The Federal Government
Floor Speech
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Mr. DeSANTIS. I thank the gen tle lady from New Mexico. I am glad she brought up the examples of the toll that this shutdown is taking on our National Laboratory employees.
We are hearing back at Livermore, at Sandia, and at Lawrence Livermore so many examples like what the gen tle lady mentioned with security clearances. You wouldn't think about it. But when thousands of employees have security clearances that depend on them continuing to have financial stability, that stability is threatened when our National Laboratories furlough them and they are unable to meet their debts and obligations and pay their bills and keep their families running.
The gentleman from California (Mr. McNerney) also talked about the effects of furloughing these scientists. When you furlough scientists, you also furlough scientific progress.
I mentioned the town hall that I had last weekend in Dublin, California. Lab employees from Sandia and Lawrence Livermore showed up for that town hall. I am going to fly home this Sunday, and we are going to host another town hall at Lawrence Livermore and Sandia. It is going to be at 1:30 on Sunday. We have alerted laboratories to that town hall, and I look forward to talking to them. I hope to have a more positive update than what I can provide today. I hope that I can tell them that the shutdown will not continue; that they will be able to continue their work at our great National Laboratories.
Now, I talked a little bit about how we got here. That we had a budget from the President and the Senate at $986 billion, but the House's budget wouldn't accept only $986 billion; it wanted to repeal and defund the Affordable Care Act.
The reason I am so hopeful that we hold firm in the Senate, and that the President continues to hold firm and insist that we pass what is called a clean budget at $986 billion, is because of the dangerous, dangerous precedent it would set should we allow either side to try and seek concessions or seek a ransom for simply doing their job of providing a budget.
Our job being here in Congress and working under article I of the Constitution requires us to pass a budget that funds the government to pay the debts and obligations of the United States.
It would be a dangerous precedent if we had an environment where every 45 days, 60 days, or if we ever got back to passing a budget on an annual basis, that one side in one Chamber attempted to use that budgeting process to revisit and try and resettle scores that have already been settled.
That is so obviously occurring here with the Affordable Care Act. This is a provision that was initially brought up and contemplated in the 2008 campaign for the Presidency, where one person, one candidate, said that if he was elected he would seek to bring our country for the first time in over 100 years since it was first proposed affordable health care for all. That person was overwhelmingly elected to the Presidency--Barack Obama.
In 2010, the Congress, the 111th Congress, passed the Affordable Care Act. It was signed into law by the same President who campaigned on it.
In 2012, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, who was appointed by a Republican President who served before President Barack Obama, wrote a majority opinion that said that that law, the Affordable Care Act, was constitutional.
That same President who ran on the Affordable Care Act in 2008, who signed into law congressional action in 2010, who saw it upheld in 2012 by a Republican-appointed Supreme Court chief justice, ran for reelection, and again was overwhelmingly elected.
The Affordable Care Act will do many great things to provide affordable, quality health care to many Americans. But like every government program, it will not be 100 percent perfect. It too will require fixes and updates.
Just recently, Social Security celebrated a birthday. It is in its late 70s now. Social Security is not the same program that it was over 70 years ago. It has gone through different modifications and changes through the years. Just as the Affordable Care Act, we owe it to the American people to look at it as it is implemented, to look how it is helping people, to look at where glitches are and what we can do to make it work.
We must mend any problems with the Affordable Care Act, but not end it. We must not use the Affordable Care Act as a way to hold up a budget that provides so many jobs for the Federal workforce, so many services that come from the greatest government that presides over the greatest democracy in the world, so many services being held up for so many people across our country.
It would be a dangerous, dangerous precedent if we allowed either side to do this. Let me just offer an example: if we were to make concessions on this budgeting process--say at the very best buy us a 45-day continuing resolution where the government would be funded for another 45 days--what would the other side ask for next? Would it ask for us to privatize Social Security, something they attempted to do in 2006 but weren't able to do? Would they ask us to turn Medicare into a voucher system, something that they are not able to achieve because of a majority in the Senate and a Democratic President who has vowed not to let that happen?
But also think and reverse the situation: imagine if you had a Republican in the White House, a Republican-controlled Senate and a Democratic majority in the House. Imagine if that Democratic majority tried to use the budgeting process to achieve what it couldn't achieve at the ballot box. You can imagine the different scenarios where we can try and do this--whether it is passing background checks, something that has frustrated so many House Democrats that we couldn't get that passed in the Senate; whether it is passing an assault weapons ban, something that so many House Democrats would like to see renewed, as we had back in the '90s. It could be comprehensive immigration reform, something that our country is calling for. People are coming to our capital asking to have a roadmap to citizenship in reforms and work visas. We can't do that legislatively right now. But imagine if Democrats had a majority here and a Republican in the White House, and they said: No budget; we are shutting down the government until we get what we want because we couldn't do it at the ballot box.
We have never operated that way, and I hope we do not continue to operate that way, and that more reasonable minds come forward and allow us to put our National Laboratory employees back to work, allow us to put our Federal workforce back to work.
This shutdown is affecting and hurting real people. I mentioned in the beginning of this hour that I came to Congress to help people, but right now it is hurting innocent Americans.
Even though the Federal Government is closed, essential services must continue so hundreds of thousands of Federal employees are being forced to work but with no paycheck. How can we treat such dedicated public servants this way?
We saw just last week as an erratic driver tried to drive through the barricade on Capitol Hill that our brave men and women of the Capitol Hill police force rushed to protect the doors of democracy. And what thanks did we give them in return? We told them to keep working, keep protecting this House, but we are going to hold your paycheck.
Many more aren't even allowed to work in the Federal Government, denied the chance to do the jobs they love, serving on behalf of the American people, and they are left worrying if they will ever get paid or if they are going to be lost.
The loss also ripples throughout our economy, affecting businesses throughout the country. It is estimated that this shutdown is costing the economy $300 million a day. And so you can see, people are asking across the country: Will I get paid this month? Will there be enough money for food? Can I pay my mortgage this month? I am a first time home buyer; some of those FHA loans look very good for me, but they are delayed, they are on hold. Will I be able to pay my child's college tuition? All of the questions that folks in our Federal workforces, folks who are working at our national laboratories are asking.
Small businesses can't get SBA loans. Small business centers which help women and veterans are closed. Our national parks are closed. Technology updates for all of our Federal programs are being delayed. And mentioned earlier, our cybersecurity centers, employees there are going to be furloughed, the cybersecurity centers that work to protect our Nation's networks, that work to ensure that nation-states and individuals who wish to do us harm aren't able to do so.
I would like to now yield to the greatest champion in this House to end and reduce the effect of poverty on our community and somebody who has the honor of representing Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which has over 4,000 employees. I have visited that facility, and they are doing such great work to advance the progress of science.
I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee).
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