Avoid the Government Shutdown

Floor Speech

Mrs. ELLMERS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my colleagues, and call on Senator Reid to pass a bill to avoid the government shutdown.

I've been sitting here listening to my colleagues across the aisle, and I am in complete amazement at their lack of ability to remember history accurately.

Thanks to the efforts of Speaker Boehner, this House, this Republican leadership, has consistently led. We did what the 111th Congress did not do: We passed a budget to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year.

H.R. 1 was passed under an open rule, with open debate, and truly reflects the will of this House and the people that sent us here with their votes last November. Again, open debate, and it truly reflects the will of the people.

Their message was, and is, get serious about cutting spending and change the culture in Washington so we can get our Nation back on a stable fiscal path. Remove many of the uncertainties facing our families and businesses, both large and small, and we can create an environment for job growth.

Unlike my colleagues across the aisle, we here in government cannot create jobs. The private sector creates jobs.

It has been 48 days since the House Republicans passed this bill, but we have yet to see a bill passed in the Senate to fund the government for the remainder of the year.

Yesterday, House Republicans listened to the will of the constituents who thought it shameful that our Nation's bravest women and men, volunteering to put their lives on the line for our freedom, should have to face prospects of not getting paid during this government shutdown.

With the passage of H.R. 1363, we fund the troops for the remainder of the year, regardless of any prospect of a shutdown, so those men and women fighting in the three theaters now and their families will not have to face the worry about whether they will get paid.

Yet to hear Senator Reid's refusal to consider this bill in the Senate, and to hear President Obama threaten to veto this bill is nothing less than shameful. To choose to put politics before our soldiers and their families, to me, is appalling.

Mr. Speaker, it is time for the President and the Senate majority leader to end this political game and work with us to ensure and provide for the Nation's military families to continue to fund our government.

The fact is discretionary spending has increased over 83 percent under the current administration, and the Senate majority leader and the President are choosing to shut down the government over a less than 2 percent cut in spending.

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