Peter DeFazio

Mr. DeFAZIO

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlelady from Texas, Ms. Sheila Jackson Lee.

Mr. DeFAZIO. I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlelady from California (Ms. Lee).

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Chairman, may I inquire as to the time remaining.

Mr. DeFAZIO. I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer).

Mr. DeFAZIO. I have one more speaker.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. DeFAZIO. I thank the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. Rahall), the ranking member, and I thank my colleague from Pennsylvania (Mr. Shuster), the chairman, as well as the subcommittee chair and ranking member. This is a recognition of the extraordinary importance of Federal investment in the infrastructure of the United States of America to engage in both domestic and international commerce. Sometimes that seems to be lacking around here. We seem to lump everything the Federal Government does into one big pot, and if you have got something you don't like, it kind of all gets associated together. This is a program that will be paid for out of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund. Yes, there is a trust fund--sort of, kind of. It has got $7 billion of theoretical balance in it. Unfortunately, our friends on the Appropriations Committee have seen fit to spend that $7 billion on other things because it is not a real trust fund. This legislation will begin to move us back toward utilizing those dedicated tax dollars in a dedicated way to maintaining the port and maritime infrastructure of the United States of America. I mean, here we are today, the Corps of Engineers has stopped dredging all small ports. I will tell you what; that is kind of a disaster in my State, and it is a disaster all around the country. I have one port where they have to take the boats out of the water onto a dock, and they are having trouble even now getting into that port at high tide to get the boats up onto the dock. I have other channel entrances that are shoaling and becoming dangerous. We are going to lose lives because the Corps doesn't have the money to do the work. We have jetties that are failing. If we fix them now, $10 million, $15 million; if they go totally a failure, $50 million. Now, what sense does that make? But we are the United States of America. We can't afford to do the $10 to $15 million now. We have dams and locks that are failing. Are we going to wait until they fail or are we going to do the repairs now? This bill begins to move us in the direction of doing the repairs that are needed to better move commerce, people, and goods in this country. It is long, long overdue. And this bill has a 10 percent set- aside which will be dedicated to the small ports.

Mr. DeFAZIO. This year, I had to get my State to partner with the Federal Government so the Federal Government would bring the four dredges with the Corps crews down to dredge my small ports, paid for by the State of Oregon. My State doesn't have a lot of money, but we partnered and we did that. There are innovative solutions that will work, too. But long term, we need the full investment. We need the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund dollars to be spent on needed harbor maintenance. As I mentioned earlier, I have a jetty at Coos Bay that is failing. We could fix it now for less or a lot more later. We have a jetty on the Columbia River that is failing. We can fix it now for less or a lot more later. That is repeated all around the country. And I am glad to see today the bipartisan work here and the agreement on the critical infrastructure role that only the Federal Government can play using funds raised federally on imports into the United States of America, a tariff that is placed on those that is dedicated to these functions. It is a paid-for program. We need it now. I congratulate Members for their good work.

Mr. DeFAZIO

Mr. DeFAZIO. I thank the gentleman. Mr. Speaker, this irresponsible, unnecessary, politically motivated government shutdown is unacceptable for all Americans, but it is particularly offensive to those in Indian Country. The government's trust obligation to the tribes is not a discretionary act; it is a fiduciary responsibility. To assume that money associated with that fiduciary responsibility can be bartered or used as a political football is more than insulting. It is another example here of tabloid legislating, ripping issues from the headlines and trying to legislate based on negative public reaction to just some part of the Republican government shutdown. It is kind of like a game of Whac-A-Mole, where an issue pops up and the far right pretends to care suddenly--Gee, we didn't know this would happen if we shut down the government--and they draft a continuing resolution to cover it--or their posteriors. Now, where was all of this concern for the tribes when sequestration kicked in? Where is the compassion for the poverty faced by our first Americans every day, not just when it is politically expedient? Where has the compassion been to address the high rates of unemployment, educational challenges, access to resources, challenges tribal people face every day, challenges that have only been made worse by the Republican sequester? This is so cynical. Not only does the temporary measure for tribes inadequately fund the few programs it identifies, picks, and chooses, but it neglects other critical programs inside and outside the Department of the Interior. What about the Office of the Special Trustee? We haven't done so well as trustees of the moneys of the Indian nations recently. We need the Office of the Special Trustee. Oh, it is closed. What about the Bureau of Reclamation office that disburses settlements for Indian water rights? Closed. How about the Native American Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program? Closed. Tribal nutrition programs? Closed. Even if this bill passed and became law, those would all still be closed. I guess their compassion only goes so far. There are many other things missing from this bill. I could go on and on. Already, sequestration has disproportionately impacted Indian Country. We don't need to rub salt in the wound with this continuing resolution that provides only one-third of the funding for these nations. The irresponsible tactics need to cease. We need to open up our government to the first Americans and all Americans. It is simple. We offered unanimous consent requests last Saturday before the Republicans adjourned in a huff and went off for a couple of days while the government was shut down. Any one of those acceded to could have brought a vote on a 6-week continuation of government at the Republican levels of funding with sequestration. That is a concession on the part of Democrats. It is your budget, those lower numbers, the Ryan budget. You could have done that. You wouldn't do it. You changed the rules of the House so we couldn't bring it up as a privileged resolution, and then you pretend to care. Come on, guys. You can do better than that.

Mr. DeFAZIO

Mr. DeFAZIO. This morning, 186 Democrats signed a petition to end the Republican shutdown and routinely continue to fund the government through November 15 while we work out our differences. We need only 32 more signatures. I expect every Democrat to sign. Will some on the other side of the aisle cross over to reopen the government, go back to regular order, and negotiate our differences without a shutdown government, without threatening to default on the United States of America? Earlier, we tried to bring up a bill that would do that under unanimous consent, but the Republicans changed the rules of the House. After more than 200 years, they changed the rules to say ``no,'' we couldn't bring that bill up. We cannot have a vote on continuing to run the government. Now, man up. Man up over there. Give us a vote. If you have got the votes, then you can keep the government shut down. If we have the votes, we go back to routinely funding a continuing resolution for the government until November 15. I think that would be a service to the American people.

Mr. DeFAZIO

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, it is day 7 in a bizarre, new twist on the Republican Tea Party trip down the rabbit hole. On Saturday, the House of Representatives voted unanimously to pay retroactively every Federal employee, those who are working, Capitol Hill Police, those who are being kept from working, like the aviation safety inspector I talked with yesterday. He was quite concerned about what might happen with a long lapse in aviation safety nonpartisans, but he's not allowed to work. That's a bit bizarre. He's thankful that he will someday be paid for not working, but he would rather be working, actually. How is it in this weird world that the Mad Hatter Tea Party explains to their people back home, Well, we've shut down government sorta. We've shut down the services, but we're going to pay people for the work they're not doing. We're going to let the Social Security applications pile up and not be processed. We're going to lock people out of the national wildlife refuges during hunting season. We're going to keep the crabbing fleet grounded in Alaska because we can't issue their permits, and we're not going to continue to do the surveys for the fishing season off the northwest coast. We've withdrawn all of that. All of those people are sitting around at home, frustrated by law, can't even access their official email, but they're going to be paid. And the Republicans say, We made it good. We're going to pay them. What about the American people getting the services? It reminds me of Wimpy J. Wellington from Popeye, who says, I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today. Somehow, Tuesday never came, and repayment was never made. In this case, perhaps someday, when they stop their games, we will repay people. But what about the people who have automatic withdrawals, and they're living paycheck to paycheck, and their mortgage is coming due today or next week? What are they going to do? I see the credit unions offering zero percent loans. That's very nice of them. Wouldn't it be better if we actually put those people back to work and we paid them, and you declared victory? You have victory within your grasp, and you're refusing it. Is it about ObamaCare? You know that was an impossible goal. That victory is not within your grasp. If it's about the deficit, which is what Gingrich put the government out of work for, then you have victory within your grasp, because Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Reid agreed weeks ago to a 6-week continuing resolution, which is what has customarily been done around here for the 27 years I've been here when the two bodies can't agree on a budget. We don't shut down the government every year. Out of 27 years, twice have we got it done in time. So in 23 of those cases, we've continued. In this case, Senator Reid agreed to continue running the government at lower levels of spending, a major reduction back below the 2010 levels. All Speaker Boehner has to do is bring that bill to the floor of the House, and it will pass. There are enough Republicans who told the press that they would vote for that. They can declare victory. They cut the budget yet again. They're not off on this fruitless errand of trying to stop ObamaCare from going into effect, which went into effect last week. By the way, 234,000 Oregonians have accessed our Oregon Web site, which is working quite well, thank you very much. In the States that are cooperating, it's working well. In those bonehead States that said they wouldn't cooperate and wouldn't help their people and are actually prohibiting people from being helped like, Florida, no, it's not working so well. I wonder why. Go figure. Let's not continue this, and let's begin to deal very quickly with the issues before us because we have looming a deadline that you can't make good later. You can't make it good later. You can't tell the people of the world, all those to whom we owe hundreds of billions of dollars and the Social Security trust fund and others, Oh, we'll make it good later after we default on the debt someday. Interest rates will jump up; houses become more expensive; the housing market probably crashes again; auto sales grind to a halt; credit card interest rates go to even more extortion levels. The damage you will do by credibly threatening to default on the debt of the United States of America for some clearly undefined goal will not be undone for generations. You can't go there. Declare victory temporarily. You got your lower levels. Bring a bill to the floor today. Let us vote on it. The Speaker said on the weekend he doesn't have the votes. Let's check that out, because we really think he does have the votes; and it's making him not look too good that he actually accepted the deal before he rejected it and now says he doesn't have the votes. That's an interesting kind of conundrum, and we can prove it very easily. Bring the bill up today. Fund the government. Pay people to actually work.

Mr. DeFAZIO

Mr. DeFAZIO. I thank the gentleman for those very tempered remarks and the kind remarks about the gentleman from California. I would like to talk about a couple of other impacts. Some are in the Interior budget; some are in another budget we haven't touched yet. Mike was talking very eloquently about the fact that these impacts are falling most on rural residents and on rural small businesses, areas that are for the most part pretty darned depressed in this country. A lot of my rural areas are well into double-digit unemployment. I was talking to the chief of the Forest Service--granted, a different budget, one that hasn't gotten on the Republican radar screen yet, although I was talking to a Republican leader this morning who said they may yet do whack-a-mole on this one to try and fix it, and that is that the chief of the Forest Service has an obligation when timber is sold to a private party to have Forest Service employees monitor those sales. He has not found a way to declare those employees as essential and, as of Monday, is going to end somewhere between 400 and 500 active timber sales, bumping up against the winter season where many people won't be able to operate, depending on where the sale is, and incurring obviously penalties on the Federal Government because he does not have the staff to go out and monitor those sales. I don't yet know about the Bureau of Land Management timber sales. They are a fairly unique thing. They happen on the statutorily unique lands of the Oregon and California lands. In Oregon, we have been in touch with the BLM, and we don't yet have an answer about how they're going to handle it. Much of the restoration work from recent fires cannot be considered emergency; some of it can, but most can't. That work is not ongoing. Certainly any responsible timber salvage that might happen is not even being considered, and we're losing critical time there where those activities might be conducted. And this morning, we did get the World War II Memorial reopened, only for honor flight and World War II veterans, and maybe other veterans. I'm not sure exactly the categories that were established. There were two rangers there this morning, and I encountered a problem. I was there to greet a large contingent from Oregon, wonderful people who put their lives on the line, but we are looking at a group here who are fairly elderly, and the adjacent bathrooms are not open. I went and asked the rangers if they could give me the key and they said, we don't have the key; that's maintenance. So we placed a call to the Park Service looking for whoever is the highest ranking person not being paid to stay home, and we got a fellow in charge of at least the World War II Memorial and some other grounds, and he said, I'm prohibited from doing that. I don't have that authority. I've now called the White House to ask them. I mean, come on, restrooms for very elderly men and women who put their lives on the line, saved the world from the horrors of World War II, and we can't open bathroom facilities. I will go down and volunteer to refill the toilet paper rolls and clean up at night, you know, if we do that. I think other people I know would also do that. So we've just got to end this. I mean, it became so bizarre today that Congress voted unanimously to pay a majority of the Federal workforce to stay home and not provide public services, to make what point. Let's just go ahead with a continuing resolution that doesn't change anything. We can adopt the lower levels that the Republicans have advocated for. Why can't we do that for 4 or 6 weeks? Open up the refuges so business can flow again to these areas because these hunting seasons are ephemeral, as are these timber sales. There's another impact, and that is the Student Conservation Association of the Interior Department has been shut down. So, again, hundreds of interns were sent home who were providing public services. And then also in the other budget, agriculture, the job corps has been shut down. Thousands of young, at-risk people have been sent home. I don't know how many of my colleagues have ever gone to a job corps. It is the most inspiring thing. These kids are learning skills. These kids are high at risk. Many of these kids, young people, have been in trouble. They're getting skills and they're getting jobs. They want to be there. They're working hard. They have been sent home. Some of them don't have a home to go to. With that, I yield to my colleague from California.

Mr. DeFAZIO. It depends upon the topic. We're talking about locking hunters and fishers out of wildlife refuges and the impact on small communities across America, and the fact that it's essentially the Christmas season for many of these lodges, many of these local businesses that have been shut down. Certainly the Grinch has stole Christmas, and I'm not sure what the gentleman wishes to address. I will yield very briefly, but if we're going to go off topic or get on to something else, then I will have to reclaim my time. I have known the gentleman for years, and so I am happy to yield.

Mr. DeFAZIO. I want to thank the gentlewoman for her statements and her concern for the Washington crab fleet and others who have been impacted by this manufactured crisis. I find it particularly bizarre now that this all started with the radical Tea Party minority on the Republican side. And I wonder what their supporters and constituents, who seem to hate all things government, are thinking about the fact that we are now paying Federal employees to stay home and not provide critical services, like opening the crabbing season in the State of Alaska. I would also note that the west coast groundfish trawl surveys have been suspended. The five ships that were out there doing the survey were called back to port. All of the NOAA employees were sent home, but they will be paid later, some time. But they aren't doing the critical work we need for those commercial fisheries. With that, I yield to my colleague from the State of California (Mr. Garamendi).

Mr. DeFAZIO. I thank the gentleman from California. What he pointed out is critical. There is a time sensitivity to this. My other colleague from California pointed that out, too. Many small businesses are dependent on these critical weeks of opening season for their businesses. It is essentially like Christmas for retailers; the opening of hunting season for waterfowl and other species is for people who provide lodging and other services, guiding in those areas, and you are keeping them from working and you're depriving them of their livelihoods. In Nevada, duck season opens October 12; swan, October 12; deer, October 10; elk, October 10. That's Nevada. That date is pretty soon. Arizona: turkey, October 4. Well, we're there. Big horn sheep, October 4. On any of these Federal wildlife refuges, hunting will not be allowed. But the bizarre thing is that some Republicans are saying this is about the deficit. So they are going to pay Federal employees to not work to make a point about the deficit. They are going to cause businesses to lose money on which they won't pay taxes because it is about the deficit; or, well, then there are others of them who say it's about ObamaCare. I wish the Republican majority could make up their mind. But one thing is plain and clear--and I have been here 27 years--I believe in 27 years--I may be off by one--I believe two times out of 27 years, under both Democrats and Republicans, have we gotten by all of the appropriations bills passed by the beginning of the fiscal year on October 1. Two times in 27 years. But we didn't shut down the government every time that happened. We adopted a very simple continuing resolution. We'd say let's continue to fund government--not send people home and continue to pay them. Let's fund government and have them work, the same cost, and we'll do it for 4 weeks, 6 weeks, to force people to the bargaining table. Sometimes it was done at the prior year's level, sometimes slightly enhanced, sometimes slightly reduced. We have offered to do that. We have brought that up numerous times here. We're not allowed to bring it up explicitly but on votes on rules, and the Republicans won't allow a simple majority vote on temporary funding of government. They allowed a vote today, which was unanimous, to pay people not to work, but they won't allow a vote on paying people to work over a short period of time. I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Thompson).

Mr. DeFAZIO. I would like to correct one thing the gentleman said. As I understand it, we are not paying them. We will pay them. For working today, they will get a hamburger on Tuesday, sometime, maybe, perhaps. For a lot of people, that's a hardship. A lot of Federal workers are of modest means. I would point to our Capitol Hill police here. I've had conversations with a number of them. Leaves are canceled. Some of them have had plans for a very long period of time. They can't get sick. They are not being paid. They will be paid. They'll get a hamburger on Tuesday, maybe, sometime, depending on how long this whole thing drags on. This has risen to the point of absurdity. It started out to stop ObamaCare from going into effect on October 1, and it went into effect. It then became chipping away at ObamaCare in ways they knew the President would never sign a bill to do. But I heard just earlier today from a gentleman from Texas saying this is all about the debt and deficit. If it's all about the debt and deficit, this is pretty easy. Let's bring up the continuing resolution that would actually reduce spending from current levels, continue government for 6 weeks while we sit down and negotiate how we're going to deal with longer-term structural problems in our economy, dealing meaningfully with our debt and deficit. That seems pretty darn simple to me. It seems we're pretty close to agreement there. But, unfortunately, I think there's 30 or 40 Republicans whose agenda is still to stop or repeal ObamaCare. So I believe the gentleman who spoke today was probably speaking out of school and not speaking for them. But what he said, and I believe a majority of Republicans want to do, could get Democrats to agree to in a minute. Bring up the continuing resolution. We're not very happy with the further reduction in spending levels across the board--it's a dumb way to cut--but we'll accept it for 6 weeks while we work out a longer- term deal. With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, one minor point. We say ``Oregon.'' And since the Ducks are going to win the national championship this year, we want to make sure everybody knows how to say it properly. I rise today to discuss something that happened earlier in the week. The Republicans are playing Whac-A-Mole. Every time something pops up in the national press that is really embarrassing about this shutdown, they whack and hit it with a phony resolution--they're going to fix the problem--that they know is going nowhere in the Senate and not going to the President. Earlier this week, after the extraordinary embarrassment of the veterans at the World War II memorial, they were hearing from a lot of small business people outside of Yosemite and other parks saying open the parks. I was just down there for an Honor Flight this morning. They still don't have bathrooms, by the way. So they took one little tiny slice of the Department of the Interior budget and they funded it, that which is most iconic, that which is most visible in the press. Guess what? They forgot everything else that goes on within the Department of the Interior. I'll start locally, and we'll build back to the national issue here. The William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge in the Willamette Valley opened the very popular firearms hunting season for black-tailed deer late last month, in September, but this week they are having to turn away hunters because of the House government shutdown. The Bandon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge, also in my district, is a great spot for waterfowl hunting. Right now, the only thing it is open to are swarms of mosquitos. My colleague from California will talk in some detail about the Klamath Refuge. It's closed. The beginning of hunting season, closed. The Fish and Wildlife Service in Oregon recently proposed that three other Oregon refuges--Baskett Slough, Nestucca Bay, and Siletz Bay--be open to hunting. Guess what. They can't continue the process to open those areas of hunting because of the government shutdown. According to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, nearly 300,000 hunters spend more than $135 million a year. By shutting down the Federal Government, restricting hunting access on public lands, House Republicans have turned their backs on sportsmen and small businesses not just in Oregon, but across the country. In addition to hunting, the refuges provide for anglers, hikers, kayakers, birdwatchers, and other outdoor enthusiasts, all who spend money in the local communities around these refuges. They're not coming. They're not spending the money in the local businesses all because of the phony shutdown of the government. Well, it's a real shutdown, but a stupid shutdown of the government by our Republican majority. National wildlife refuges generate $1.7 billion in sales for nearby communities, and many of them are very dependent upon that for their survival. And every day, small businesses across the country that relate to hunting and fishing and other outdoor recreational activities, $4.5 million a day is lost in sales to their small businesses. This has got to end. There are other very serious issues, which a number of my other colleagues will talk about here this morning, as relates to commercial fishing, commercial crabbing, and a number of other critical activities that are fulfilled by the Federal Government under the Department of the Interior, which were not restored or phonily restored by the Republicans. I am now happy to yield to my colleague from California, Mike Thompson.

Mr. DeFAZIO. I thank the gentleman. My colleague from California, Mike Thompson, is the two-time chairman of the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus. And he was recently inducted into the California Waterfowler's Hall of Fame. So he obviously speaks with great authority on these issues and the impact of this unnecessary shutdown on hunters and related businesses in northern California and southern Oregon. With that, I yield to my colleague from Washington State (Ms. DelBene).

Mr. DeFAZIO

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, through the looking glass, ``curiouser and curiouser,'' said Alice. I'm confused. It started out as: We're going to shut down the government until we repeal ObamaCare. Then it was: We'll shut down the government until we delay ObamaCare or the individual mandate or repeal the device tax, or something. Now, I just heard the gentleman from Texas say we're shutting down the government because we're concerned about the deficit. What is it? Which is it? Come on, you're concerned about the deficit. We have a process. It's called the annual budget process in appropriations. It's a law. We should follow the law, which means temporarily continue the government. We don't shut down the government to deal with our differences in how much money we want to spend each year for what agencies. This is getting absurd. We're now going to pay Federal employees to not work. Let's just declare them all ``essential,'' make them come back to work, and then we'll pay them later. Maybe in the Republican world that makes sense. No. Let's just end the shutdown, bring them all back to work, give them their regular pay now, let them have their leave, and move forward with negotiations over the budget.

Mr. DeFAZIO

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, the Republican majority, who've been stampeded by a radical minority of their Conference, are continuing the game of Whac-A-Mole; every time something visible pops up on television about yet another Federal agency and people having been disadvantaged, particularly when it affects Republican districts or constituencies they have some concern about, they play Whac-A-Mole. That's fun, that one. They know it's not going to happen and they know it's not going to be accepted, but they're pretending to care. It's time to stop pretending to care and to really care. We just did a great applause for the Capitol Police. I was standing with everybody else. Guess what? They're working, they're not getting paid, and they can't take leave or be sick because they're essential employees. That's what's happening to every essential Federal employee in this country. Their life is being blown up. They're not getting paid. They can't take leave. They can't be sick. This is not right. It's time to just allow this body to vote on a clean continuing resolution. What are you afraid of? Are afraid it would pass, to temporarily fund the government until November 15? Is that too much to ask? Then you can negotiate.

Mr. DeFAZIO

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, this irresponsible shutdown of the government has deprived Oregonians of many federal services that they rely on. For the time being the Veterans Administration has been able to use reserve funds to continue providing benefits and medical services to our nation's veterans. Today the Republicans put a disingenuous bill on the floor, H.J. Res. 72, that claimed to fund the VA while the rest of the government remains shut down. H.J. Res. 72 would cut the VA budget by $6.2 billion. It provides no funding for prosthetic research, VA cemeteries, construction of VA facilities including the new CBOC in Eugene, Oregon, and many other critical services. This is unacceptable. I refuse to cut funding for our nation's veterans. For that reason I voted against H.J. Res. 72. The Republican House leadership needs to ignore the small faction of their party that insists holding our veterans and other Americans hostage. They need to bring the Senate passed funding bill to the floor for a vote so that we can reopen the government. Our veterans deserve no less. I strongly support H.R. 813, which would authorize advance appropriations for all VA discretionary accounts. I fought for years to get advance appropriations for the VA, which we finally secured for medical accounts. It is time to ensure that all of the VA receives advance appropriations so that veterans are never again used as a political football. I am also a cosponsor of H.R. 3181, which would make sure that every account at the VA is exempt from any future across-the-board sequestration.

Mr. DeFAZIO

Mr. DeFAZIO. I thank the gentleman. So when the Republicans passed their shutdown bill, did they not know it was going to close down the national parks? No, they knew that. But in their little bizarre echo chamber they thought the American people would rise and applaud their move to shut down everything that relates to the government. Instead, they've gotten a big raspberry, if not an invitation to read between the lines. They're a little bit surprised and shocked. Now, what did they leave out of this bill? Yeah, we'll reopen some national parks and other iconic places. They left out 155 national forests, 20 national Grasslands, seven national monuments, and 28 Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers shut down. That's thousands of kids working hard to get an education, get skills, and not get thrown out in the street. Have you ever visited one? I've been there. I can't believe you guys would shut that down. There's 440 Wilderness Areas, 560 National Wildlife Refuge units, including locking out hunters and fishermen. Come on, guys--all BLM- managed campgrounds. There's only one reason this bill is on the floor, and it's because their constituents love iconic national parks and monuments, as the Republicans just learned, much to their chagrin. They can't take the heat from the government shutdown they're responsible for. What's next? This is whack-a-mole. What is tomorrow? CDC preparations for flu season. That's kind of important. Still shut down. How about our Capitol Hill Police keeping us alive and guarding us every day, who are having their leave canceled and they're not getting paid, and they're still standing out there. Are you going to put them on the list? When are you going to take care of them? Put the whole government back to work now.

Mr. DeFAZIO

Mr. DeFAZIO. I thank the gentleman yielding. Wow, the Republicans just figured out that their irresponsible activities of shutting down the government for political purposes have led to some unpopular things, like closing the national parks. They saw it on television. So, okay. They're going to try to put a bandaid on the national parks. What about other natural resource agencies? I'm pleased that you're going to do something for the parks. But what about Fish and Wildlife? What about all of our national wildlife preserves? What about the U.S. Forest Service campgrounds, BLM campgrounds? Today I just met with the chief of the Forest Service. He is suspending all activity for emergency recovery and repairs and anything for restoration on the Rim fire in California and on other fires throughout the West. And he has suspended all activities on any possible potential salvage. This impact is even bigger. Then what about someone who has just turned 66 and wants to go down and get their Social Security benefits? Well, they can sign up, but they can't get it because they can't process it. What about somebody who is due for treatment at the National Institutes of Health? They're dying of cancer. Well, sorry. They're not taking any more patients. So you want to put a bandaid on a few things that are getting on television, a few things that sound good. But you don't want to back off your unbelievably irresponsible, politically motivated shenanigans here about a full closing down of the government of the United States, which is having a real impact to accomplish ends you couldn't accomplish in the last election. We don't have a system where one-half of one branch of the government gets to dictate to the Senate and the President of the United States and the courts. And that is what you are trying to do.

Mr. DeFAZIO

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, well, here we are. The gentleman who just preceded doesn't want this to be political. It's totally political. The Republicans spent billions on the last election. They lost badly in the Presidential. They didn't take over the Senate. They even got 1.4 million fewer votes for the House but, because of gerrymandering, they're still in charge. So now they're attempting to usurp the constitutional order in the United States of America. They're saying that one-half of one branch of the government of the United States, that is, the Republican majority in the House, should dictate policy to the rest of the country. They should be the rulers. They can change laws. They can ignore the Senate, ignore the President. They are making unequivocal demands. They've taken the country, the government hostage. This is disruptive. It's expensive. It's inconvenient for a lot of Americans who need to access these agencies. I was just meeting with the chief of the Forest Service. It's going to delay their capability of planning salvage and restoration activities on the hundreds of thousands, millions, of acres across the West that burned. They're going to have to stop all that. And then winter sets in, and then you're going to have big problems that you can't undo. But they don't care about any of that because this is totally political. Now, we're in the shutdown phase now, but their objective is to drag this out and hitch all of their demands--and if you've seen the list of demands, it's every bill that the Republicans have passed since they took over in 2011 that has not seen action in the Senate or been rejected by the Senate--would be appended to the debt limit of the United States. Now, shutting down the government, pretty radical. But we are really dealing here with, for short, ``Cruzites,'' I guess I would call them. They're sort of anarchist radical Libertarians who don't believe in government. They don't believe in evolution. They believe in devolution; devolve all the duties to the States, dissolve the Union, essentially, go to some loose federalism, and we'll reach some ideal point somehow. It's crazy stuff. But they're in charge. It's not even a majority of their caucus. It's a minority of their caucus who are dictating to the majority, because, with 211 fully-red Republican districts, this is all about politics. Those people know that if they act reasonably here that they will get an ultra right-wing nut case Tea Party primary challenge, funded by the likes of the Koch brothers and others, very, very generously funded. So they've even managed not only to take the government hostage, but to intimidate their own truly conservative members, those who aren't ``Cruzite'' anarchist radical Libertarians. Now, default is unbelievably irresponsible. Even a tiny threat of default, as they did a couple of years ago, downgraded our credit and drove up interest rates just a little bit. But we were much better off then. Today, if they do this, interest rates for everything in America will go up dramatically. That means tens of billions of dollars more per year just to retire the Federal debt. They supposedly care about the debt. Well, they're going to raise the debt immediately by adding interest costs. It means home mortgages bump again, stalls out the housing recovery. Cars go up again for loans. But, you know, they don't really care because they don't borrow money for things. Most of these people are rich, so they don't care. So what if it impacts hundreds of millions of Americans in their daily lives with their credit cards, with their car purchases, with their attempts to get at housing? They don't care. No, let's not make it political, guys. No, this isn't political. Come on. You want to be responsible? What's it about? If it's about the problems with ObamaCare, there are a lot of us over here who would like to fix it. You came in with repeal and replace, repeal and replace, 42 times repealing. Where's the replace? What are you going to do about people who have preexisting conditions? What are you going to do about kids between 18 and 26 who are on their parents' policies? What are you going to do about childhood disabilities who can get insurance now? What are you going to do about the 50 million uninsured people in this country? Where's the replace? Repeal, repeal, repeal. And now you're going to append a whole other list of demands onto this. Not political. Of course not. Not political at all. You lost the Presidential election. You lost the Senate elections. You lost the popular vote for the House; but because of your gerrymandering, you're still in charge. You do not represent a majority opinion in the United States of America on these issues. Don't do irrevocable harm to our government, our country, our future to get your political demands met unilaterally.