No Subsidies Without Verification Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. PELOSI. I thank the gentlelady for yielding, and for her great leadership as our ranking member on the Appropriations Committee. I also thank her for bringing us together this evening.

Madam Speaker, we have been, all along, 200 House Democratic Members strong, in support of the Republican number that we are voting on today.

Tonight, the unnecessary shutdown America has been enduring for 16 days comes to an end. Thank you, Speaker Boehner, for finally allowing a majority of House Members to reopen government and avoid a default that would have clearly wreaked havoc on our economic credibility and the stability of our country.

It is equally clear that the shutdown has already shaken some pillars of our economic security and growth. It has jeopardized our credit rating and slowed our GDP growth by 0.6 percent. It has eroded consumer and investor confidence in our economy, while taking $24 billion out of our economy.

My colleagues, do you think that your recklessness was worth $24 billion to our economy? This recklessness is a luxury the American people cannot afford.

Tomorrow, we can finally begin what Democrats have been waiting for 7 months to do. Tomorrow, we can go to the negotiating table to debate a budget to create jobs, jobs, jobs--that four-letter word--expand the economy, strengthen the middle class, and reduce the deficit in a meaningful way.

Tomorrow, we must stop governing from manufactured crisis to manufactured crisis and start working to find solutions so that we never again see a day when the government has been shut down and the full faith and credit of the United States of America has been called into question.

For that reason, I urge a ``yes'' vote on this bill, and not just on its merits, because as we know, this number is too low. Even the chairman of the committee has said it is an unrealistic and ill-conceived number and must be brought to an end. This number, if left in effect, would cost us hundreds of thousands of jobs in the months ahead, in the next year. Hundreds of thousands of jobs. Again, a number that is a luxury this country cannot afford.

So if the Republican number is key to reopening the doors of government and restoring confidence in our economy, Democrats are willing to accept this resolution tonight. As I said, not because of its merits. We do so because a vote ``yes'' on this bill will take us, hopefully, down a path to grow the economy, promote the prosperity of every American who is willing to work hard, play by the rules, and to achieve the American Dream.

So with those qualifications as to what we are voting for tonight, the number doesn't meet the needs of the American people. The length of time that the debt ceiling is extended is not long enough. Apparently, that is the best we can do. I commend Senator Reid for working in a bipartisan way to send us this bill tonight so we can bring this sadness to an end, and how it has affected so many people.

I do not come here to pin a rose on this legislation. It does not have that respect. But it does have my support as a means to an end.

With that, I urge a ``yes'' vote.

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