Government Shutdown in the Golden State
Floor Speech
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Mr. HUFFMAN. I want to thank my friend from inland southern California very much for including me in this Special Order hour.
There are so many ways in which this Republican government shutdown is hurting the people of California, hurting the people of my district. But I just wanted to speak for a few minutes about some very particular ways in my district that people are feeling the pain.
The Second District of California is an amazing place. I am honored to represent it. One of the things that makes it special are the abundant public lands. We have protected coasts, parks, recreation areas, forests, and wilderness areas. These public lands are essential to our region's tourism, recreation, and resource economy.
The north coast's tourism economy is a big deal. It creates $3.5 billion in annual tourism spending, more than 42,000 jobs, and nearly $225 million in local and State tax revenue. Visitors from all over America--and, in fact, all over the world--come to our public lands. Thanks to the Republican shutdown, much of that economic activity is grinding to a halt.
The Point Reyes National Seashore is closed. In 2011, this seashore received 2.1 million visitors and brought in $93.3 million in economic activity to the area. The shutdown is starting to impact small business owners in and around the park in West Marin. These are folks who subsist on the tourism dollars that this world-famous seashore and working landscape attracts.
Nearby, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area is also closed. That collection of lands welcomes 14.5 million visitors a year. The spending on an annual basis is nearly $300 million for the region because of that visitation. The commissaries and vendors right now are shut down. They aren't purchasing the locally-sourced food that they serve. They are further hurting the Marin and Sonoma County farms and dairies because of that shutdown.
Tourism is one of the most important drivers of Mendocino County's economy further to the north. It pumps in $314 million directly to that county's economy. That was in the year 2011. Seventy-four percent of the visitors to the county come to the public lands--lands that are now closed.
What about California's redwood coast further north in Humboldt County? You guessed it: Redwood National Park is being forced to turn away visitors.
Yet, in response to the shutdown, this House has spent the last week voting on Band-Aid bills that attempt to pit one part of government or one program against all the others. This is a surreal proposition: the idea that our economy is hemorrhaging more than $300 million a day because of this political stunt and our GOP majority offers these Band-Aid bills that aren't going to end it. The Senate is not going to take up and approve these bills, and the President has made it clear that he would veto them even if they did. So this is not going to solve the problem; but that, unfortunately, is how we have been spending our time.
These are not honest attempts to restore funding for our public lands. They wouldn't begin to undo the damage that this shutdown is doing to our resources and our recreational industries. The House majority is pursuing a cynical PR strategy. It is creating Hollywood storefronts rather than seriously trying to reopen our government.
Even if these piecemeal bills were to pass, let's not pretend that it would solve the problem. To give you just one example, one of the Band-Aid bills that we debated and voted on over the last week pretended to reopen our parks, and yet it would not reopen--it completely ignores, in fact--the 2.4 million acres of National Forest Service land. There are many other examples of park and recreation areas and public lands that would have been left behind and still subject to the government shutdown.
In my congressional district, we have major Forest Service lands and a Forest Service presence. Many people in businesses rely on our national forests being open for business. Just this week, I got word that a salvage logging operation in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest is at risk of being shut down because of where we are with this Republican government shutdown. This is a salvage logging operation in the wake of a serious fire
that we have seen. It is a consensus project to harvest trees, to avoid public hazards, to do something that is good for the forest, good for the local economy, and it is at risk of not happening because of this political stunt. This is causing real economic damage and potentially real fire safety damage to the communities that I represent.
So let's stop posturing. Let's stop the PR stunts. Let's stop the Hollywood storefronts. Stop deflecting, stop insulting the intelligence of the American people. Let's have an up or down vote to reopen our public lands and, indeed, to reopen our government.
Mr. TAKANO. Thank you, Mr. Huffman. If you want to--care to stay just a few minutes to have a little back-and-forth.
Mr. HUFFMAN. I would.
Mr. TAKANO. We come from different parts of our great State of California. I know we both share a deep love for our State. I have been to your district, to Sonoma and the great forests that you have in your district. It is a terrible thing to see, just as California is coming out of this recession--I don't know about you, but I visited a number of these businesses during the congressional break, during the work period, during August and early September, and there were so many hopeful stories about people saying, We have gotten through this hump, we have gotten through the worst of the 2008, 2009, and 2010 recession. There was even talk that real estate in my area of the State, which was hit hard, was coming back. I told all these folks I am so glad to hear these wonderful stories.
I just hope that we don't, in Washington, end up, through any unnecessary actions, irresponsible and reckless actions, set back the gains that we have made. I don't know about you, but in my district, certainly, I can see how shutting down the government and threatening to not raise the debt ceiling would have just tremendous adverse consequences on the twelfth largest economy in the world.
Mr. HUFFMAN. There is no doubt about it. I think you are exactly right. Of course, prior to my election in Congress, I spent 6 years in the California Legislature, where we had our own fiscal crises and, yes, at times the government practically shut down. We worked through it. We found compromise.
You are absolutely right, Congressman. California is on the verge of a tremendous comeback. Jobs are coming in; investment is coming into our State. Things are really beginning to happen in a great way in the State of California after a tough period.
Just as it seems we are getting started, along comes this Federal Government shutdown with so many impacts to our economy. The debates that we have here in Washington don't even scratch the surface of how this is hurting people and undermining consumer confidence and setting us back in places like California, where we have the potential to do enormous things in terms of research and so many other ways we contribute to the national economy.
Mr. TAKANO. Thank you so much for coming down to speak about how this shutdown, this GOP-imposed shutdown, manufactured shutdown, and how this threat to not raise the debt limit is jeopardizing our entire Nation. But we in California are a tremendous engine behind the whole big picture of the economic mind of our country. An economy which represents 12 percent of the global economy is nothing to be cavalier about.
Mr. HUFFMAN. Absolutely. As we talk about this incredible economic damage and risk that politicians are taking with our economy, what I am hearing from my district is how incredulous people are because there is such an obvious and simple solution and way forward.
Let's have an up-or-down vote on whether we should continue this government shutdown or end it, and even end it, at least temporarily, on Republican budget numbers. That seems so eminently reasonable and sensible. In fact, it was the deal that one House struck and advanced out of that House with bipartisan action. Yet here we are in the House of Representatives with a small faction rejecting that deal, holding the entire country's economy potentially hostage for political reasons. It is just something my constituents can't understand.
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