Richard Blumenthal

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, yesterday the Veterans Affairs Administration announced it would furlough 7,000 Veterans Benefits Administration employees, and as a result activities and services in the following areas would be suspended: The education call center, personal interviews and hearings at regional offices, education and vocational counseling, outreach programs including at military facilities, the VetSuccess Program on campuses. But this announcement is only the beginning of the contraction in the services and activities of the VA. In fact, VA also announced that at the end of the month it will run out of funding for compensation, pension, educational and vocational rehabilitation, and employment benefits. What does that mean for America? What are the consequences of the VA saying this shutdown means we are shutting our doors to processing and paying the claims of men and women who have served this country, who have been disabled as a consequence of that service, who have earned educational benefits so they can come back and continue to contribute to this country? What that means to America is we are in effect defaulting and failing on a core obligation this country has to men and women who serve and sacrifice. America is failing to keep faith with its veterans, and America is failing on one of its most essential obligations. We ought to be ashamed and embarrassed that 7,000 men and women, who want nothing more than to help their fellow veterans--in fact, half of those 7,000 men and women at the VA are themselves veterans--have been told: Go home. In fact, at the end of the month the benefits, pensions, and educational benefits that are received by veterans will have to be suspended because the VA is running out of money. Right now it is in effect continuing on the leftover money, which will last only through the end of this month. I spoke this morning to a veteran named Jordan Massa, a native of Bridgeport, who served for 6 years in the U.S. Army as an infantryman, including two tours in Iraq. Jordan Massa was injured in an IED explosion, a roadside bomb, that left him severely disabled with ear and back wounds as well as posttraumatic stress. Jordan Massa waited for 2 years after he applied for the benefits he needs and deserves, until October 1--just days ago--when he heard the good news that he would be receiving the disability benefits to which he is entitled--not as an act of charity or beneficence; he is entitled to those disability benefits. Now Jordan Massa is on the verge of being denied the benefits he needs and deserves because of this shutdown. A Connecticut native, awarded the Purple Heart, he has been a student at Tunxis, and has sought to help other veterans as a counselor--giving back to this country even after his service in uniform. I spoke also to Aaron Jones, who works at the South Park Inn Shelter, which serves homeless veterans in Hartford. That shelter is full. There are thousands of homeless veterans in Connecticut and millions across the country who also are a mark of shame and embarrassment for this country. The greatest Nation in the history of the world is failing to provide for men and women who have worn the uniform and now are homeless. He is telling me the government shutdown has created an additional obstacle to those veterans who want to leave that shelter to find permanent housing. Some are there for emergency, about 7; some are there in transitional housing, about 10; and they want to resume productive and constructive lives. This shutdown has created an additional obstacle to their doing so. In fact, for Aaron himself, who is a veteran and served in the National Guard, a tour in Bosnia, a tour in Iraq, this shutdown is a horrendous obstacle. At this moment as I speak on the floor there is a House hearing. The House Committee on Veterans' Affairs has, as its principal witness, the head of the VA, General Shinseki, who has served this Nation with distinction and dedication and has sought valiantly to reduce the backlog in disability claims and to provide benefits more efficiently and effectively to our veterans. Rather than using General Shinseki as a political punching bag, the House should simply have a vote. They should vote on a simple, straightforward, no-strings-attached funding resolution that would enable those 7,000 VA employees to come back to work and serve the people they love. It would provide for other essential services, whether at NIH serving cancer victims or the other agencies that work with the VA to help serve our veterans, such as the Department of Labor and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The piecemeal approach the House is taking, a ``cause du jour'' approach to governing, is simply inadequate and irresponsible. The bill they have sent to us, while it deals with the VA, would not provide for those other agencies that are essential to the VA's work, whether in training or housing or processing claims. This Nation should by embarrassed and ashamed. This legislature ought to be embarrassed and ashamed that it is failing to keep faith with Jordan Massa, with the folks who live at the South Park Inn Shelter, and countless other veterans in Connecticut and across this country who are entitled to benefits, pensions, and processing of their disability claims so they can receive what they deserve and need. If the House votes it will pass a simple, straightforward funding resolution, if the House is permitted to simply say yea or nay to that very straightforward, simple measure, this Nation will keep faith with Jordan Massa, with Aaron Jones, and with the countless millions of other veterans who at the end of this month will lose the benefits and pensions they are entitled to receive as a result of their service and sacrifice to this Nation. I ask the Speaker of the House to simply allow a vote. Let the House vote so we can open government, pay our debts, and then reach a budget that is comprehensive and responsible and meets the needs of those veterans and many other Americans who are harmed and handicapped, enduring hardship as a result of the failure of that body. It is a small minority in one branch of the legislature, one branch of our government that is failing our Nation. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Connecticut for those eloquent and very powerful remarks, and I will take advantage of his presence here to perhaps engage in a colloquy, if he agrees to doing so, asking him, because he spoke so wonderfully about that one family, whether he has seen, as I have seen, that story of deprivation and setback duplicated on a bigger scale throughout our State?

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. In fact, what is happening is a small fraction of one House of the Congress--in fact, in the House of Representatives, one small group of rightwing extremists, whatever they may characterize themselves as--is holding hostage the entire House of Representatives, the entire Congress, the entire government, even though it is only one branch and one part of a branch. I think Senator Murphy has explained well our view--and our constituents in Connecticut need to know it--we are willing to compromise and collaborate but not with hostage-taking tactics that in effect say to everyone else in the country: It is our way or the highway. I thank my colleague from Connecticut for speaking so clearly and persuasively on his topic, and for giving the impact of this government shutdown a human face and a human voice. The story he told from Bridgeport has indeed thousands of others just like it across the State of Connecticut, across the country, who are suffering the real hardship and harm of this shutdown. We can talk in the abstract here. Our rhetoric may carry a little bit beyond these four walls. But the real-life consequences belong to them. Both Senator Murphy and I have seen them in real life and that is why we are here to advocate and fight for those people of Connecticut, in Bridgeport, those families who depend on Head Start, those seniors who depend on nutritional assistance--he has told their story, and that of Sikorsky, so well today in this Chamber. These men and women, and their families, do great work for our Nation on their assembly lines. Black Hawk helicopters are the best-made helicopters in the Nation. They perform rescue operations for our troops in Afghanistan. They medevac our Nation's warriors to places where they can be saved. They provide resupply and provisions. They are literally lifesaving vehicles in our war to keep America safe. Those workers in Sikorsky were told late last week: You are done. You are furloughed. Do not report to work next week because 45 inspectors-- civilian employees of the U.S. Department of Defense--are going to be furloughed. The 45 inspectors and 1,500 or 2,000 or more workers at Sikorsky who work on the Black Hawk helicopter assembly line, and other product assembly as well, were told they were going to be furloughed. Senator Murphy and I, and other members of our delegation, spoke with officials of the Department of Defense. We made our interpretation of the recently passed law clear to them and told them that it applies to employees of the Defense Contract Management Agency whose services were vital to certify and inspect those helicopters. We needed to keep the assembly lines at Sikorsky open in order to make sure that Black Hawk helicopters were continuing to be available to our military men and women who depend on them so vitally. Those conversations--and I am sure others had them as well--with officials at the Department of Defense, along with the action of the House over the weekend, will make sure that all of the furloughed employees who work for the U.S. Government will eventually be paid. Secretary Hagel was persuaded to do the right thing. I commend and thank Secretary Hagel for bringing back those employees, such as the 45 DCMA inspectors, who have to be there for the Department of Defense in order to take delivery of those helicopters, which, in turn, is necessary to keep the assembly line open and keep Sikorsky workers employed and on the job with the countless other hard-working men and women defense contractors across the United States. I thank Secretary Hagel, but at the same time we need to recognize that for every Sikorsky helicopter situation, for every Fortune 500 corporation, and for every one of those big defense contractors, there are literally thousands of suppliers and small businesses that are continuing in uncertainty, and sometimes confusion, about what is happening here in Washington. There are thousands of other businesses that depend on those suppliers because they provide the raw materials for the parts for the Sikorsky helicopters. The ripple effect and the ramifications pervade our economy and our society. The uncertainty creates harm and hardship that is immeasurable and perhaps irreparable. The harm is not only to those workers who rightly have whiplash from being furloughed one day and being called back another and then being uncertain as to what impact this shutdown will ultimately have; there are suppliers and the countless other small businesses that cannot plan, cannot look ahead, cannot hire for the future, and sometimes they have to tell their workers: You are going to be furloughed. You cannot plan to buy a car or a new home or even the most minor things such as school supplies--or make other plans, for that matter. Lives hang in the balance; lives are at stake. The real-life consequences are real and perhaps lasting for many Americans--not only the family who depends on Head Start or the senior nutrition assistance or the jobs in Sikorsky, but there are countless others whose lives also hang in the balance. There is a solution to this impasse. Calmer minds, cooler heads, and common sense are beginning to reach a consensus that the House should be given a chance to vote, and that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, should enable that vote. He should very simply provide an opportunity to Republicans and Democrats--not singling out one side or the other--to come together on a bipartisan basis. Who cares who is in the minority of that vote as long as it reopens the government and provides Head Start, nutritional assistance, and enables some certainty that permits our economy to move forward rationally and sensibly so we can recover from the great recession? We need to grow jobs and enable the economy to reach some measure of prosperity. We all have an interest in that outcome. We should all be pulling for America. We should all be assured that the greatest nation in the history of the world will leave no doubt that it will pay its bills on time and that it will fulfill its obligations on time, just as we have for every year in the history of this great Nation. There is a way to come together. I have heard from my colleagues on both sides of the aisle that the time has come to end this impasse. Simply let the House vote. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. What is needed, I think my colleague would agree, is an end to the shutdown, reopening government--not for the sake of reopening the government but to provide these vital services and assurance that the United States of America, the greatest Nation in the history of the world, is going to continue paying its debts. Then and only then have a conference and a compromise and collaboration on what our overall budget should be with smart spending cuts and increases in revenue that close some loopholes and subsidies. I think that was the thrust, was it not, of what my colleague from Connecticut had to say?

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. In fact, I think statistics show more than a thousand children and their families are directly affected by this shutdown in Head Start alone. Seniors, in terms of nutritional assistance--I do not know whether my good friend and very distinguished colleague from Connecticut has seen that phenomenon as well in Bridgeport and throughout our State of Connecticut and would care to remark on it?

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, let me second the very powerful and eloquent remarks just made by my colleague from Rhode Island: that we must vote, we need to have a vote in the House of Representatives to give moderate Republicans the opportunity to put the Federal Government back to work in the service of Americans and keep America--in the private as well as public sector--at work so they can meet the obligations of their families. We have developing a situation in America where more and more the ripple effects of this shutdown will affect private employees, not just the Federal and government workers who are told to go home and told they cannot do their jobs. As I have said repeatedly, we need to end the hostage-taking tactics by one small faction of one party in one House of this branch of government. The ripple effects of this shutdown are beginning to grow across America. Last night, United Technologies, the largest employer in Connecticut, announced it has been forced to furlough thousands of employees, starting initially with more than 1,500 at its Sikorsky facility in Stratford, which makes Black Hawk helicopters for our Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Special Forces. Thousands of other jobs may be at risk at Pratt & Whitney and at defense manufacturers all cross the Nation. This political gamesmanship and budget brinkmanship has stopped production of the Black Hawk helicopters, an iconic symbol to all our servicemembers that help is on the way. They are the ones that transport troops into combat, rescue the wounded, and deliver supplies to the most inaccessible and inhospitable parts of the Earth. Black Hawk helicopters are vital to our national defense. Why is the production line at Sikorsky being shut down? Because 45 Federal employees who work for the Defense Contract Management Agency have been sent home as a result of this shutdown--sent home by one small group of rightwing extremist ideologues in the House of Representatives, one part of this Congress, one branch of the government--and those 45 employees who work for the Defense Contract Management Agency cannot certify and inspect the work of the Sikorsky employees. So there is no way the U.S. military can take delivery of those helicopters. My hope is this situation can be resolved quickly and that we can find a way to get these DCMA employees back doing their vital jobs that contribute so directly and importantly to the success of our military operations. They are civilian employees. They should be back at work certifying and inspecting and making sure those helicopters are the best in the world, as they have always been, and that they can be delivered to our military; that the military can pay Sikorsky, and Sikorsky can keep its people at work rather than furlough them, and so that those Sikorsky helicopters are available to help our troops in the toughest challenges they face all across the globe. They need and deserve those helicopters. But even if we put those Sikorsky workers back at their jobs tomorrow, the needless chaos and confusion caused by the shutdown is an outrageous and inexcusable dereliction by those small, rightwing extremists who have insisted on ideology over country and fearmongering over job creation. The ripple effects of Sikorsky shutting down its assembly line will be felt by the suppliers who provide parts and components used in those helicopters. I have visited them, and I have seen those parts and components used on those assembly lines by those Sikorsky workers. If Sikorsky is not using those parts and components, workers in those suppliers will be furloughed as well, or worse. We are talking about men and women who live--many of them--paycheck to paycheck. They do not have huge savings. They may well, in fact, probably will not be paid for the time they are furloughed. The ripple effect on consumer demand will be felt across Connecticut and, as a result of similar situations, across the country. All too often, we tend to think of the Federal workforce as a nameless and faceless group, but this shutdown is bringing home what the real impact of their work is--from the NIH employees who do cancer research and provide treatment to people who need it and now will go without it; to the Head Start workers and programs across the country that provide for educational readiness to children who now will go without it; to the Social Security recipients who encounter problems with their check or payment and need someone to guide them or help them receive those checks that they need to survive and now will go without those checks; and resolving veterans' benefits, other kinds of issues all across the country. The chaos and confusion will ripple and accumulate. These effects are cumulative, and they will multiply. The damage done by these wounds to our workforce are, tragically, self-inflicted and they dramatize how that cumulative effect will, in fact, increase exponentially. I warned of the effects on job creation and economic growth repeatedly before and after the shutdown occurred. In addition to the vital services that are imperiled and impacted, these economic effects on job creation and recovery are irreparable. They affect people's lives. They are real consequences to real people. I have called on this body to let compromise and cooler heads prevail and end those ripple effects, end the shutdown, end this self-inflicted wound before it becomes an economic tsunami. I hope everyone in this body, everyone in this Congress, will use every ounce of their energy, every minute of this day and the days to come to cause this inexcusable shutdown to end, to fix the train wreck before it leads to other wrecks of other trains that may collide. We have spent a lot of time in this body talking, and it is time we started listening. We ought to be listening to the American people, who are telling us: Get the job done. Get back to work. We ought to be listening to voices of our local communities which are seeing the harm of this shutdown. Jim Finley, for example, the CEO of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, said yesterday: Our poorest communities. They're the ones who are going to feel the hit first. That is because the Women, Infants and Children's Program and housing vouchers for low-income families are just two of the programs that make the social safety net work and help people most in need. The WIC Program provides food assistance to more than 58,000 low-income pregnant women, mothers, and children in Connecticut. Listen to Mayor Pedro Segarra of Hartford, who said: After 30 days it becomes very difficult. We've already been under pressure from the feds because of sequestration to reduce expenses in several categories. Recently, Newtown and Monroe, along with other Connecticut communities, received Federal grants to hire local police officers. So listen to Monroe First Selectman Steve Vavrek, who said he has no idea whether that money will ever arrive, and he has no way of checking on it, and, of course, he has no way of planning for future law enforcement in his community. Students from Sandy Hook Elementary School were relocated to a school in his town of Monroe. Let's listen to those kids. Let's listen to their parents. They have no one to speak for them here, unless we listen to them. Similar to children across the country, they need those Federal grants for their schools. If we listen to our local leaders, if we listen to America, we will put the Federal Government back to work. We will avoid that train wreck and tsunami that will result from the spreading ramifications and ripple effects of the loss of income and service that results from this shutdown. Finally, let me just emphasize one of the very important unintended consequences of actions that we have taken or failed to take. When Congress passed the resolution to pay our troops, we intended to cover all of the men and women who wear the uniform, all who serve in our military forces, including all categories of National Guard service. Unfortunately, some are not covered in actual practice. I am committed to ensuring that everyone in uniform is paid for their service and sacrifice. Regardless of the numerous diverse categories of service that may exist in the National Guard or in other branches of service, every man and woman who wears the uniform, every man and woman who serves in our military should be paid and paid on time now. I am committed to making sure our Department of Defense and our government recognizes that obligation. So let's think about them. Let's keep in mind the brave men and women who are serving and sacrificing to keep us free, to make sure our democracy functions in the service of people. Let's keep faith with them as well as with the American people. Let's do our work by making sure we put the American Government back to work and make sure the country is at work. Let the House vote. I yield the floor.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on October 1, 2013, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing entitled ``Housing Finance Reform: Fundamentals of a Functioning Private Label Mortgage Backed Securities Market.''

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on October 1, 2013, at 2:30 p.m.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on October 1, 2013, at 9:30 a.m., in room 366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, today is a day of enormous promise and needless tragedy. The promise is the beginning, another step forward, in America's progress toward providing all America with affordable health care. It is a welcome day because Americans can now enroll in health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. But it is a needlessly tragic day because, in the midst of a tragic economic recovery, millions of Americans are out of work now--an extremist faction having sworn to its followers the Affordable Care Act would never be allowed to stand have now shut down the government because they did not get their way. I wish to begin by talking directly to the people of Connecticut. Today is an enormously frustrating one for me because in the years and decades of public service I have sought to provide to people in Connecticut, never have I been barred, as we are today, each of us in this Chamber, from serving those needs individually, from phoning them and proactively putting staff on issues that concern them. Due to the shutdown of the Federal Government, our office operations in both Hartford and Bridgeport are severely reduced, as well as in Washington. If a constituent needs help, if there is an emergency, if there is an issue that is time sensitive, you can reach our office and we will provide help. We will endeavor to meet any issue that concerns the health and safety and lives of the people of Connecticut and in no way is our commitment to you diminished. I regret that our staff will be handicapped by the legal constraints. Indeed, we are, in many instances, not permitted to work in the ways that we have. But I can assure you we are continuing to serve you. Today, in Connecticut, enrollment in our health exchanges will ensure access to more affordable quality health care for millions of middle- class families. Access to affordable quality health coverage is a basic right. We cannot deny it and we cannot turn back the clock. We need to work together--Republicans and Democrats--to improve and strengthen it and to bring down the cost of health care. The task ahead is to reform health care delivery to bring down the rising--in fact, the astronomically increasing--cost of health care, and to build on the work that has already begun under the Affordable Care Act and before it. There is a real difference between an America with affordable health care and one that lacks it. It is an America where being a woman is no longer a preexisting condition, where a family who is responsible and pays for health insurance knows when they arrive at the delivery room they will not be bankrupted by the bill, and where children are not denied care because they happen to get sick. We are at an impasse in Washington because of a matter of principle. The kind of hostage-taking we see here cannot be allowed to take place. It has no legitimate role in a spending bill. The bill before us would enable government to continue the people's work, to continue to do business for the American people. That is our job, and the attempt has been to attach to that resolution a completely unrelated demand that the Affordable Care Act be defunded or delayed or destroyed. To tie health care repeal to a funding bill is akin to tying immigration reform to the National Defense Authorization Act. It is a dangerous precedent and it cannot be permitted. If we accept this take-or-leave- it approach that led to this shutdown, we will be forced to govern this way--or fail to govern this way--in the future. In fact, the resolution before us already involves compromises--less money than is necessary, for example, to rebuild our roads and bridges, to engage in infrastructure, repair and rebuilding. Rather than nation- building abroad, more nation-building here at home has to be done and more investment is required. The compromises in this funding bill have been made in the amounts of money included in it. The impacts of this shutdown will be felt throughout our economy, in all 50 States, and in thousands of jobs in Connecticut if the shutdown continues for weeks or months. There are millions of families nationally and thousands in Connecticut who will go without paychecks. There are 9,000 Federal employees in Connecticut who will be affected. Their work is important, but the ripple effect is equally important. The losses of income and diminished consumer demand will further inhibit economic growth. Defense contractors will lose their contracts or possibly fail to receive checks when they need them. A shutdown does nothing to address our need to agree on a responsible budget and replace the slash-and-burn, across-the-board sequestration cuts that are continued in this resolution. A shutdown undermines one of the key engines of economic growth in this country, research and innovation, such as the research done at the Coast Guard's Research and Development Center in New London, CT. What if the studies in that facility led to better ways to secure our borders, to rescue people lost at sea. Who knows what future innovations will be sacrificed at the National Institutes of Health across the country and in companies around Connecticut. The lifeblood of our economy--job creation, research and innovation, investment in the future--is undercut and undermined by this shutdown. In fact, even as we go through this process in Washington, the Northeast region is seeking to recover from a shutdown in train service that occurred just days ago. That shutdown has been remedied to some extent--an inadequate degree--so that half or slightly more of the service has been restored. The failures in the feeder cable that led to this shutdown are directly due to a failure of investment in infrastructure, just as the derailment and collision that was caused months ago reflected a failure to invest in infrastructure. Right before our eyes, as we engage in this kind of conduct in Washington that led to a shutdown, are the consequences of investment failure in our roads and bridges and train system. With displaced workers struggling to get back into the labor market and businesses in need of specific skills, it is shocking we should cut back first on job training through these unresolved sequester cuts that are projected to force Connecticut's job training services to assist 9,360 fewer job seekers than they otherwise would. We need to come together now. The message to Speaker Boehner has to be: Let the House vote. There are reasonable minds on both sides of the aisle who say let's have a simple, straightforward spending bill without these unrelated demands, without the blackmail and hostage- taking tactics. Let us come together on that kind of simple, straightforward way of continuing the people's business and the government's work for the people. Many of my colleagues and I listened with great interest to the Senator from Alaska and others on the other side of the aisle saying we should let common sense and compromise prevail and deal with the issues relating to the Affordable Care Act, for immigration, separately and distinctly. They are measures that deserve and need attention, and there are ways to strengthen and improve many of our laws. But let's deal with them on their merits, not as demands or conditions for continuing the people's work by their government. I truly believe, as we look back on this day, it will be with pride in another step forward for health care reform in this country. A lot of work remains to be done. Bringing down the cost of health care is a task, an unmet challenge that needs to be addressed, as well as other ways to strengthen and improve our health care system and the law itself. Let the House vote on a measure that provides simple, straightforward funding to continue the work of government for its people and allows the economy to continue its recovery and growth, that allows job creators to do their work, and that allows our working families--middle-class families--to have the benefits of education and Social Security and the veterans' benefits they vitally need. These essential functions must continue. Let the House vote. Let reason prevail, and we can return to the work that government should be doing for its people. I yield the floor.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, moments ago the House of Representatives adopted a rule which clearly indicates that it is set to adopt a resolution containing unrelated conditions that will forestall its approval by this Chamber. That is a tragic result which threatens harm and havoc to countless people who depend on government programs and to our economy. It threatens harm to veterans and children who depend on Head Start, seniors who receive meals, and it threatens jobs and economic growth with a ripple effect that will set all of us back in the continuing fragile and all-to-slow recovery we have seen from the greatest recession in recent memory. Today's result in the House of Representatives is a tragedy for democracy. Without any overstatement, we have to recognize that this result reflects a dysfunction in democracy. The threatened shutdown of our government is the result of an extreme ideological fringe element in one House and one party that has made the decision that their agenda is a take-it-or-leave-it condition, that it is more important than economic growth, more important than our seniors, our children, our veterans. Key services, our economic growth, and jobs will be impacted very directly by this impending shutdown. This morning I was at a gathering in Glastonbury, CT, with a group of manufacturers, their employees, and economic experts. One economic expert in particular, Steven Lanza of the University of Connecticut, told us that a shutdown of 3 to 4 weeks alone would cost the State of Connecticut 2,000 jobs. We know from the predictions of expert economists such as Mark Zandi of Moody's Analytics that the result for the country as a whole could be percentage points of lost growth. In fact, we can ill-afford this self-inflicted, manufactured wound to our Nation and to the trust and confidence people deserve to have in our democracy and our economy. For some businesses these problems will be more than acute; they will be life-threatening injuries because their existence--not to mention their profits--depends on consumer demand that will be diminished by the ripple effect and the ramifications of the 9,000 Federal employees in Connecticut who will be furloughed, not to mention the hundreds of others whose jobs will be threatened by a shutdown of just days or a week. The fact is that at this point we can't know what the full economic ramifications will be. There are more questions--serious questions--than there are answers. I will support an amendment and a measure that will be offered I think later this evening or within hours to preserve the benefits and payments that are due to our veterans for their service and sacrifice. That is a provision we need to make. It is our responsibility to keep faith with those veterans and make sure we leave no veteran behind and that the processing of claims goes forward so our veterans receive the benefits they have earned. At the forum I had this morning, Brian Montanari, the president of Habco, which is in Glastonbury, told us he relies on contracts with the Federal Government for much of his business, and his employees--to whose ranks he has been adding--will be impacted by this potential shutdown, if only the uncertainty it creates. He is not alone. Businesses all over Connecticut and the country will face a tougher economic climate because of the shutdown. The Small Business Administration will stop processing applications for the business loans it provides to tens of thousands of entrepreneurs, risk takers, and job creators around the country. Perhaps the most galling aspect of this shutdown is the direct economic hardship it will cause to families whose jobs will be threatened and whose livelihoods will be at risk. There are hours to go before the final hour, but the point is, as the President said so well earlier, keeping the government open is not a bargaining chip, it is our job. President Obama said: ``You don't get to extract a ransom for doing your job.'' Families need to be able to plan for their future, businesses need certainty in order to make investments and hire new workers, and the Nation needs both parties, not just one, to be fully committed to the democratic process. I hope in the time remaining the House does its job, that these extremist demands are rejected--and certainly by this Chamber they will be. My hope is that we can move forward, keep the government open, provide the services people need, and support the economy, which is all too necessary at this point in our history. I thank the Presiding Officer. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I rise this evening to talk as well about the Affordable Care Act and perhaps cut through some of the rhetoric and talk a little about specific realities and the reason to preserve its funding, along with honoring our other commitments in the continuing resolution that will keep the Federal Government open and working for the American people. I want to say at the outset that I hear from folks in Connecticut about the need for improvements and minor changes in the Affordable Care Act, which should be possible. But what should be impossible is holding hostage the work of the government to achieve changes in the Affordable Care Act and making improvements that may be necessary but should be done separately from keeping the government open for our veterans and Social Security recipients who may need services in connection with the checks they are issued, in paying our troops here and abroad who are serving and sacrificing for us, in the countless ways our Federal Government makes a difference in people's lives. Most importantly, the threat of closing the government helps to create uncertainty and confusion, which in turn undermines investment and job creation and economic growth and, indeed, recovery from the great economic recession that has so financially crippled our Nation. The health care reform measure--the Affordable Care Act, ObamaCare, call it what you will--has already made achievements, enabling young people to stay on their parents' policies; moderating, if not eliminating, many of the insurance coverage abuses I fought against as attorney general; and achieving advances in health care delivery reform for greater efficiency and lower cost. As we have noted on this floor countless times, the Affordable Care Act was passed by majorities of this body and the House of Representatives and signed by the President. It predated my service here, but it is the law of the land. The effort now is, in effect, to achieve through the back door what was not accomplished through the front door. It is to achieve indirectly what opponents of the Affordable Care Act wanted to achieve directly, which is to block it, to stop it, to halt it. That should not be the objective of this measure and certainly should not be achieved by a small minority, a fringe extreme group of ideologs who have, in the House of Representatives, threatened to hold hostage the entire Federal Government. I am disheartened that some of the same Senators who rightly decried the pace of our economic recovery are themselves now undermining that goal by demanding an end to the Affordable Care Act and engendering uncertainty and confusion so inimical to job creation and economic growth. Forums in Connecticut and my conversations and discussions with health care providers, our hospitals, our medical professionals, have convinced me that one of the central achievements already of the Affordable Care Act relates to preventive care, and I want to talk a little while about those specifics, about the reality on the ground in Connecticut that I have seen and heard--not the predictions or prognostications but the realities of preventive health care achievements in Connecticut that have already been demonstrated. They relate specifically to the Prevention and Public Health Fund. Let me repeat that term: the Prevention and Public Health Fund. It is not exactly a household word to many Americans, but it should be credited, along with ObamaCare and the Affordable Care Act, with specific tangible accomplishments in helping people learn how to make smart decisions and prevent the onset of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. These conditions and diseases have real costs and preventing them has real savings. So we can seriously reduce not only the overall levels of spending on health care but also save people a lot of suffering and families a lot of heartbreak. In my home State of Connecticut, the funding from the Prevention and Public Health Fund has supported vital care and services in three critical areas: mental health, tobacco cessation, and women's health care--not the only three that has those accomplishments, but they are three. On mental health services, last year the State of Connecticut received nearly $900,000 from the Prevention and Public Health Fund for use by the State's department of mental health and addiction services and the direct care providers in the State. Let me give an example of how that money was used. Community Mental Health Affiliates, which serves more than 8,300 children, adolescents, and adults each year in 17 locations throughout Connecticut, received some of those funds to provide direct care. In particular, they are using those funds to create the Allied Health System, and they are doing it with the Hospital of Central Connecticut, which means having advanced nursing and practical help from the Hospital of Central Connecticut to come to their outpatient facility to provide case management and wellness programs and suicide prevention and screening programs. They are helping save lives and health. We know that investment in mental health makes a difference. In fact, it ought to be a centerpiece of a comprehensive gun violence prevention measure. We know reaching dangerous people, along with keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people before they commit acts of violence is central to what we have to do to make our Nation safer and better. An investment in behavioral health services is vital to addressing the diseases--the psychoses, addictions, depression, post-traumatic stress--and helping to reach people before tragedy occurs. We know that lack of investment makes a difference as well, not only in violence but in heartbreaking failures and life-changing illnesses that are perhaps invisible but in children can transform lives for the worst. The Connecticut Children's Medical Center recently came to my office and shared with me what the lack of investment in preventive health care means for them and the children who come to this children's hospital. They have seen numbers of children arriving in a behavioral health crisis unmatched in our history--nearly quadrupled since the year 2000. Last year that meant 2,300 children seeking care in the emergency department of that children's hospital. Emergency departments are not equipped to provide the kind of specialized care that the children need who come to them in these traumatic life-changing situations--in crises. And for some kids who wait over a week for placement in an appropriate inpatient facility, that is a crisis not only for them but for their family and their communities. We have seen the tragic results of failing to address those crises which affects individuals, and it is so heartbreaking. I have fought for and made my life's work tobacco prevention and cessation programs. My colleagues want to talk about reducing Federal spending. Well, let's talk about the $96 billion a year in direct health costs that are necessary to treat diseases caused by tobacco addiction. That is $96 billion a year in direct health costs, with nearly $55 billion of it from the Federal Government. I hope to work in a bipartisan way to reduce that figure with my colleagues through the Affordable Care Act. A study in the Lancet on the first ``Tips From Former Smokers''--the campaign of the Federal Government--found that 1.6 million additional smokers are making a quit attempt because of this campaign and over 100,000 have quit tobacco since 2012 because of that campaign. The final area I think is so important is women's health care, and in this area the Affordable Care Act has been monumental in maternity care in our hospitals, in contraception coverage, in health insurance provisions that make a difference in women participating equally in our economy as well as having the health care they need, which in turn saves money not just for them but for children who are born in hospitals and who receive the kind of care they need in those first days of birth. The Prevention and Public Health Fund has made a difference in those lives, and it has made meaningful improvements to the lives and health of women and children across this country. Cost savings to the Nation resulting from preventive health care are huge, but those economic benefits also accrue to our families. More than half of all the bankruptcy cases today are caused by health bills people simply can't pay. I know because I see the results and try to help the families who are affected by it. One example is a family whose son struggles with Lyme disease and received denials from insurance companies. They had to exhaust their retirement savings and their health care funds as well as their college fund for medical treatment. My office was able to persuade the insurance company to reverse those denials but only after the family had to resort to asking their neighbors to pay for their son's medical bills. Story after story after story about medical insurance denials convinced me that the Affordable Care Act will make a difference in reforming health care coverage practices by the insurance companies as well as enabling families to avoid the financial travails of bankruptcy. Let me say finally, Connecticut has been a leader in insurance markets with many leading insurers headquartered in my home State. I am proud that Connecticut has been that leader that is home to many insurance companies and that Access Health Connecticut, the individual marketplace in Connecticut, has been working tirelessly and successfully with these insurance firms to put together a ground- breaking exchange. The Kaiser Family Foundation recently found that the likely cost for a family of four in Hartford, CT earning $60,000 a year for a bronze level plan through the exchange will be $122 a month. That is about the cost of a Starbucks coffee every day. The products being offered through the exchanges are high quality, and they are available even to people who have a preexisting condition. In fact, the Affordable Care Act enables health care insurance for all people with a preexisting condition. No longer will people have to confront their insurance companies as regularly and frequently as they did. No longer will insurance companies be permitted to engage in the egregious practices they did. And hopefully, no longer will the services of my office, such as I did when I was Attorney General and now as Senator, be as necessary as often. Shutting down the government is a movie we have seen before. It ends badly. It ends with undercutting investments, undermining job creation and economic growth. It is a disservice to our Nation. Hopefully, with bipartisan cooperation and compromise we can afford it and proudly go on with the work of this body and of the Federal Government. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, first, let me commend the chief cosponsors of this bill, Senators Shaheen and Portman, for their perseverance and their great leadership on this issue. I am a wholehearted and passionate supporter of this cause and urge my colleagues to address what is truly a triple play. This bill is a way to win for employment and economic growth. It is a way to win for energy savings and financial savings for our manufacturing companies, to make America more competitive. It is a way to win for our planet, indeed, to help save our planet along with saving money and saving energy. I will not only support the bill and the amendments, but I have asked for support for an amendment of my own that would help to measure the nonmonetary benefits of some of the changes that would be brought about by this legislation. I ask Senators Portman and Shaheen to accept this amendment and for my colleagues to support it as well. Newtown Anniversary I am here to help commemorate the 9-month anniversary of the tragedy at Newtown that took the lives of 26 wonderful people--20 beautiful children and 6 courageous, skilled educators. It was a commemoration I was going to observe yesterday on the floor of the Senate, but, of course, there was no Senate session yesterday because of yet another unspeakable, horrific tragedy, this one close, literally within blocks of this great building. It was physically close, but every one of those incidents should be close to us emotionally as Newtown has been for me and others of my colleagues, most especially my friend and colleague Senator Murphy. It brought back a rush of memories for me because Newtown is still close to us in emotional proximity, just as the Navy shooting was close in physical proximity. The Navy lost 12 of its members. My heart and prayers go out to those great sailors, civilians, and contractors, and their loved ones. Today we have an inspector general report that is profoundly and deeply troubling. If reports of this audit are true, the Navy put the safety of personnel at risk to save dollars and cents. This apparent security lapse, permitting people with criminal records to freely access military bases and facilities, is deeply concerning, indeed shocking. I call on the inspector general to release the full report. I have the report. I have reviewed it briefly. I cannot talk about its contents because it has not been released. Make this report public so we know what the inspector general of the Navy has said about lapses of security and about the failures of the RAPIDGate technology that was supposed to protect people at the Navy Yard here in Washington, DC. Lax safety and security measures at our military facilities is inexcusable. I commend the Secretary of the Navy and the leadership of the Navy for raising this issue and hope they will decide to make public the full report to the extent it can be done so consistent with our Nation's security. But one of the lessons here is that the Navy, with RAPIDGate technology and all of its facilities with armed guards and the complex technology it uses, could not protect members of its own ranks at the Navy Yard. We should know why. If it could not do so there, can our schools be safe? Can our workplaces be safe? Can America be safe with the present plethora of firearms in our Nation today? This day was horrific and tragic for America. Yet in many ways it was another day. The threat is these incidents will become the new normal. We need to ask, will these incidents, these horrific, unspeakable tragedies, make a difference? Will they change the political mindset and culture in this body and in the House of Representatives? In the days to come, we will learn more. There is much more to learn before we draw conclusions. I emphasize the facts are disclosed one by one even as we watch the news. We will try to wrap our minds around whatever evil motive caused this senseless crime, but we know the means all too well. The moment shots rang out and the blurb came over the news wire, we knew with an instinctive understanding this unfolding incident was another act of gun violence in America, another act of gun violence in an America plagued by a plethora of guns. The answer to the question, will it become a new normal, should find the articulate, in fact, deeply powerful words of Janis Orlowski, the chief medical officer of MedStar Washington Hospital Center, the hospital that received some of yesterday's victims, the hospital that deals routinely with gunshot wounds and sometimes deaths. I hope the Nation will hear her plea when she said, in effect, these senseless killings have to stop, stating: There's something evil in our society that we, as Americans, have to work to try and eradicate. I would like you to put my trauma center out of business. I really would. I would like to not be an expert on gunshots. Let's get rid of this. This is not America. When I went to Sandy Hook 9 months ago on December 14, I felt an obligation to go as a public official, but what I saw was through the eyes of a parent, the cries of grief and pain that I will never forget. They will live with me always, loved ones and parents emerging from that firehouse having learned moments before that their beautiful children and loved ones would not be coming home that evening. Like the loved ones who said goodbye to the 12 victims at the Washington Navy Yard, it was another day, a day like every other day when they expected them to come home to the routine, mundane joys of life. Twenty innocent, beautiful children and 6 great educators did not come home that day. In the days that followed, we all hoped the Senate of the United States would keep faith with those families. In the 9 months since, we have hoped the Nation would keep faith with the 8,158 Americans around the country, the 8,158 victims of gun violence. Last April, the Senate turned its back on Newtown families. One of the most difficult days of my career in this job or any other job was to try to explain to those families how more than 90 percent of the American people--a majority of gun owners, in fact many members of the NRA--could back a commonsense measure like background checks, the bill the Presiding Officer and Senator Toomey sponsored so courageously and ably--could have that kind of support and yet fail to pass this body. It had 55 Senators supporting it on that day--54 voting for it, but 60 votes were needed. One of the answers, of course, is to change the Senate rules, which I have long supported, to eliminate the filibuster. The families of Newtown, and those 8,158 Americans, their loved ones, and all Americans deserve a better answer. It is not to accept these mass killings as the new normal, as the commonplace of America. We are better than that normal as a Nation. We cannot accept it. I hope, ask, and pray that the unspeakable, unimaginable tragedy of Newtown and now Washington Navy Yard will renew and reinvigorate this movement and give us impetus, emotional, intellectual, and political, which we need and deserve. The shooting at the Washington Navy Yard makes clear that, as we said in the wake of Newtown, these kinds of mass killings can happen anywhere, any school, any community--in Newtown, the quintessential New England town, or at the Washington Navy Yard, a supposedly secure military facility. We need to make sure it happens nowhere. Let us make a mental health initiative a centerpiece of this renewal and reinvigoration of our effort to stop gun violence. Let us combine it with background checks and other commonsense measures. Bring back this issue and these measures. We are not going away. We are not giving up. Many of the Newtown families will be here again this week. The Newtown Action Alliance has been joined by other groups such as Sandy Hook Promise, Newtown Speaks, and Mayors Against Illegal Guns. They have formed a powerful gun coalition, and I promise I will never give up. I know together we can prevail. Not long ago--in fact, this past weekend--I attended a playground dedication on the beach in Fairfield overlooking Long Island Sound, a beautiful, cloudless day lit by an early morning Sun, to dedicate a playground in honor of one of the children, Jessica Rekos, whose family was there as well. That playground will be a living reminder of our obligation to do better. There are regulations right now that have not been approved in final form for mental health parity to enable more people to have private health insurance coverage. There are commonsense mental health funding initiatives. As we speak on this day, groups are going around to our offices from the National Council for Behavioral Health, asking for support for the Excellence in Mental Health Act, S. 264, ably cosponsored by Senator Stabenow and Senator Blunt, focusing on mental health and combining those measures with other commonsense, sensible gun violence prevention measures. It is the way to forge the consensus we need and move from those 55 votes to the 61 we need for passage of a gun violence prevention measure that can make us proud, make America better, safer, and that can make us, as Americans, a better Nation to leave for generations to come. As we celebrate the lives lost but commemorate the horrific, unspeakable tragedy of Newtown, we should take heart from the courage and resilience of those families and their loved ones. From the Newtown community which will be visiting the Capitol again, their resoluteness and steadfastness should inspire us to do better and to ask more of ourselves and make America a better Nation. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, today I wish to recognize Blaise Messinger, Connecticut's 2013 Teacher of the Year. Every year the Connecticut State Department of Education selects one teacher for this prestigious title who then serves as an ambassador for education throughout the State and also represents Connecticut on a national scale, working on panels and advisory committees with other State teachers of the year, as well as with the National State Teacher of the Year Program and the U.S. Department of Education. This year's Connecticut Teacher of the Year, Blaise Messinger, was selected from 4 finalists, 15 semifinalists, and over 80 district teachers of the year for this tremendous distinction. Mr. Messinger makes an extraordinary difference in the lives of his students and their families and at his school. He is an inspiration to his colleagues. At Woodside Intermediate School in Cromwell, CT, he is well known for his commitment to making fifth grade engaging and interesting. An actor in Los Angeles and New York City for many years, Mr. Messinger dedicates this thespian acumen and ability to his students' progress. By making school fun and relevant, his students remember what he teaches and come out of his classroom as enthusiastic learners. When addressing fellow educators as Connecticut Teacher of the Year, he advised his colleagues to ``think back to that teacher you can still hear in your head.'' I am grateful that Mr. Messinger came to Connecticut to apply his talents, high energy, and positive spirit as a community leader. One personal inspiration for Mr. Messinger's incredible impact as a teacher is his own family--especially his two sons, Ethan and Caleb, who live with him and his wife Kimberley in Cromwell. Mr. Messinger has said that his love for them--and his witnessing how teachers impacted their lives, especially his son Ethan who has autism--drives his desire to change the lives of children. I thank the Connecticut State Department of Education and the National Teacher of the Year Program for representing the voices of passionate, talented teachers and recognizing their heroic efforts. Mr. Messinger has already done great work on a national level, sparking important discussions about changing the way we educate our future generations. I am very proud that he represents Connecticut as 2013 Teacher of the Year and invite my colleagues to join me in applauding his invaluable contributions to our country.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. I ask unanimous consent the bill be read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. I ask unanimous consent the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 2167, and the Senate proceed to its consideration.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it adjourn under the previous order.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. There will be two rollcall votes at approximately 10:45 a.m. tomorrow.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 31, 2013, and that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; that following any leader remarks, the Senate resume consideration of S. 1243, the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill, under the previous order; further, that upon disposition of the Paul amendment, the Senate proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 201, the nomination of Byron Todd Jones to be Director of the ATF, and that the Senate proceed to the cloture vote on the Jones nomination.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. I now ask for its second reading and object to my own request.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I understand that S. 1392, introduced earlier today by Senators Shaheen and Portman, is at the desk, and I ask for its first reading.