Further Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I have to note we just heard my friend, Mr. Issa, I think reveal what is really

going on here. He said, and I think I am quoting him correctly, referencing the President, that we don't have to fund him. Well, with all due respect, Mr. Speaker, this is not about funding the President. This is about the decision of this body and the Senate, the Republicans in charge, to continue to kick the can down the road and not fund the most essential government function, and that is public safety and national security.

So let's be clear about what is going on here. This is a manufactured, deliberate political crisis intended to deflect attention from the fact that for 7 weeks--7 weeks in session--we have not seen any of the democratic deliberation that my friends on the other side have referred to. They could have brought a funding bill in the first week, in the second week, in the third week, in the fourth week, in the fifth week, in the sixth week, or the seventh week that we have been here on the floor of the House. But have they? No.

On the last day before the Department of Homeland Security shuts down, after 7 weeks in session, what do we get? Three weeks of funding. What changes in 3 weeks? What can you do in the next 3 weeks that you have been completely incapable of doing in the last 7 weeks? I don't see anything changing.

While the American people are at home worrying about how they work harder every day and can't seem to get ahead, that they can't seem to put the money aside to put their kids through college, and they can't seem to put the money aside to make sure that when they retire they are going to be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor, those are the questions that the American people have.

We have a Republican majority in the House and the Senate that can't even seem to act on the simplest question of providing for national security. If they are so concerned, Mr. Speaker, about immigration policy, bring an immigration bill to the floor of the House. Do your job. Legislate on the question of immigration and provide for national defense.

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Madam Speaker, I thank the ranking member for yielding.

Madam Speaker, it is really important that the American people understand what is happening here. It is pretty clear here. The Republican majority in the House and perhaps in the Senate disagree with the President on immigration policy. So they have two really clear choices. One would be to do what they somehow have been unable to do despite promises of a prolific period of legislation in the first couple of months here in Congress. Despite that, 7 weeks later we haven't seen anything that looks like an immigration bill.

So rather than using this magnificent process of democracy that the Framers designed for us to determine policy, the Republicans in Congress--really the Republicans in the House--have decided to threaten the shutdown of an essential government function--national security and public safety--in order to extract concessions on policy that they are unwilling to submit to the legislative process.

Why not bring an immigration bill that determines for this country what our immigration policy ought to be and, in the meantime, fund the essential functions of government? To not do so, there are consequences. This is not an academic exercise. There are consequences.

Three weeks of funding? Seriously, 3 weeks? After 7 weeks of coming to the floor of the House in session, why couldn't we come up with this compromise with the Senate, with whom you share partisan majority? Why can't we have a real debate on immigration policy on the floor of the House of Representatives without having to threaten to close down the essential function of government?

My friends on the other side have said, That is not what we are doing--except that that is what you are doing. Words are cheap, Madam Speaker.

You won't pass a clean bill to fund this Department, like your colleagues in the Senate have done, and you continue to hold out.

Madam Speaker, I just think it is time for us to get back to the serious business of the American people and pass a clean bill to fund this essential function.

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