Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014

Floor Speech

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Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume to discuss the majority's intransigence.

The bill the House is considering tonight takes yet another step towards total dysfunction. Instead of working with Democrats to prevent a shutdown, the majority has gotten even more extreme by writing a bill that has no chance of becoming law and will be the 43rd vote on repealing or undermining the Affordable Care Act.

While the old saying goes, if at first you don't succeed, try and try again, I say to my colleagues across the aisle tonight: stop trying. You will not succeed in giving our medical choices back to the insurance companies and keeping health insurance costs too high for too many families, and it continues the Republican war on women by allowing a woman's employer to determine what safe and legal health services she can access.

The bill the Senate returned to the House would not increase spending, but one provision within the jurisdiction of Ways and Means would cost $30 billion. The majority is wasting time as we get closer and closer to a shutdown, because we all know this bill will be dead on arrival in the Senate.

Here's a sample of what the House majority shutdown will do: small business owners will stop receiving Federal loans to hire and expand their businesses; the National Institutes of Health will stop receiving new patients; veterans' benefits will be disrupted; and housing loans for middle class families will be put on hold.

These are the painful results of the Republicans' refusal to act responsibly.

They walked out of negotiations with the President last year. They ignored the President's deficit reduction plan in his budget. They refused to go to conference on a budget resolution. And they repeatedly voted down Democrat amendments to replace sequestration.

And now, when it's time to fulfill our most basic task of funding government operations, Republicans push us further to the brink of a shutdown. Anyone who votes to amend the Senate bill is voting for a shutdown.

Vote ``no'' on the Republican shutdown proposal, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, my friend, Mr. Rogers, and I have been trying to pass a bill that would reflect the needs of the people of the United States of America.

My friends know that this bill is delusionary. It just reflects the dysfunction of my friends on the other side of the aisle. To allow the extreme wing of the Republican Party to control this debate does not make sense at all.

The truth is we are 2 days away from a shutdown. My friends know that this bill is not going to be accepted by the Senate. They sent over a bill that we could have all passed, sit down and work together, and keep this government from shutting down.

The dysfunction that is occurring because of the Republican wing of the party does not make sense to me at all. You're bowing to the extremists, the Tea Party, who really don't want to see this process move forward.

We know that the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land. We know it's been affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States. Let's move on. Let's not waste time. People are out of work. Children are not getting what they need in school. The National Institutes of Health are not getting the resources that they need. Let's stop this game. Let's stop the dysfunction. Let's stop playing games.

This is the reality. Let's work together and pass a bill, a continuing resolution, and then I'm sure Chairman Rogers and I could pass an omnibus bill with the Senate to move forward with the work that we are elected to accomplish.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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