OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Pay Our Military Act

Floor Speech

Date: Sept. 28, 2013
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Health Insurance Government Budget and Spending

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, 18 years and 3 days ago, I was Deputy Secretary at the United States

Department of the Interior. It was a vibrant place. The attorneys were doing their work. The accountants were busy. The national parks were open, and the rangers were at the gates. They were explaining the great wonders of this land. The Fish & Wildlife Service was caring for those creatures that we care so much about. The researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey were doing their thing, and then Congress failed to pass an appropriation bill. The next day it was silent. The entire building was empty. The rangers shut the doors to the national parks. The research ceased.

To this day, I don't believe there's a person in this room or in this Capitol that can remember what the fight was about, but America can remember the shutdown of the government. And here today, we're in it once again. And the question that the American people will ask is: What is this all about? And the end result of it is that the status of this House will diminish once more.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.

Mr. MORAN. I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentleman.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, the one result of all this will be a further diminution in the status of the Congress.

There's a way to resolve this, but it's not to resolve it by delaying for 1 year all of the good that is in the Affordable Care Act, all of the insurance reform--and I was the insurance commissioner and I can tell you how important it is that the insurance reform is there--and all of the Medicaid programs and the millions of Americans that have the opportunity, all of those children that are now being covered. For what? For the 42nd, 43rd time, another failed effort, instead of sitting down and working to solve the problem.

It's a tragedy that we are about to go through this process. For what? So that some of the wealthiest, most profitable business in America can have a $30 billion tax reduction? I suppose that's important. So that you can say once again the Affordable Care Act, ObamaCare, is wrong?

I remember the days when the Nation shut down its government. It was bad.

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