Floor Statements

First of all, federal employees have contributed $75 billion over the last two years towards helping us reduce the deficit – $75 billion. No other working American has been asked to do that. You treat federal employees in this House as second-class working people. That's wrong. This is a 5% tax increase on federal employees. Nobody else. Nobody else do we ask. The richest people in America, we don't ask them to help solve this deficit problem. But federal employees, yes, a $75 billion contribution, and you don't blink an eye because it's easy – because we demagogue about government and, by association, we demagogue about ‘bureaucrats’ used as an epithet.

I served on the Labor and Health Committee for 23 years. Bill Natcher from Kentucky used to say this: if you take care of the health of your people and invest in the education of your young people, you'll continue to be the strongest and best nation on the face of the Earth.

It is hard to call us to responsibility, but that's what our public wants. Our public wants it on the right, they want it on the left, and they want it on the middle. This is a totally fiscally irresponsible piece of legislation, and you know it. And I know you know it. And America ought to know you know it.

The Chairman of the Budget Committee has spoken of a choice between two futures.  He is correct in framing it this way.  The budget he proposes would end the Medicare guarantee, cut taxes for the wealthiest, and place our economic recovery at risk. 

Our budgets reflect our values and the direction we want for this country in the year ahead – and for several years beyond.  With our economic recovery gathering momentum, we ought to ensure that our budget for Fiscal Year 2013 strengthens that recovery and helps American businesses create jobs that grow our middle class.

On this day in 1965, 600 men and women marched from the Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, Alabama, on their way to the state capitol in Montgomery.  They marched for freedom and the right to vote that had been denied them.  As they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge on their way out of town, they were met with the violence borne from bigotry and forced to turn back.  My friend and esteemed colleague, John Lewis, who led the march along with Hosea Williams, was beaten nearly to death.  However, their determination to be heard and to participate in our democracy could never be turned back.  The sad events of that day, which became known as ‘Bloody Sunday,’  were broadcast across America, opening the eyes of millions to the injustices of Jim Crow.  Later that month, thousands gathered in solidarity and with faith in the promise of America, setting out from that same place and together they walked across that bridge, to the state capitol in Montgomery, and into the pages of history. 

I know that everybody on my side would have supported the agreement that Mr. Van Hollen and I put forward. That agreement would, as the current agreement would say, that the only individuals paying for this bill out of 315 million Americans are the two million civilian workers who work for us, who work for all of us, who day after day, week after week, month after month make sure we give the services to the people of the United States, protect the United states, ensure that our food is safe, ensure that we have FBI agents on the job, make sure at the Defense Intelligence Agency we know what other people are doing, these are all civilian employees. Highly skilled, highly trained, highly educated and, yes, highly motivated. And every day they give outstanding service to the people of the United States. We talk here and we pass laws here but none of that talk and none of those laws make a difference unless somebody implements what we say and the policies that we set. This Congress is on the path to be the most anti-federal worker Congress that I have served in.

We must not leave this city and our responsibilities without extending unemployment insurance. We must not leave Washington, DC, for this holiday season to deliver a block of coal in the stockings of our constituents by failing to continue the tax cut from their payroll taxes. And we must not leave Washington, DC, without affecting a continuation of the proper reimbursement of doctors to ensure that Medicare patients will be able to get their doctors' services. So we have three items to focus on to get done and nine appropriation bills.

Last year, then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mike Mullen, said that – and I quote: 'Our national debt is our biggest national security threat.' We must do something to start paying down the debt, and that something is in the hands of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction.

Community banks, Mr. Speaker, are the lifeblood of our local economies. They are locally owned and operated. They know their local businesses and residents intimately and lend to them not just because it's a sound business decision, but also because it benefits the community. With the credit and lending crisis we have experienced over the past couple of years, the small banks that operate in our local communities face numerous challenges just to stay afloat.

Today, Leader Reid offered unanimous consent, which essentially adopted the agreement we made in very tough negotiations over the debt limit and an agreement that emergencies like natural disasters needed additional headroom. There was an agreement that we would have additional spending if we were faced with a disaster. In the House debate, clearly everyone understood that we were faced with the disasters.

I rise in opposition to this bill. Now, all of us are for a Continuing Resolution which keeps the government in business. In the past on both sides of the aisle we have talked about clean CR’s. Clean CRs in the short-term, this going until November 18, to keep government running. I was hopeful we would have such a CR this time. So that we would not continue to give to the American public the feeling that we can't come to agreement.