Providing for Consideration of H. Res. 370, National Park Service Operations, Smithsonian Institution, National Gallery of Art, and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014; Providing for Consideration of H.J. Res. 71, District of Columbia Continuing Appropriations Resoltuion, 2014; Providing for Consideration of H.J. Res. 72, Veterans Benefits Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014; Providing for Consideration of H.J. Res. 73, National Institutes of Health Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014; Providing for Consideration of H.R. 3230, Pay Our Guard and Reserve Act; And Providing for Consideration of Motions to Suspend the Ruls

Floor Speech

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Mr. CONNOLLY. I thank my dear friend, the ranking member of the Rules Committee.

I had a prepared talk, Mr. Speaker. I'm not going to give it. I'm going to respond to the distinguished manager who has used phrases like ``revisionist history'' and ``my way or the highway.'' You know, those are words that are worthy of what surrounds this issue, but they are, of course, exactly the opposite of what the distinguished manager suggests.

It wasn't this side of the aisle that said: We'll fund the government on a condition, and that condition is you have to agree to what we could not achieve legislatively, what we could not achieve in the courts, what we could not achieve at the ballot box; we're going to hold you hostage. You're going to do it, or else.

You're right, it's my way or the highway, but it's you who are saying ``my way or the highway''--one might say you.

In terms of revisionist history, this idea that we're just trying to help veterans and the National Guard and that's the least we can do, well, what about all the other agencies of the Federal Government? What about the rest of the people that need to be served?

I say to my friends on the other side of the aisle, Mr. Speaker, my family has participated in the National Guard. My nephew has been in the National Guard--still is. He has served two tours of duty in Iraq and one tour of duty in Afghanistan. He is now a Blackhawk helicopter pilot for the National Guard and ready to go again.

I and my family and my colleagues need no lecture about patriotism and about service to country. What we do want--and what my nephew wants and all like him--is that we stand up in this Congress and fund the government. That's the least we can do for National Guardsmen and for the clerk who processes applications for people to qualify for Social Security. We owe that to our constituents. We owe that to our country.

Can we put aside the issues of revision and ``my way or the highway'' and come together and have a clean continuing resolution--buy ourselves some time to continue the debate on ancillary issues, but stop the hostage-taking for the sake of my nephew, and perhaps yours?

It is time to put an end to this reckless Republican shutdown. We are now in day 2 of this manufactured crisis, in which House Republicans are holding hostage the American people and the essential government services on which they rely.

The cavalier nature in which Republicans have allowed this shutdown to occur--if not outright advocated for it--is shameful. Some have even suggested that the shutdown has gone largely unnoticed. That is outrageous! Do they not see the very real pain they are causing in their own communities? I suggest they visit with some of the 10,000 seniors a day who now have to wait for their Medicare enrollment to be processed ..... or the small businesses that cannot open their doors and hire new workers because SBA loans have been put on hold ..... or the dedicated men and women of our federal workforce--the majority of whom live outside the DC region in their communities--who protect our borders, safeguard our food supply, and respond to natural disasters and now have to worry about how to pay their mortgages.

Mr. Speaker, the majority of Americans say it is unacceptable for Republicans to shut down the government to meet their narrow, partisan demands. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce--along with the Prince William and Fairfax Chambers in my district--has urged Congress to fund the government and raise the debt ceiling without any extraneous provisions for fear of disrupting the economy.

That is what Democrats have offered to do, but House Republicans refuse to compromise on their demand to defund or delay the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Speaker, it's like our Republican colleagues have been overcome by a mass psychosis to satiate the rabid demands of the Tea Party crowd.

We know there are some sensible members on the other side of the aisle who want to do the right thing. I implore them to prevail upon their leadership to work with us in bipartisan fashion to end this shutdown.

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