Jim McGovern

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. I thank the distinguished ranking member for the time. Mr. Speaker, here we are on day 4 of the Republican shutdown of the people's government. The other day after meeting with the President at the White House, Speaker Boehner said: At some point, we've got to allow the process that our Founders gave us to work out. Mr. Speaker, I've studied American history, too, and what the Republican leadership is doing with this rule is a million miles away from what the Founders had in mind. I'm comforted that Speaker Boehner has said privately that he wants to extend the debt ceiling. He also said he didn't want to shut down the government, yet here we are. I don't know what Senator Cruz is saying privately, which is important, because he's apparently calling all the shots around here. The rule before us today extends martial law rule until October 21. They have decided that they have the right to throw the rules and traditions of this House into the trash can for the next 2\1/2\ weeks. That's 4 days after we default on our obligations. That should make all of us very nervous. The rule also makes in order 11 separate bills--many of which were never considered in committee or on the House floor--under a closed process with no amendments. I've been on and around the Rules Committee for quite a few years, Mr. Speaker, but I have never seen a rule like this. I find it astounding that the Republicans have suddenly found religion on the need to go to conference on the budget, because for months and months and months and months they have refused to appoint budget negotiators. Suddenly, as the American people rise up in outrage over their tactics and their poll numbers fall off a cliff, my Republican friends all of the sudden now want to negotiate. There's a very easy way to get past this: bring up the short-term clean continuing resolution that has already passed the Senate--at Republican sequester numbers, no less--and we will pass it with a bipartisan vote and end this unnecessary, harmful Republican shutdown. It is simple. Mr. Speaker, not only is this process awful, so are many of the bills made in order under this rule. I want to talk about one in particular, the one that provides funding for WIC, the Women, Infants, and Children Nutrition Program. After months of trying to cut $40 billion from the SNAP program, after months of demonizing poor people, after months of trying to slash food assistance programs across the board, Republicans would like us all to believe that they care about hunger in America all of the sudden. Give me a break. Give me a break, Mr. Speaker. I say to my Republican friends: Where have you been? Where have you been on this issue? Because of the sequester, we've already seen WIC clinics close and participation in the program fall. That means that fewer and fewer low- income women and children are getting help, the nutritious food that they need. This bill does not fix that. The National WIC Association urges the House to oppose H.J. Res. 75, calling it ``a cynical ploy to use low-income, nutritionally at-risk mothers and young children as political pawns for political ends.'' They are right, Mr. Speaker, this is a cynical ploy. Enough is enough. I urge my colleagues to defeat this rule, pass the clean CR, and let the American people get on with their lives. I would say to the Speaker of the House that all you need to do is schedule a vote. You don't even have to vote for it. If you schedule it, it will pass in a bipartisan manner and we can end this shutdown once and for all. Please, Mr. Speaker, practice a little democracy in the people's House. Please, Mr. Speaker, give us a vote.

Mr. McGOVERN. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, there are nearly 50 million people who are hungry in this country. Seventeen million of them are children, and because we are still emerging from this difficult economy, hunger is not getting better in America. The only reason why people aren't starving is because of the essential safety net programs that we have put in place. For months and months and months and months, we have seen the Republicans in this House try to gut the SNAP program, try to slash funding for WIC, and for school lunches and for Meals on Wheels. And now, today, we're supposed to believe that they are champions for hungry kids? Today they want us to believe that they care about poor people? Please. This charade is an insult to the intelligence of the American people. It is a cynical ploy that won't feed a single pregnant mother or won't provide formula to a single needy infant. It's going nowhere. It is a stunt. It's legislating by press release, and it's shameful. We should pass a clean CR and reject this woefully inadequate bill and try to end hunger in America. Do not treat poor women and children as political pawns. It is not right, and you know it is not right. We have an obligation to our most vulnerable neighbors. This fails that test, and it fails that test badly. Pass a clean CR. Do your job. This is cynical.

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Well, Mr. Speaker, here we are, on Day 2 of the Republican shutdown of the Nation's government, and the Republican majority has come up with yet another bit of meaningless political theater. Yesterday's strategy from the gang that couldn't shoot straight was to bring up a small handful of bills to fund popular government programs and to try to pass them on suspension. That failed. Today's nonsense is to bring up those same bills under this rule and try to pass them with a majority vote. Now, just for a moment, let's leave aside the fact that none of these bills are going anywhere. The Senate isn't going to go along with this, and neither is the President. So all of this is just a gigantic waste of time, which is one of the few things the majority is good at. We say it all the time around here: budgets are about priorities. Budgets reflect things that you believe are most important to support. And yesterday we learned all about the priorities of the Republican leadership. The first bill they brought up for debate--the one that they wanted to get over to the Senate most quickly--was a bill to fund the national parks and monuments. Now, I like the national parks. In fact, I love them. I support their full funding. I even believe they should get more funding than they would receive under the lousy Republican sequester numbers. But that's their number one priority? What about the researchers at the Centers for Disease Control who protect us from epidemics? More than 8,700 people have already been furloughed from the CDC. I hope my Republican colleagues have gotten their flu shots, Mr. Speaker. What about the low-income mother who has been cut off from WIC? What about the children who have been turned away from the Head Start programs? No, they want to fund parks. And why? Let's be honest about this. Because right now every television network in America has a camera crew down at the National Mall interviewing disappointed tourists and taking pictures of the ``Closed'' signs on the Smithsonian museums. Because today, camera crews in California and Wyoming and Montana will be taking pictures of visitors turned away from Yosemite and Yellowstone and Glacier National Park. Mr. Speaker, when my kids were little, we used to give them trail mix as a snack. There was granola and raisins and nuts and all kinds of healthy things. But my kids always wanted to pick out the M&Ms. That's what this Republican majority has been reduced to--trying to pick out the M&Ms from the trail mix. Eventually, my kids grew up. I hope the Republican majority will do the same. We can do this right away. We can do this today. We can do this right now. We can pass the clean continuing resolution that has already passed the Senate. That's the way you keep the government functioning while the two Chambers work out their differences. The notion that you're shutting the government down on a 5-week continuing resolution when we still have to negotiate a long-term spending bill is unconscionable. People all across this country, Democrats and Republicans, are outraged by the behavior of this Republican leadership. It is time to grow up. It is time to pass a clean continuing resolution. Let's open up this government. Let's open it up today.

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, today is day two of the Republican government shutdown. It is day two of the Republicans throwing a temper tantrum because they don't have the votes to overturn the Affordable Care Act. They have chosen to hold the Federal Government hostage in order to placate a small, reckless, extreme faction of their conference. It's shameful and it needs to stop. Already, National Parks are closed, Head Start facilities are beginning to close, and paychecks to Federal employees could be delayed. And if closing Head Start facilities wasn't bad enough, shutting the government down could cause great harm to pregnant women, infants, and children. That's right, Mr. Speaker. Pregnant women, infants, and children will begin feeling the impacts of this Republican shutdown as funding for the WIC program begins to lapse. There are nearly 9 million pregnant and breastfeeding women, infants, and children on WIC. Nine million low-income people receive healthy food and nutrition education from this important and vital program. WIC is a critical program that provides food and nutrition counseling for low-income pregnant and breastfeeding women, as well as newborns and infants. It is a key program that helps pregnant and breastfeeding women stay healthy through proper nutrition and actually helps prevent many health issues associated with nonnutritious meals. In about a week, funding for WIC will dry up. Funding for food and nutrition education for low-income women and their children will be eliminated. Some States will see their funds dry up right away; and some, like Massachusetts, have budgeted in a way that will allow them to patch funds together to prevent major shortfalls only for a couple of weeks. I come to this floor week after week to talk about how we can end hunger now. A few weeks ago, this House of Representatives cut SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, by $39 billion. Year after year, Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan tries to block grant SNAP, a $130 billion cut in the program. And a few years ago, the Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, chaired then by the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston), attempted to cut WIC by hundreds of millions of dollars. There's a pattern here of trying to balance the budget on the backs of the poor, on the backs of the hungry. There's a pattern here of saying to people who are struggling to make ends meet that they just don't matter. The Republicans, who are forcing this government shutdown--those Republicans who are cheering on a government shutdown like cheerleaders at a pep rally--are inflicting real damage on real Americans. And those on the front lines are, unfortunately, poor women and their children. We're not going to end hunger now by painting a target on their backs and using them to balance our budgets. Income disparity is currently at its greatest gap since the Great Depression. Hunger is not getting any better in this country. Yet the Republicans in the House think it's okay to take food away from hungry people, including veterans and kids, just because they don't like those programs. The cut in food stamps that we debated and voted on a couple of weeks ago would throw 170,000 of our veterans off the program--men and women who have served our country in battle. They'll be cut from the program. What they are doing is wrong. It takes my breath away, Mr. Speaker. Ending hunger requires real leadership and not letting some right- wing zealots eviscerate the Federal budget so that the hungry in America don't have the ability to put food on their tables. What is happening here is cold. It is heartless. It is unconscionable. We should be working to end hunger now instead of shutting down the Federal Government. The low-income women, infants, and children of this country deserve a hell of a lot better than they're getting from this Republican-led House of Representatives.

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, we are 17 hours into the Republican shutdown of the Nation's government, and the Republican majority has come up with yet another bit of meaningless political theater. This is show business wrapped in spin. And don't take my word for it. Let me read to my colleagues part of a memo that was sent out by the Republican leadership earlier today. And I quote: Today the House will begin a strategy of passing limited and targeted funding bills with the goals of being on the offensive and taking away Democratic talking points. Did you catch that, Mr. Speaker? The Republican goal is not to end the government shutdown. Their goal isn't to come to the table for serious negotiations on the budget. Their goal is to write another press release. Now, Mr. Speaker, I love national parks. I support them fully, and I want full funding for these parks above the awful sequester levels. But what about the cancer drug trials at NIH? What about the low-income mother who has been cut off from WIC? Mr. Speaker, when my kids were little, we used to give them trail mix as a snack. There was granola and raisins and nuts and all kinds of healthy things. But my kids always wanted to pick out the M&Ms. That is what this Republican majority has been reduced to, trying to pick out the M&Ms from the trail mix. Eventually, my kids grew up. I hope the Republican majority will do the same. We can do this the right way. We can pass a clean CR that has already passed the Senate. It is time for them to put on their grownup pants and do their job.

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, here we go again. As we look up at the clock, we see that there is only 6 hours and 10 minutes to a completely unnecessary and economically harmful government shutdown. Now, I don't see the junior Senator from Texas on the floor, but I presume that he has signed off on the latest feeble Republican strategy since he seems to be the one calling all the shots around here. So I say to my Republican friends: Enough. Enough of the gamesmanship; enough of the legislative ping-pong; enough of the high fives and cheers on the floor. It's time to put on your grown-up pants and do your jobs. It's a job, by the way, that should have been done months ago. The House passed a budget and the Senate passed a budget. But instead of going to a conference committee to hash out the numbers, the Republican leadership refused to appoint conferees; they refused to negotiate. And, as a result, we are here on the edge of the cliff. And here's the irony, Mr. Speaker: It's clear to me, at least, that there was a majority in this House, Republican and Democrat, for passing the clean CR sent to us by the Senate. Here's another irony: That clean CR contains the numbers of my Republican friends' beloved sequester, numbers that I believe are far too low. For the life of me, I don't understand why the Republicans don't declare victory and let us get on with the business of governing. Part of that governing is ensuring that the Affordable Care Act works as well as possible for all the American people. It's the law of the land. It's going to stay that way, and neither the Senate nor the President is going to accept any changes. Let me just say a word about the so-called Vitter amendment that is included this bill. Unlike what my Republican friends say, the Vitter amendment doesn't make the people who work for us live like everyone else. In fact, it singles them out for special punishment. It says to the people who help us draft legislation, who answer the phones in our offices, and who respond to constituent mail, who help a veteran get his benefits or a high school student apply to the military academies that, unlike every other Federal employee, their employer will not contribute a share toward their health insurance. It's a lousy, lousy thing to do. And I say to my colleagues, if you want to see an exodus of smart, dedicated people away from Congress, of both parties, if you want to see this place get even dumber, then, by all means, pass the Vitter amendment. Otherwise, we should treat it like the cynical talking point that it is and vote it down. Again, Mr. Speaker, it's time for my Republican friends to put on their grown-up pants and do the right thing. I urge my colleagues to reject the rule, reject the underlying bill, and pass a clean CR.

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. I thank the gentlelady for yielding to me. Mr. Speaker, this is a joke that we are having this debate at all at this particular time now that it's midnight and the government is officially shut down. My Republican friends say they're coming here to try to keep the government open. They're here, and they're presiding over a Congress that has now shut the U.S. Government down. After 6 months of refusing to go to conference on the budget--18 times I've been told the Republicans objected to going to conference on the budget with the Senate--now they say they want a conference committee. It's too late. It's past midnight now. The government has been shut down. This is both cynical and disgraceful. Republicans have shut down the Government of the United States of America. I would say to my Republican friends that you own this. This is your shutdown. This represents an absolute failure of your leadership. Real people in this country--your constituents--are going to be hurt by your inability to do your job. Now, the funding levels in the continuing resolution are unbelievably low. They are at your beloved sequester levels. You should be declaring victory that the Senate actually agreed to your low numbers, but that's not enough. You had to overreach. You had to add in the dismantling of the Affordable Care Act and 1,000 other things that were pet projects of the Tea Party right wing in your party. The fact of the matter is you knew all along that the President would never sign a bill that dismantled the Affordable Care Act--nor should he--nor would the Senate go along with that, but you did it anyway. You are shutting down this government because you didn't get your way. You didn't get your way, so you're shutting down the government. I would say to my friends on the other side of the aisle that elections in the United States of America still do matter. Your candidate for President lost badly, and this was his No. 1 issue--to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Your Senate candidates lost badly. In fact, you lost seats in the House, and the Democrats got a million more votes than you did in House elections, but because of some very clever redistricting, you were able to hold on to the majority. The American people rejected your call to overturn the Affordable Care Act, and the American people overwhelmingly do not want you to shut this government down, which you just did 2 minutes ago. This is the people's House. We are supposed to be doing the people's business. We are not supposed to be doing the business of some right- wing Senator from Texas who somehow wants to run for President and wants to get the Tea Party all excited. You are supposed to represent your constituents. We all are. Our constituents--the people of this country--do not want the United States Government to shut down. This is a failure of your leadership, and I would say there is one way for us to kind of make things better at this point, which is to let us bring a clean continuing resolution to the floor--a clean bill, a clean CR. Even with those low levels that I have some problems with, I guarantee you that it will pass with Democratic votes and Republican votes. We can reverse this shutdown now by bringing a clean continuing resolution to the floor. Please do it. Please don't shut this government down.

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time I have remaining.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, oh, my goodness. First of all, I would say to the gentleman from Texas who just went on this kind of diatribe trashing the President of the United States and the Affordable Care Act, rather than doing that, maybe he can enlighten us about what's going on in that secret meeting downstairs? What has the right wing decided to do in terms of bringing a CR to the floor or debt ceiling? I'd be happy to yield 10 seconds to him to tell us what's coming to the floor. I was referring to the other gentleman from Texas, but if this gentleman from Texas can inform us what, in fact, is coming.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to insert into the Record an article entitled, ``Why a Government Shutdown Could Be a Pricey Proposition,'' talking about the cost to the taxpayers if the Republicans move ahead with the shutdown. Why a Government Shutdown Could be Pricey Proposition (By Carrie Dann) [From NBC News, Sep 28, 2013] If past is prologue, a looming government shutdown could actually cost U.S. taxpayers money. A lot of money. According to the Office of Management and Budget, the two shutdowns in 1995 and 1996 cost taxpayers $1.4 billion combined. Adjust for inflation and you've got $2 billion in today's dollars. Those two shutdowns lasted a total of 27 days, but there's no telling how long the government could be shuttered this time around if Congress fails to act by Monday at midnight. Even shorter shutdowns have proven successful at draining government funds. In the immediate aftermath of the first government shutdown in 1981, the most conservative estimate--conducted by the General Accounting Office (now called the Government Accountability Office)--put the cost of shutting the government down for a single day at $8.2 million, or almost $21 million in today's dollars. A House panel later concluded that the day-long furlough cost taxpayers 10 times more than that. ``Past shutdowns have disrupted the economy, and this shutdown would as well,'' President Barack Obama said at an address at the White House on Friday. ``It would throw a wrench into the gears of our economy at a time when those gears have gained some traction.'' It may seem counter-intuitive that pressing the pause button on the federal government's operations could come with such a hefty price tag . . . so why does it take so much cash to keep the government's lights off? And why do estimates vary so widely? First, there's the actual mechanics of preparing for a shutdown, like alerting staff of procedures and preparing to secure files and facilities. For example, during the first five day shutdown in 1995, the Labor Department alone spent almost $12,000 on postage, printing and paper for furlough notices. The Treasury Department calculated the cost of developing contingency shutdown plans at just over $400,000. That process--and some of the costs associated with it--is already underway days or even weeks before a shutdown deadline, whether the crisis is averted or not. ``Those costs begin to be incurred now, when the debate is still going on,'' said Bruce Yandle, a professor of economics at Clemson University who served as the executive director of the Federal Trade Commission during the Reagan Administration. ``It's what employees are already discussing around the water cooler. It's already affecting decisions being made by management.'' The impact of a brief shutdown--or even just the threat of one--for government contractors can also mean higher costs for federal agencies in the future, although it's almost impossible to assign a dollar amount, says Roy Meyers, a political science professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and a former CBO analyst. ``It can reduce the profits of the contractors,'' says Meyers. ``And the next time they consider working with the federal government, they count that as a risk, and they charge more.'' That impact could be felt acutely in the Washington, D.C., area, where many contractors are based. And that could be compounded by the impact on tourism in the District as federally-funded museums and monuments are shuttered. The shutdowns of the 1990s cost the District of Columbia an estimated $50 million in lost business and cancellations, officials said at the time. There's also the issue of back-pay for furloughed workers. While only those workers deemed ``non-essential'' would stay home during a shutdown--about 40 percent of the federal workforce during the mid-1990s--there's a precedent for lawmakers granting those individuals their pay once the government is back up and running, even though they weren't producing any work. Cost estimates must also factor in delays in the collection of fines and fees typically gathered by federal agencies. OMB said after the twin shutdowns in 1995 and 1996 that $2.2 billion worth of licenses for U.S. exports were delayed and that some $60 million in environmental fines and settlements were not collected or negotiated. Most of those fees eventually get collected, says Yandle, but the delays and the inconvenience to businesses and consumers can end up having resonance that won't show up in cost estimates at all. ``Those costs that cannot be estimated are often much more important than those that can,'' he said. Meyers argues that a shutdown's cost to the budget or the effects on the overall economy estimates--flawed as they may be--pale in comparison the societal cost of a government that seems bent on playing political chicken rather than focusing on solving problems. ``The real costs are really not in terms of consumer confidence or any of the standard measures in macroeconomics or even the federal budget,'' he said. ``The real costs are in trust in government and belief that government officials are paying attention to the real issues of the country.'' Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Let me just say, before I yield to the gentlelady from New York, the Republican talking points we just heard are absolutely wrong, absolutely wrong. To suggest that somehow senior citizens will get less care is just false. The fact of the matter is we see expanding care for senior citizens. We see preventative care being covered without copays. We see the doughnut hole in the Medicare prescription drug bill that the Republicans passed, where seniors are asked to pay huge out-of-pocket expenses, closing down. We are seeing young people being able to stay on their parents' insurance until they are 26. It is no longer considered to be a preexisting condition if you are a woman in this country because of the Affordable Care Act. And I could go down the list of all the things that have been accomplished. Now, let me just say to my Republican friends, you lost the last election. You lost big. President Obama won reelection. Your whole election was about the Affordable Care Act. He won reelection by 5 million votes. Democrats picked up seats in the Senate. We even picked up seats in the House. And by the way, in terms of the congressional races, Democrats received 1 million more votes than Republicans did. You lost the last election. Now, if you don't like the Affordable Care Act, there's a way you can deal with it: you can go out and try to win some more seats. And then you can come to the floor, introduce bills, bring them through committee, you know, have the Senate do the same thing, conference them, and then send them to the President's desk. And by the way, you can try to win the Presidency. That's the normal way to do legislative business. What you are doing here is you have distorted the legislative process. This is making a mockery of the legislative process. You have turned this House of Representatives into a laughingstock. And the bottom line is, what the American people want us to do right now is to keep the government moving ahead, keep it running--not shut it down-- deal with the debt ceiling without holding that hostage to all the Tea Party sweeteners, and do our job. Democrats are willing to work with Republicans to get things done. But instead, you are all huddled in this secret meeting somewhere in the Capitol, where there's no transparency, where we have absolutely no say, where we're going to be told, Here it is; take it or leave it. That's not the way this process should work. This process has become a disgrace. So I say to my colleagues that the notion that somehow your health care benefits have been decreased because of the Affordable Care Act is just so far from the truth, it's comical. At this point, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Slaughter), the distinguished ranking member of the Rules Committee.

Mr. McGOVERN. I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentlelady.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman, my friend from Texas, the chairman of the Rules Committee, for yielding me the customary 30 minutes. And I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, this is a martial law rule that will allow for consideration of a yet-to-be-seen continuing resolution and a yet-to- be-seen debt ceiling bill. This martial law rule also adds to the farm bill the dreadful and hurtful cuts to food stamps that the Republicans approved last week, a cut that will throw 3.8 million people off the program, including 170,000 unemployed veterans. This was a truly awful piece of legislation; and the way the Republicans continue to diminish the plight of poor people, the way they continue to beat up on programs that benefit them stuns me. It takes my breath away. Mr. Speaker, once again, the Republican majority is back on the House floor, trampling upon regular order and eliminating any possibility of a fair and transparent legislative process. When the majority assumed control of this Chamber in 2011, they promised to adhere to regular order. On March 10, 2010, National Journal reporter Major Garrett asked Speaker John Boehner: If you are Speaker, will you ever bring a bill to the floor that hasn't been true to the 3-day rule? Speaker Boehner replied with one word, ``No.'' In the same interview, Congressman Boehner said: We need to stop writing bills in the Speaker's Office and let Members of Congress be legislators again. We have nothing to fear from the battle of ideas. Those promises seem a million miles away today. Sadly, since that time, the Republican majority has repeatedly violated their own promises of openness and transparency; 33 times, the majority has violated its own 3-day promise and rushed legislation to the House floor. They have avoided the committee process and brought legislation straight to the House floor 48 times. And despite promising to let the House ``work its will,'' the majority has approved 157 closed or structured rules and just 31 open or modified rules. In short, the majority has shut out the Democrats and shut out many Republicans and shut down the democratic process. Why have they done this? Not because they are letting the House work its will. They have abandoned regular order because an extreme faction of the Republican Party is so uncompromising that they are willing to shut down our government or implode our economy unless they get their way. As a potential government shutdown looms just a couple of days from now, we still do not know what the Republican majority is planning to do. What we do know is that whatever they propose will have been written behind closed doors in an attempt to appease the most extreme elements of the Republican Conference. Mr. Speaker, time is running out. Now more than ever, the American people deserve a fair and transparent legislative process so that we can keep our government open and our economy on track. Implementing martial law, as this rule would do, would be a step in the wrong direction. And I urge my colleagues to reject today's rule and protect our democratic process. Finally, Mr. Speaker, I would strongly urge my Republican friends not to shut this government down. Now, we've heard rumors that behind closed doors, Republicans are gathering and are trying to figure out what to do. And I know that you have to check with Ted Cruz before you bring anything to the House floor. But the rumors that we are hearing is that what you are proposing is even more right-wing than what the Senate has already rejected, in other words, a nonstarter. I would urge my friends, do not put the American people through yet another manufactured crisis that will do great damage to our economy. Stop the drama. This has become theater of the absurd. I am praying that there are some grownups in the Republican Conference who will take charge and avoid an unnecessary shutdown by passing a clean CR and also by passing a clean debt ceiling bill that isn't porked up with Tea Party sweeteners. Time is running out. The American people are frustrated. It's time to get real. This isn't a game. People will be hurt by your intransigence. Do the right thing. Do your job. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McGOVERN. I yield the gentleman 10 seconds.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I would just say to the gentleman, if it's not a secret meeting, can someone tell us what happened in it, or is just for Republicans only? I think we ought to know what we're voting on before we vote on it. Maybe that's a radical idea in this Republican-controlled House, but I think it's a reasonable request. At this time I'd like to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Al Green).

Mr. McGOVERN. I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, we are voting on a martial law rule that will allow us to bring up either a continuing resolution or a debt ceiling bill this very day, and nobody has seen anything. Nobody has seen any language. There has been a secret meeting with Republicans to talk about what they can pass, but none of that information has been shared with us. There have been no hearings. There's been nothing. What a lousy way to run a government. This is not the way it should be done, And it doesn't have to be done this way. Mr. Speaker, the stakes are very high. You know, come Monday at midnight, if we don't do the right thing, the government is going to shut down. And as I said earlier in the debate, that is going to cost the American taxpayers a great deal of money. Shutdowns aren't free. Part of the problem here is that my Republican friends can't get over the fact that they lost the Presidential election. The right wing is holding the economy hostage based on a fixation on this view that everybody in this country doesn't deserve health care, when I think the majority of Americans believe that everybody should have access to good, quality health care in this country. I know you don't like the Affordable Care Act, but it passed. It passed the House and the Senate, signed by the President. The Supreme Court even upheld it. If you want to work with us to make it better, we're willing to do that. But the idea that you want to hold this economy hostage to repeal this is just ridiculous. I would urge my colleagues, in closing, to listen to your constituents. The majority of people in this country do not want you to shut this government down. The majority of people do not want you to defund the Affordable Care Act. Listen to your constituents--and not some guy in the other body, who one of his own colleagues referred to a ``whacko bird.'' The bottom line is: do the right thing. Do the right thing. Keep this government open. Do not shut the government down. I appeal to the grownups in the Republican Conference to come together. Let's have a compromise that we can pass and that we can send to the President and keep this government going and also address our debt ceiling issue. But let's stop the theatrics. Let's do the right thing. Let's vote on a clean CR and send it over to the Senate, and then let's get on with our other business. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. McGOVERN. That's not particularly enlightening; but, let me ask the gentleman: Are we going to have any hearings on what is being decided in the back room somewhere in the Capitol here? Will Members be able to offer amendments? Or are we just going to be given something and told to take it or leave it? I yield 10 seconds to the gentleman.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, in other words, none of the committees of jurisdiction that oversee a lot of the issues in the CR will be having any hearings or there will be any markups on that. I would also say to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) who kind of went on about no hearings, there were lots of hearings on the Affordable Care Act. Maybe he didn't go to them, but there were lots of them, number one. I would like to ask him: How many hearings were there on the bill that the Republicans brought up last week to cut the food stamp program by $40 billion, throwing 3.8 million low-income people off the program, throwing 170,000 veterans off the program? How many hearings on that? None. Zero. This is becoming a habit in this House where the committees of jurisdiction don't even have a say. The Agriculture Committee didn't have a chance to hold a hearing or even a markup on that bill. This is the way this House is being run. I would just again remind the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) again, look, you may not like the Affordable Care Act--I get it--but it passed with a majority of votes in the House and a majority of votes in the Senate. The President signed it into law. That's the way we do things here. That's the way laws are passed. And you didn't like it and you went to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court upheld it. I'm sorry you don't like it, but the majority voted for it, and I think a majority of people in this country, once they understand that all the falsehoods and distortions that are being told here are nothing more than Republican talking points, I think they'll appreciate the fact that health care will be a right in this country and not a privilege.

Mr. McGOVERN. I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro).

Mr. McGOVERN. I yield the gentlewoman an additional 1 minute.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Maybe the gentleman from Texas can enlighten us as to what's going on in the secret meeting downstairs with the Republicans because we have no idea what's going to come to the floor. We have no idea about what's going to be in this continuing resolution or whether we're going to have a debt ceiling bill or anything. We're in the dark here. We'd like to know. I think the American people would like to know what's in this bill. Can you enlighten us about what's happening in this secret meeting? Is Ted Cruz in the meeting? What's going on? I yield to the gentleman from Texas for 5 seconds.

Mr. McGOVERN. Reclaiming my time, I would say to the other gentleman from Texas that we're all elected, too. We respect and appreciate and value the Constitution every bit as much as he does, and there is a constitutional way to run the government, which we are all supporting here. It seems what the gentleman wants to do is just trash all that. He wants to say that what happens in the House and the Senate doesn't matter; the President signs it, it doesn't matter; the Supreme Court rules, it doesn't matter. I don't know where he's coming from. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee). (Ms. JACKSON LEE asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. McGOVERN. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, it's pretty clear what's going on here today. My Republican friends didn't get their way so now they're throwing a tantrum. I see many more Members on the floor today as these speeches have gone on. I'm just curious: Can anybody enlighten us on what in fact happened in your secret conference, what we're going to vote on? I think the American people would like to know. I yield to anybody if they can tell me one fact that has been decided. I guess nobody wants to tell us. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Ellison).

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. I thank the gentlelady for yielding. Mr. Speaker, there is supposed to be an orderly, thoughtful process around here. Just in case any of my colleagues were asleep in high school civics the day they taught how a bill becomes law, let me go over it slowly. The House holds hearings and markups in subcommittees and committees, brings a bill to the floor, debates it, votes on amendments, and then votes on final passage. The Senate does the same thing. Then, the House and the Senate meet in a conference committee, agree to a final package, vote on that, and send it to the President for him to either sign or veto. Does any of this sound even vaguely familiar to my Republican colleagues? Because they did a ``Schoolhouse Rock'' cartoon about it and everything. Instead, here we are, just a matter of days--hours, really--from a Republican-caused government shutdown. Here we are with yet another completely unnecessary, deeply harmful, politically motivated crisis. My Republican friends have made it clear that they will not vote for a continuing resolution unless that bill strips funding to implement the Affordable Health Care Act, or ObamaCare. But here's the problem, Mr. Speaker. Mitt Romney tried to make that same argument in the 2012 election. And he lost badly--by 5 million votes. Republicans tried to argue against ObamaCare in the Senate elections. And they lost. They tried to make those same arguments in the House elections, and they lost by about 1 million votes. Thanks to some ingenious redistricting, though, they were able to keep their majority. And now they're trying to use that narrow majority to undo the results of the 2012 election. But guess what, Mr. Speaker? It isn't going to happen. They don't have the votes. The numbers do not add up. The Affordable Care Act is the law of the land. It's been in effect for 2 years, and it's going to stay that way. If Republicans don't like it, they can make their case to the American people in 2014. But instead of facing that reality like thoughtful, serious grownups, the Republican majority continues to throw temper tantrum after temper tantrum, threatening to shut the government down, default on the Nation's bills, and throw the economy into a tailspin. It's absurd. Unfortunately, it's hurting real people. A Republican shutdown of government would actually cost us more money, Mr. Speaker. The Senate has already acted. They passed a clean continuing resolution that keeps the government funded through November 15. Now I don't particularly like that bill because it keeps in place the Republicans' beloved sequester, which is not only unreasonable but it is doing real harm to our economy. But apparently that's not good enough for the extremists in the Republican Conference. They would rather drive this economy off a cliff than make a reasonable compromise. Instead, they have unveiled a bill that includes two major changes to the Affordable Care Act, including a 1-year delay in the implementation of that law. Senator Reid has made it clear that the Senate will not consider any of these changes, and it's clear the Republicans simply want to shut this government down. So that's where we are, Mr. Speaker. In closing, I would just urge my Republican friends, Please don't do this. I have to believe that there are enough grownups on the other side of the aisle who are willing to stand up and say, Enough is enough. In the meantime, we should reject this rule, reject the underlying bill, and get back to work.