that the case? Well, I think we've now figured it out. Because you knew that the demands that you would make--because you are following the script from the junior Senator from Texas and others--would have been so extreme at a conference committee that it would have just been a futile legislative exercise, and you did not want that to be exposed to the American people. I think that's one of the only conclusions that we can draw at this moment, with the benefit of hindsight, as to why in the world a conference committee was never appointed, even though that's something that you had been demanding, my good friends on the other side of the aisle, for the previous few years. So the American people aren't going to be fooled by these 11th-hour gimmicks--conference committee.

What we need to do at this point is just pass a clean continuing resolution that, if it were to come to the floor of the United States House of Representatives, would have bipartisan support from Democrats and from Republicans, many of whom were mentioned earlier today by the distinguished Congressman from the Badger State (Mr. Pocan), and we could get beyond this shutdown, this Shakespearean tragedy, which is very painful for hardworking Americans, and go off and do the business of the American people. That's what needs to happen.

I hope reasonable minds can come together. You can stop following the marching orders of outside agitators--who've got no interest in governing and are only concerned about 2016 and other ambitions that these individuals may harbor--and do the responsible thing so we can move this country forward.

Mr. POCAN. Thank you so much, Representative Jeffries, for very clearly explaining to the country the situation and what's unfolded in these final days and final hours before the government shut down.

You know, there is no question that people on this side of the aisle are willing to compromise. We're compromising to a number that is nearly identical to what the Republicans have proposed so that we can, for the next 6 weeks, figure out our finances.

You and I both serve on the Budget Committee. You know we've been trying for--how long was it, Representative, again? How long were we fighting for this?

Mr. JEFFRIES. Since March or April of this year.

And, Congressman, you raise an interesting point. I think this is important to clarify for the American people. Our friends on the other side of the aisle have said, Well, we want a changed set of law. We want to defund, destroy, or delay the Affordable Care Act. Inherently outrageous. Well, let's just put that aside for the moment.

The Senate majority and those on our side of the aisle in the House of Representatives as well as the President, have already compromised, as you pointed out. The number that we feel is appropriate to fund the government and do what's right for the American people is $1.058 trillion. That's the number that we feel is appropriate. The number that our friends on the other side of the aisle would like to see the government funded at is $986 billion. That's a significant difference.

However, in order to move the country forward, the Senate majority, the Democrats in the House of Representatives, and the President of the United States have all agreed to move forward with a continuing resolution, not at our number, $1.058 trillion, but at the House majority number, which is substantially less, $986 billion. Our good friends on the other side of the aisle don't know when to take ``yes'' for an answer.

As the Democratic whip pointed out earlier this week, we've already compromised and accepted the sequestration cuts for the purpose of keeping the government open and negotiating over the next 6 weeks as to what the appropriate number is. So that is political spin that you hear, those who sent over the ransom notes, accusing others of an unwillingness to compromise when we've already compromised on the number in the continuing resolution.

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