The People's Right to Representative Government

Floor Speech

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Ms. BONAMICI. I want to thank my colleague from Hawaii for yielding some time and for this opportunity to talk about the harmful effects and the hidden injuries of this unnecessary government shutdown.

My colleague from Illinois was just talking about the human consequences. We also have to talk about the economic consequences to our constituents and to this country on day 12 of a completely unnecessary government shutdown.

I really appreciate this opportunity because our constituents want to hear and we need to get the message out there about the harm that is being caused by this. And like my colleague from Illinois, I spent a good part of this week on the telephone talking with constituents out in the great State of Oregon. I have to tell you people are concerned, they are anxious, and they are frustrated.

I spoke with our National Guard. There is so much uncertainty out there among the National Guard members about when they'll be paid. Many of them are unable to work. They are anxious.

Our community action organization that is designed to help low-income people, they are worried. They are already struggling, some of these families. They don't know if they will be able to continue getting the assistance they need.

Our Head Start organization--if you really want to make a difference in a child's life, early childhood education makes that difference. Our Head Start programs are being threatened.

Just a while ago here in this discussion, somebody mentioned health care research. I talked to one of our supervisors of health care research at the Oregon Health & Science University. It is clear and obvious that health care research is not something that can be put on hold and picked up again when the government figures things out. So much is at stake here with the researchers who have dedicated so much time on their research projects and are at a halt because they might need something like NIH approval that they can't get. They are extremely concerned, and here we are on day 12.

I have to say that the government shutdown is not just affecting Federal employees and their families, or even those directly connected, like government contractors. It is also hurting private sector businesses, and that is what I wanted to highlight in the next couple of minutes.

There is a business in my district, Leupold. It is in Beaverton, Oregon. They have about 700 employees, and they manufacture specialized optics. That is 700 employees in Beaverton, Oregon. Right now they have $10 million in orders that they can't ship. They can't ship them because they need export licenses because they sell their scopes and their binoculars and other products overseas, and they get that approval from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security. So if we can't resolve this government shutdown, they are soon going to lose those sales to foreign competitors. That hurts our economy, it hurts the employees who work there, and it hurts the business.

Here is another example. Oregon, you might know, is well-known for craft beer. There are a lot of great small businesses, and those people work really hard to brew a great product. In Hillsboro, Oregon, in the district I am honored to represent, Three Mugs Brewing Company is all set to open. They are paying their rent, they are paying their utilities, their business expenses, but they can't start brewing because they need approval from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. They approve the labels and recipes for brewers. So here is this great small business, an entrepreneur ready to start, and they have their store, they are paying their rent and expenses, and they can't start brewing their beer because of this unnecessary government shutdown. It is time to end this right now, and we could end it today.

I, along with my colleagues here, we signed a petition to open government today. We could end this shutdown now, because across the State of Oregon, as well as across this country, our constituents are more than ready for this government to be back open.

I try, I struggle to understand how they must view this from across the country. We are here in Washington, D.C. We have been here day after day after day ready to open up the government and get the employees back to work, but what must we look like? I thought of an analogy. So there is an accident about to happen, and those nearby can prevent the accident, but they don't because they can't agree how to prevent the accident. So the accident happens, and now the victim is bleeding. The victim has been bleeding for 12 days. Guess what? There is a disagreement about what kind of bandage to put on the victim. That is how absurd this must look to the United States of America. This is an unnecessary government shutdown. It has been 12 days now. Let's get the government open. We can do it today.

I hope the Speaker calls us back today for a vote. The votes are there. We can pass a continuing resolution. Let's pass that resolution, open up the government, and continue the conversation about how to build our economy, get our budget conference committee going. We can do that today, and I hope we do.

I want to thank again the gentlelady from Hawaii for giving us the opportunity to really highlight how this unnecessary government shutdown is hurting our constituents and our economy.

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