Vicky Hartzler

Mrs. HARTZLER

Mrs. HARTZLER. Mr. Speaker, on Wednesday, December 11, 2013, I was unable to vote. Had I been present, I would have voted as follows: On rollcall No. 636, ``yea.''

Mrs. HARTZLER

Mrs. HARTZLER. Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, December 10, 2013, I was unable to vote. Had I been present, I would have voted as follows: On rollcall No. 630, ``yea,'' on rollcall No. 631, ``yea.''

Mrs. HARTZLER

Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you very much, Representative Collins. Well said. The oath that you talked about, I want to expound on it a little bit so people understood that what Mikey Weinstein did has had an effect. The Air Force Academy actually removed a poster portraying the words of the Academy oath, and the committee is considered removing the phrase ``so help me God'' from the honor oath recited by all incoming cadets. This is the same oath. Let me read it. This is the oath that every cadet gives when they come into the Air Force Academy. It is also the same oath of office for officers and the same oath that Members of Congress say. This is what they want to remove the ``so help me God'' from: Having been appointed as an Air Force Cadet in the United States Air Force, do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office of which I am about to enter. So help me God. It is a time-honored oath. This is a serious decision to enter the service of the country, whether it is in the military or whether it is as a Member of Congress, and to have them question whether we should remove that or not is despicable. Now I would like to turn to a champion on these issues, and that is my friend from Colorado, Representative Doug Lamborn. I appreciate the letters that he has authored to push back on many of these attacks on our religious freedoms. Representative Lamborn.

Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you, Representative Lamborn. That was very good. I appreciate the summary of some of the concerns that we had of the pattern that has developed of the intolerance in the military of religious expression. So thank you for your leadership on that. I would now like to turn to my friend from Texas, Representative Roger Williams.

Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you. We have another friend from California here, Representative Doug LaMalfa. We are so glad that he is here, and I want to yield time to you to hear what your thoughts are on this very important topic of religious freedom in our military. Mr. LaMALFA Thank you, Mrs. Hartzler. I really, really appreciate you leading the charge on this very important issue that is probably not noticed by a lot of Americans these days, but is certainly being noticed by those members of the military that wish to express their religious freedoms as they see fit. Indeed, that was really one of the cornerstone issues of the Founders on several items: on taxation, of course, on private property and private property rights, and very importantly, the ability of Americans in the new country to express their religious views as they see fit, to have the freedom to do that. So it is rather amazing, and certainly appalling, that in our own military we see this going on where those rights are being suppressed, especially what we are hearing tonight with some of my previous colleagues' speeches about Christianity. Having a Bible on a desk somehow is a problem for somebody? How have we gotten to this point here? How can people be labeled somehow as part of a terrorist organization when actually these are peaceful enterprises where you are trying to bring people together under the grace of God? I have, in my Washington, D.C., office and in one of my district offices, this portrait here of General Washington as a reminder, as a way for me to continue to seek humility myself. General Washington, Valley Forge, what a man of principle, of humility, of grace. This picture captures so much. He knew it was important that he bow to God, and it certainly served him well and served the founding of this country at a very perilous time when the fledgling Revolutionary War could have gone either way at the time. He is an example for all of us back then and right now. That is why I like that portrait so much, and I am glad you brought it here tonight. The reasons, as put by the Founders for our religious freedom, have been mentioned here. It is a right guaranteed by the First Amendment. Those who were willing to lay down their lives for us fought for that for all Americans, and we should be guaranteed this right without any questions asked. So I feel it is a duty for me, as one Member of Congress, and my colleagues here tonight in speaking about this to work to fight to uphold that right. Who has taken over in our military that thinks that this is acceptable, to suppress this freedom of expression of religion? I don't understand it. So we are here to protect those servicemembers as well and that ability to have that freedom. We know that the chaplaincy was formed in 1775 at the behest of General Washington, who knew and acknowledged at that time how important religious freedom was to our soldiers. The chaplains exist to facilitate the free exercise of religion under the First Amendment for servicemembers, and they faithfully administer to servicemembers of all faith, or of no faith. I think that is a key thing to mention here. We have all heard the story mentioned earlier as well about ``there are no atheists in foxholes.'' You may have heard that phrase. It goes back to a story by Father Cummings, who was a civilian Catholic priest in the Philippines. The phrase was coined during the Japanese attack at Corregidor. During the siege, Cummings had noticed that non-Catholics were attending his services. Some he knew were not Catholic; some were not religious. Some he knew were atheists. Christ just brings out a desire for something greater than ourselves and a need to look within or above. With the pending surrender of Allied forces to the Japanese, Cummings began calming men down by reciting The Lord's Prayer and offering up prayers on their behalf. He then uttered the famous phrase, ``there's no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole.'' Well, we all know there are all different types of religions in this Nation and people who practice no religion. They choose to have their own way of looking at things. And we embrace all that. Everybody has that right. Everybody has that ability. So atheists are still allowed to be atheists, but to have a group of people dictate to everybody else--how many times have we seen these battles, such as a high school graduation, somebody wants to sue to stop a prayer or a nativity scene? If you don't like it, don't pay attention to it, because the rest of us sure see a lot of offensive things in TV and commercials and the T-shirts people wear, even people's hygiene, and we don't go around being able to stop them from expressing themselves that way. So it certainly goes against the founding of this country to be oppressing people's views; and, indeed, it is contributing to, I think, a breaking down of our military and its strength to have this kind of oppression going on. So being able to join Mrs. Hartzler tonight here and my other colleagues and pointing this out to the American public and then doing something about it here in these Halls of Congress is a necessary thing. I thank my colleague for bringing this topic up tonight and allowing me to speak.

Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you so much, Representative Williams. Well said. I appreciate it very much. Now I would like to yield to a real leader on this, one who has been at the forefront of ensuring that our men and women in uniform are not discriminated against based on their religious beliefs. He was the author of the amendment of the National Defense Authorization Act last year and this year, an amendment which protects those freedoms. I would now like to turn to John Fleming from Louisiana.

Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you so much Representative Fleming. Your leadership has really made a difference and appreciate your comments. I know another colleague from Texas who is a captain in the Army probably has a few things to share about this so I would like to hear from my friend Louie Gohmert.

Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you. I really appreciate you bringing your Bible and sharing that story. I think that really brings home how things have changed and how we need to go back to having an administration and a Department of Defense that protects and preserves and promotes the exercise of religion among our troops for the protection and blessing of not only them, but our country. Now I would like to turn to my friend from Illinois, just a little ways to the east here, Randy Hultgren, to share on this important topic.

Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you, Congressman Hultgren. I think that is a very good point--that we should defend their rights as they are defending us. I am looking forward and very much appreciate my colleague from Michigan, who is here tonight as well, because he has put his life on the line, starting after high school, going to serve in Vietnam--I believe you were an infantry rifleman to start off with--and then ended up all the way serving with the military police over in Iraq. First of all, thank you for your service. Thank you for what you are doing to defend freedoms even today as we talk about this important issue. So I yield time to you.

Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you very much. We started off with a poster of George Washington praying at Valley Forge. We have come a long ways in this country. You have heard the stories tonight of how that freedom to express religion is under attack. It is time for the pattern of intimidation and intolerance and coercion to stop. It is time to preserve and defend religious freedom to keep America strong and keep our armed services strong. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you very much for your leadership, and for bringing up those excellent points. Now I would like to turn to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Huelskamp) to share his thoughts on this important topic, the military and religions freedom.

Mrs. HARTZLER. I thank you for your kind words expressing how important it is we stand strong for our military. We want our military to be strong, and their ability to be able to pray and hold on to their faith, to express their faith is what makes them strong. It is part of it, so we don't want to undermine that. Thank you for those words. Now I turn to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Nunnelee), from Mississippi's First District, to hear his thoughts on this and thank him for his letter that he authored to the Secretary of the Army that got a very positive response. So thank for your leadership.

Mrs. HARTZLER. Mr. Speaker and my fellow colleagues, I wanted to share with you a picture that I have in my office, and it is my favorite picture. It is the famous picture of President and then- General George Washington on his knees praying at Valley Forge. Of course, we all remember from our history lessons the story of what happened during that time. But the winter at Valley Forge was a terribly, terribly trying time for the Continental Army. They had suffered a lot of defeats that fall, and they went into a very cold, harsh winter with very, very limited supplies, and the stories that come from that are just heartbreaking. There were 12,000 men that were encamped. Many of them did not even have a tent or a shelter. Several of them did not even have a blanket. And as you know, here in Washington, D.C., and back home in Missouri, the weather has started to turn cold. I think it was about 30 degrees this morning. And to think about what it would have been like to have to sleep out in the cold with no blanket during that time. And of course, snow came along. We have heard stories about how many of the men did not even have shoes. They had marched so much that fall and had gone through such harsh battles that their shoes had fallen apart. And we have all seen pictures and heard stories of how their feet bled. Even in the snow, there were foot tracks like that. And what is worse, many of them didn't even have food. This was the situation of 12,000 men. The conditions were so bad that they ruled at one time that a third of them, almost 4,000 men, were unfit for battle. And then 2,000, over the course of those winter months, died as a result of disease and dysentery and other things that occurred during those very harsh conditions. And during that time, we have learned a story that George Washington, the commander of this ragtag but yet valiant group of men, went to the woods and got down on his knees and prayed. And the reason we know this is because of the story of Isaac Potts who later shared the account that was later recorded. He was a local Quaker farmer. He was riding his horse through the woods, and he heard a sound that was strange, as if a man was crying out in plaintiff prayer. So he quietly got off his horse and wrapped the reins around a sapling tree, snuck through the woods to get closer, and as came into an opening, he could see something that shocked him. He said it like this: I saw the great George Washington on his knees, alone, with a sword on one side and his cocked hat on the other. He was at prayer to the God of the Armies, beseeching to interpose with his Divine aid. We know what happened later--and, I believe, as a result of those prayers. That ragtag group of army over the winter gained courage and strength. Supplies started to come in. General Baron Von Steuben was sent by Benjamin Franklin from the Prussian Army to start drilling the men and turn this ragtag but courageous group into a major, strong fighting force, and they came out that next spring a force ready to meet the British Army, and they did. That was a turning point in the war. It wasn't to be decided for years to come, but at Valley Forge the whole outcome of not just the war, but of our country, was turned, and I believe it was because of the prayer of the general of the Army. Faith has been important to the armed services and to the people of this country from the beginning, and it is just as important now to our men and women in uniform as it was back at the beginning of our country. Yet their ability to express their religious beliefs is being attacked from forces outside and forces within. It has been discouraging the last few years to hear accounts of some of these infringements on the basic religious rights and freedoms of our men and women in uniform. So that is why my colleagues and I are here for the next hour. We are here to, first of all, stand up for the religious rights and freedoms that are guaranteed in our Constitution. I think it is very fitting and appropriate to remember that George Washington was there and helped craft that Bill of Rights, and what is the first right? The freedom of expression of religion. We want to not only celebrate that and stand up for that but to also raise awareness of the concerns that we have and to implore the Department of Defense to push back on some of the negative policies that have been coming out that infringe on their rights, and to change course and to continue to remain strong as a country, preserving those basic freedoms so that we can continue to be strong in the future as we have in the past. So now I want to invite someone who knows from very personal experience and can speak to this issue, my friend from Georgia, Representative Doug Collins, who is still an active member of the Air Force Reserves, not only serving his country in many ways, but also serving his God by being a chaplain. Representative Collins, I would like to hear what you have to say about this very important issue.

Mrs. HARTZLER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.

Mrs. HARTZLER

Mrs. HARTZLER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share a story from Missouri's Fourth District. It is from an individual who had her insurance canceled because of ObamaCare. Donna from California, Missouri, wrote in, saying that she and her husband received a letter stating that their plan would be canceled next year because it doesn't comply with the law. After researching new plans on the exchanges, she found that their premiums for a comparable plan would increase by $300 and that their deductible would increase by $1,300. She says: I'm not sure I'll be able to pay my medical expenses. That's a ``choice'' being forced upon me and is limiting my freedoms. I worry about the children whose parents don't take them to the doctor because they can't afford the out-of- pocket expense or they lose everything because they did seek medical help for a critically ill child. Donna, we are here today to speak out for you and for the millions of Americans who were given a promise. That is why I am proud to stand with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, to ensure that our President keeps the promise he made to so many Americans. You deserve it.

Mrs. HARTZLER

Mrs. HARTZLER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Swaps Regulatory Improvement Act. As a lifelong farmer and small business owner, I understand the need for farm cooperatives and manufacturing companies to manage their risks. H.R. 992 reforms section 716 of Dodd-Frank to ensure businesses can manage their long-term commodity and equity risks. Missouri is the Show Me State, and I ask the opposition to show me how section 716 benefits my constituents and decreases overall risk in the U.S. financial markets. Since the beginning, Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Geithner have opposed section 716 of Dodd-Frank. Show me how section 716 decreases overall risk to the financial markets when Chairman Bernanke clearly stated: It's not evident why section 716 makes the company as a whole safer. And what we do see is that it will likely increase the costs of people who use the derivatives. Since Dodd-Frank became law, no equivalent provisions have been adopted in any other foreign jurisdictions that are working through their own derivatives reforms. Show me how placing U.S. firms at a competitive disadvantage with international banks will ultimately benefit manufacturers in my district managing their interest rate risks. H.R. 992, however, would prevent financial institutions from forcing much of the derivatives business outside the bank. Show me why banks, which are a more heavily regulated and a more highly capitalized entity than a stand-alone affiliate, are not a better platform for regulators to monitor swap activity and to protect U.S. financial markets. Farmers in Missouri must contend with a multitude of weather and financial risks. They use swaps to manage their long-term price risks on everything from the crops they grow to the fuel that runs their equipment. Show me why we should allow section 716 to increase the costs to my farmers, who merely want to manage their long-term price risks through commodity swaps so they can focus on their real job--feeding America. H.R. 992 is a much-needed change that improves the U.S. financial system for small businesses, farmers, and job creators. Again, I support H.R. 992, and I urge my colleagues to vote for this legislation. Together, let's show the American people we are for smart reforms in order to allow manufacturers, businesses, and farmers to manage their risks in a commonsense way.

Mrs. HARTZLER

Mrs. HARTZLER. I thank the gentleman. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. HARTZLER. Tonight the country is facing great challenges--the challenges of ObamaCare, of runaway spending here in Washington, and of our fiscal crisis that is increasing our debt over and over again. Now is the time for solutions, and now is the opportunity that we have to get things right and to turn things around. I am looking forward tonight to visiting with my colleagues about the challenges we have before us as well as the opportunities. You know, this situation that we are in today kind of reminds me of a story that I heard a few years ago. I think it is very fitting to this time in history. This is a true story. There was a man who went hunting with his dog many years ago; and as he walked through the great outdoors and came back from his hunting trip, he noticed that his pants were covered with something that in Missouri we call cockleburs. If you are not from Missouri or that part of the country, it is basically a weed, and it leaves very prickly seed pods that are about the size of a dime. And they will stick to anything from your clothes to your pet's fur, or anything else that happens to brush against it as it passes by the weed. So this man got to looking at all of these cockleburs on his pants and his dog when he got back, and he was trying to pull them off and clean them off. And then he stopped a minute and got to look at that cocklebur and he got to thinking: What is it that causes this cocklebur to stick so well? And he wondered, is there a way we could use that same format to help provide some solutions. He thought about some friends who had arthritis, that had trouble buttoning up their shirt or zipping things. He thought about young children, and they have trouble fastening things together. And he thought, I wonder if we could take this challenge of this cocklebur and make an opportunity out of it. Do you know what he did? He invented something we all use every day called ``Velcro.'' He laid the groundwork for what I think we need to do here in Washington: take the challenges before us and use them as an opportunity in this point in history to create a better health care system that addresses Americans' needs, that gets spending under control, makes government more efficient and more effective, and it also addresses our long-term debt and reverses course so that we will get out of debt as a Nation and balance the budget. This is the opportunity that we have before us. Before my colleagues share their thoughts on this, I want to talk just a minute about the challenges that we have in ObamaCare. There are so many reasons that at this time in history we have been taking a stand here in the House and saying: it is time to reverse this onerous policy, because the American people don't want it and it is hurting them. I wanted to share at least seven things that are challenging about this law: The first thing is that ObamaCare is causing an increase in premiums. I got last week an email from a constituent who sells insurance back home. They were very distraught because they had a customer come in who wanted to renew their health insurance. After they figured out what it would mean through ObamaCare, they discovered this customer was going to have to pay $1,500 a month. That isn't even the full premium. Their employer would pay some others. So when you added it all up, this family--she had to tell them--was going to have to pay $18,000 a year for their health care. This makes a difference in that family whether they can send a child to college or not. It is wrong. We need to have some solutions here. Something else I heard today: I was visiting with a constituent who told me that they went on the exchanges to see what ObamaCare would do to their health care premiums. What she found out is that her insurance next year is going to cost $200 more a month than she is paying right now, plus she is going to have to have a larger deductible and her coverage is going to decrease. So she was obviously very upset. ObamaCare is increasing premiums and increasing costs on Americans. That is wrong. It is time for solutions. Number two, ObamaCare is killing jobs. Despite what others on the other side of the aisle say, it is killing jobs. One in five small businesses report that they are letting employees go due to the new law. Others are deciding not to expand their business due to the new law. The Gallup survey this year found a staggering 41 percent of small business owners are holding off hiring new employees due to ObamaCare, and 38 percent have pulled back on plans to grow their business. I have an example I wanted to share with you from my own district. I was visiting with a small business owner the other day. They are doing pretty well. They have a small business that has been growing. The exciting thing is, they said: Representative Hartzler, we want to open up a second location, we want to hire some new workers, we are very excited about it. But they looked at ObamaCare and the requirements involved and they said: We cannot afford it. If we open up the second location and hire new workers, we are not going to be able to keep going. So they decided not to expand their business. Now, the thing that makes this extra tragic is, in this town there has been a manufacturing plant closed down over the last few years. There are hundreds of people in my district looking for work who would love to have that job, but because of ObamaCare they are not going to be able to do it. This business owner wants to expand, but they can't. That is wrong. ObamaCare is killing jobs. That is why it is time for solutions. Number three, ObamaCare is reducing the take-home pay. It has been many years since many Americans have got a raise. They are ``making do,'' but if anybody goes to the store like I do every weekend and buys groceries and other things for your family, you know that things are costing more and more. So we have a real problem here. Americans aren't getting pay increases and yet the cost of living is going up. There are many businesses that are cutting back on their employees' hours because of ObamaCare to get them under the 30-hour requirement. In fact, a U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Outlook Study showed that 27 percent of businesses have and will cut hours to reduce from full-time employees to part-time. So we are becoming ``part-time America'' because of this law. Just today, I got an email from a large business owner in Missouri, and here is what they said. It validates this very point. It says: As one of the largest out of state employers in Missouri, we are not expanding or hiring. Our health insurance costs will increase by an estimated $800,000 in 2014 due to ObamaCare, despite significant reductions in coverage for our employees and reducing hours to less than 30 hours per week where we can. Our taxes have gone up, regulations are overwhelming, and there is no end in sight. It is happening. Number four, ObamaCare is jeopardizing our personal security and our privacy. How would you like to have your Social Security number made available to everybody? According to an August 7 Forbes magazine article: In order for ObamaCare to work, the government will need to know a lot about your financial, medical, and employment situation. And this could very well--ObamaCare's exchanges--end up illegally exposing American's private records to hackers and criminals. Just last week, when ObamaCare went online, McAfee, which is one of the Nation's premier Internet security companies, they tweeted out that ObamaCare is a ``hacker's dream.'' This is very, very concerning. It is clearly time for solutions. Five, ObamaCare is simply not working. I am sure many of you have heard the news reports. This is just a 4-page outline of all the different headlines from around the country about how this is not working. Florida: The glitches in the new electronic health care sign-up system began almost immediately, and they never let up. Missouri: But in Kansas and Missouri, it was more fizzle than bang. North Dakota: North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm said he and his staff were monitoring the Federal Web site Tuesday but were unable to access it. West Virginia: Ten hours later--after two attempts at signing up and one 45-minute call with a consumer service agent--technical glitches have prevented the 60-year-old grandfather from purchasing a plan. It goes on and on. There are real problems there. Six, ObamaCare is unfair. President Obama has exempted Big Business from having to comply with ObamaCare for a year, and he has granted over 1,300 waivers, yet he hasn't given a waiver to the hardworking American public who deserves it. That is not fair. And lastly, something that a lot of people don't know, but a lot of people should care about, is that ObamaCare uses tax dollars to pay for abortions for the first time, and it hides the fact that people will be paying for abortions in their monthly bill. Here is how it works. The law says that at least one policy in every exchange has to cover abortion. But it also says--the law says--that they can only disclose that as part of the huge summary of benefits in all the fine print that is there at only the time of initial sign-up. So many people right now are going online, and they have got these policies that come up and there is all this fine print. They don't even know that that policy includes abortion. ObamaCare is going to have subsidies to help people pay for their premium. That subsidy comes from our tax dollars. Many Americans do not want their hard-earned tax dollars to go and pay for abortion, yet it will. Sadly, the people many times will not even know if their policy has abortion or not. There are many Americans who support life, and when they go to buy it directly, they will not know. Inside the bill, not only does it cover abortion, but ObamaCare has what is called a ``secrecy clause'' in it that specifically says that that charge for the abortion fee cannot be listed in their monthly bill. So many pro-life Americans who value life unknowingly will buy an insurance policy that is covering abortion, and every month they will be paying their own hard-earned dollars to go towards abortion. It is just wrong. So clearly, clearly we need some solutions. Republicans do have solutions. We are putting forth a health care bill that replaces and is better than ObamaCare. It allows for increased access and lower costs. You are going to be hearing more about it in the days to come. We call it the ``American Health Care Reform Act.'' There are better solutions. We have got a lot of challenges with ObamaCare, but this is our opportunity to make it better for the American people, and that is what we are going to do. We also have a challenge of a huge debt crisis at this time in history. I know many of my colleagues here are going to share about that. We have got to quit spending money we don't have. People at home are tightening their belt. It is time for Washington to do that too. This is where we are at tonight--Monday night, October 14, 2013. How this is going to play out, we don't know. But I know I am going to continue to fight for positive solutions that are good for the American people. I am going to be looking for opportunities to take the cockleburs of life and look at them and say: Is there a way to turn this around and make something good out of it? I believe that is where we are right now. We can make something good of this situation. It has been hard on Americans, it is hard on families, there is a lot of uncertainty. It has been hard on us as Members of Congress. But we can make something better than has ever happened before from this country. We can produce a health care bill that the American people deserve. We can rein in this runaway spending and get it right, make government more efficient and more effective, and we can address our debt crisis. We can do it. That is our challenge, that is our opportunity, that is why we are fighting, that is why we are here tonight. I want to thank my colleagues who stayed tonight to share their thoughts on this important time in history, this Monday night that we are at. I would like to yield to my friend from Utah, Chris Stewart.

Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you, Chris. I really appreciate your perspective. As a former Air Force pilot, I think what you said about leadership is very true. It is time for the President to show some leadership and for us to get together and to talk about this. That is why it is time for solutions. Thanks for sharing those things. Now I would like to yield to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise), who is chairman of the Republican Study Committee and a real leader here in this House, and I certainly appreciate you sharing tonight.

Mrs. HARTZLER. I thank you, Mr. Scalise, talking about the leadership that we have been providing here in the House. I think it is very important that people know, we proactively worked to make sure that government stayed open. We passed these bills way before October 1. Unfortunately, we haven't had leadership from the White House or from the Senate willing to come together. Thank you for bringing that up. In fact, something that a lot of people don't know is that, at this point in the House of Representatives, we have already passed one-third of all appropriations bills in the continuing resolution. We have been passing bill after bill to keep this government open, to fund it and make sure it keeps going and working for the American people. The Senate has not passed them. They haven't taken them up. So it is not us that has shut down the government or is responsible for this lapse in funding, and it is certainly not us that is keeping it shut. Thank you very much for sharing that. Now I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Weber). I am glad to have you here tonight and appreciate what you have to share.

Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you, Randy. It is an honor to stand beside you in this. This is a time for solutions. And people wonder, Can we get this right? Can we make things better? Can we keep the opportunity for the future? With you, I would say, Yes, we can, but we are going to keep working on it. Thank you very much. I now yield to my friend from the Midwest, from Indiana, Marlin Stutzman. What would you like to share with us tonight?

Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you very much, Marlin. That is right: it is time for solutions. And I very much appreciate you bringing up the concern with the taxes. We haven't talked about that yet tonight, but there are 20 new taxes in ObamaCare, and especially, as you pointed out, the medical device tax, which is very onerous and killing jobs all over. The statement you said that is going to stick with me most tonight that I hope the American people remember and that I love that you just said is that Washington is broke because it spends too much and it talks too little. Well said. Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts. I now yield to my friend from Michigan, Kerry Bentivolio.

Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you, Kerry. And thank you for your leadership. I know you have been going down to the World War II Memorial and helping to open up the barricades for our Honor Flights coming in. It is sad that we have to do that, but thank you for your leadership in that. I now turn to one of your colleagues from Michigan, Bill Huizenga, and yield time to him.

Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you very much, Bill. Those were very eloquent remarks. You really brought home the need that it is time for solutions and all the challenges that we are facing. Before I go to our other friends here, I do want to get this motion in. General Leave

Mrs. HARTZLER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of my special order.