Let's Fund the Government

Floor Speech

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Mr. POCAN. Mr. Speaker, as of today, Congress has less than 3 weeks to reach an agreement on government funding before the September 30 deadline. If we cannot complete this fundamental task, the one thing we have to do as Members of Congress, we risk shutting down the government, an outcome that would have devastating consequences for the American economy, American families, and our national security.

I wish I could stand here and talk about all the great bipartisan work that the House Appropriations Committee has been doing and reassure you that we are on track to fund the government on time, but unfortunately that is far from reality.

This year, House Republicans have abandoned bipartisanship and instead chose to draft some of the most extreme partisan and harmful legislation that I have ever seen. Their bills would enact devastating cuts that would jeopardize our children's education and futures, weaken our rural communities, increase costs for families, and leave our country less safe by directly cutting funds for necessary law enforcement.

On top of this, they have packed these bills to the brim with extreme policy riders that have no chance of becoming law, including abortion bans and extremist discriminatory policy.

We often say that your budget is a reflection of your values, and these shameful funding bills show that the House Republicans are lacking many.

It doesn't have to be this way. Over in the Senate, Democrats and Republicans have put together bipartisan funding bills, all of which have passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee with overwhelming bipartisan support. House Republicans, however, are on an island of their own, seeking to jam their rightwing ideology down the throats of the American people or else subject them to a shutdown that will have devastating consequences. This would be the height of irresponsibility.

It has become clear that the House Republicans do not have a plan. Faux impeachment is just a distraction. They do not have a strategy, and the chaos and confusion will come at a cost of a government shutdown that the American people cannot afford.

Republicans in the House need to do the right thing: Come to the table with Democrats and both parties in the Senate and let's fund the government. It is not rocket science. It is just basic governance. Wisconsin Shouldn't Impeach Justice Protasiewicz

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Mr. POCAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about what is happening in my home State of Wisconsin. There are calls from the gerrymandered State assembly to impeach the newest State supreme court justice before they have even heard a case.

Justice Janet Protasiewicz was elected overwhelmingly. She defeated her opponent by more than 200,000 votes. She won by 11 points. In a purple State like Wisconsin, that is a landslide. However, because she mentioned that Wisconsin's extremely gerrymandered State legislative and congressional districts might be a problem, the current State assembly is threatening to use their impeachment powers before she even has a chance to hear a case.

The State assembly is trying to overturn the will of the voters because they don't like who won the election. Using this logic, if the legislature doesn't like the possible outcomes of any election or cases before the court, it can conceivably threaten impeachment without actual cause and undermine the separation of powers of government. The legislature does not trump the judiciary. They are co-equal branches of government.

Under the Republicans' absurd logic, they could threaten impeachment over their gerrymandered maps or keeping Wisconsin's 1849 abortion law or even potentially over giving themselves a pay increase even if they thought the court would find it unconstitutional.

There is a standard for impeachment. It is for wrongdoing in office, not for disagreeing with the legislature. The fact that Justice Protasiewicz has not heard a single case makes this even more ridiculous.

Now the Republicans in Wisconsin are maybe changing their tune. They likely realize this impeachment farce might be a bad idea, but that is not stopping them from coming up with new bad ideas to stay in power. Now they claim they want an independent commission, a Trojan horse, to distract as a way to stay in power, an idea that they previously dismissed.

If the Republicans don't like the so-called fair maps that come out of this commission, they can still draw their own maps under this Trojan horse plan. It only requires a simple majority, which when you have gerrymandered maps, you certainly have. This is wrong. It does not represent Wisconsin's values and, frankly, it is un-American.

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