Government Shutdown

Floor Speech

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, GOP irresponsibility that led to the government shutdown is already having an impact across our country. I spent part of my day down at the World War II Memorial here in Washington. As the author of the bill that created the memorial--and we worked for 16 years from point of introduction to point of dedication in 2004--I witnessed an irony that Senators and Representatives who voted for the shutdown showed up today to remove the fence that was placed around the site because honor flights were coming in here.

Around our country, veterans are still coming with those who sponsor them. I thought how ironic to see this, that they would have the gall to show up at a site that they voted to shutter last night.

Knowing that honor flights are coming in from Ohio next week, I wondered where we would be. For the first time since the memorial was dedicated in 2004, do you know what, it was absent people, absent the American people. Last Sunday, we saw how crowded it was as the largest honor flight came in from the east coast.

I just say to my colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle: Did you really want to do this? Don't the American people deserve better than that, a vacant site, a fenced site?

It is time for our colleagues to wake up and not think about their party or themselves, but think about the American people.

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