Jim Moran

Mr. MORAN

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, today 30 child cancer patients were turned away from NIH's clinical center because three-quarters of the staff was furloughed. With that, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews). (Mr. ANDREWS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) on the Rules Committee.

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, there are millions of visitors every year to the Bureau of Land Management. And yet the entire BLM is closed down because of the shutdown. I yield 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Slaughter), the distinguished ranking member of the Rules Committee.

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, even after we exempt national parks, 81 percent of the entire Interior Department will be furloughed. I yield the remaining 30 seconds to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Perlmutter).

Mr. MORAN. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. MORAN. I thank my very good friend. As my friend understands, the reason why the World War II Memorial was closed down was for security reasons so that no one can damage it because there are no employees able to protect it. But I really ask sincerely, because you know better than I, about the revenue, $1 billion that's raised from the Bureau of Land Management. You talked about the hundreds of millions that come in from national parks. BLM raises even more, and yet BLM is being completely furloughed. So we are losing revenue. Wouldn't my good friend agree that this is not the way to run the government's business or to operate the Interior Department?

Mr. MORAN. I suspect we have an agreement that what we need to do is to pass a clean CR, and that fixes the whole problem so we don't have to do these little bills one after the other. That's what we need, a clean CR.

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

Mr. MORAN

Mr. MORAN. I thank my good friend. Mr. Speaker, apparently we're here, largely, because a bunch of folks on the Republican side--Tea Party folks--fancy themselves strict constructionists. But I would remind them that the Founders set up the Senate to ensure that the House would act rationally and responsibly on a consistent basis. George Washington warned us against factualism. They expected us to fund the government, to pay our debts, and they underscored the fact that when you have a disagreement, it ought to be resolved democratically. So here we have a bill that passed the House and the Senate. The conference report passed the House and Senate. It was signed by the President. We had two national referenda, called Presidential elections. President Obama wins by 5 million votes. We don't have the right to repeal ObamaCare. Call it what you want, it's the law of the land. But now I understand that we are being told that unless you gut this legislation for an entire year, the Republican majority will not even fund the government for 45 days. Really? What kind of a deal is that? That's not reasonable. The idea that you would send 800,000 people home tomorrow, not knowing when they can come back to work, not even allowing them back to their offices, and take billions of dollars out of this economy, erode the confidence that people in the United States and around the world ought to be able to have in the United States, and you are going to do all this because you want to repeal a bill that is the law of the land, just because you have the leverage that you can hold up the government from being able to operate for 45 days? That's nuts. Our Founders would be ashamed of what this Congress has become. We're dysfunctional. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves. This ought to be defeated.

Mr. MORAN

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, so it's after 1 a.m. on October 1 and the government has shut down. And what's the best that we could get from the House Republican majority? A proposal to invite conferees to sit down and talk about resolving our differences. The fact is that we've known what our responsibility was--it is to fund the government. It's not to allow 800,000 Federal employees to be told they can't go into work, they can't get paid. It's not to close down our national parks and monuments. It's not to take hundreds of millions--potentially billions--of dollars out of our economy needlessly. It's not to disrupt the stock markets. It's not to create these financial crises. These are crises of our own doing. We've got a great country, a strong economy, a terrific society, and all we can do is to erode trust and confidence in our government. We should be ashamed of ourselves.

Mr. MORAN

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume to address this bill in general. This bill is an act of political theater. It attempts to cover up the underlying problem of a government shutdown with what in essence is a rhetorical gimmick. The bill claims to support our troops, which the majority knows that the minority party wants to do at least as much as they do. There's no disagreement in terms of the desire to make sure that all of our noble men and women in uniform and the civilians who work for the Defense Department and the contractors that contribute to our national security are all paid. We all want to do that. So why do we have this bill? Well, this bill attempts to reassure the public, who might be confused, as to what the adverse impacts of a government shutdown might be. Mr. Speaker, it's important that the public understand that even with this bill, what we will do tonight, what the majority will do tonight will, nevertheless, fail to provide the materials essential to support and maintain the readiness of our U.S. forces. I'll list any number of activities that will, notwithstanding this bill, go unfunded if the government is shut down. And because of the action that really the majority will take tonight, it looks increasingly likely that will happen at the beginning of next week. Mr. Speaker, when we finish tonight, we will set in motion a situation where military medical treatment facilities will have to scale back operations. They will try not to impact inpatient care or acute and emergency outpatient care; but routine medical and dental procedures, elective surgery is likely to be stopped. Most maintenance activities would stop. Military members would continue to receive private sector care under TRICARE, but medical provider bills are going to go unpaid until appropriations are enacted. New contracts, including contract renewals and extensions and the issuance of task orders, those are not likely to be executed. Any new contract will not be paid until appropriations are enacted. Death benefits to the family members of military personnel killed in the line of duty are not likely to be paid until appropriations are enacted; in other words, they won't be if the government is shut down. Almost all travel for temporary duty and some permanent change of station moves would be delayed, canceled, or cut short. Many professional training and educational activities would be stopped. The bill fails to fund the materiel support needed to conduct training and ensure the readiness of our forces at home. Regular training exercises, including large-scale training rotations that are absolutely essential, depend on equipment that is in proper working order, facilities that have been properly maintained, and the supplies needed to support soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines. The bill fails to fund the procurement and research accounts that maintain the technological advantage of U.S. forces. It fails to fund the ships, the aircraft, ground equipment, sensors, and ammunition that our troops rely upon in combat. My friend from Georgia knows that about 40 percent of the DOD appropriations bill goes to acquire and enhance this equipment. Failure to fund these accounts hurts the readiness of U.S. forces and degrades our defense industrial base. Now let me mention some of the other activities that will not be exempted, notwithstanding the fact that this bill will be passed virtually overwhelmingly. The Department of Veterans Affairs personnel charged with claims processing for veterans, including those returning from the last 12 years of combat, will not be paid. This legislation will nullify the progress that has been made by the VA on reducing the unacceptably high claims backlog. A shutdown cuts foreign military financing to Israel, a vital partner and ally that depends upon $3.1 billion being provided at the beginning of the fiscal year; and, thus, it undermines our national security in an ever-changing and unstable region by degrading Israel's ability to maintain a qualitative military advantage. These cuts will also have a direct impact on the industrial base throughout the United States, costing countless jobs that are funded through Israel's purchase of goods and services. Additionally, a shutdown will have a direct impact on our counterterrorism efforts, will halt programs that combat transnational crime, terrorism, and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. This could severely impact activities supporting our homeland security. It will stop counterdrug, anticrime, and border security efforts in Mexico and Central America that secure our own borders, as well as programs that advance democracy, including civil society and the rule of law. When the government shuts down, overseas operations are heavily affected. It would put at risk the physical protection for diplomatic personnel and facilities overseas and severely limit the ability of the State Department to provide for and maintain missions in increasingly dangerous locations. With all the rhetoric about Benghazi--and we share the concern about what happened--this, again, puts people at risk overseas. It would stop commercial export sales. A shutdown would force the State Department to impose indiscriminate cuts to embassy security and protection of personnel, thereby eroding the security of the United States Government diplomatic facilities and making it all but impossible to meet the requirements to provide safe and secure embassies overseas. All national parks would be closed, memorials and museums. There are 401 of these locations throughout the country. Cumberland Island National Seashore would be closed. The Martin Luther King National Historic Site would be closed. The Chattahoochee River National Recreational Area would be closed. Fort Frederica National Monument on St. Simmons Island would be closed. And that's just to mention a few Federal facilities that I suspect the gentleman who is managing this bill is fully familiar with. We'll let go of 4,000 weather forecasters. We could go on and on. The Smithsonian will be closed. The Lincoln Memorial will be shut down. The National Zoo, Yellowstone. What are we doing this for? This doesn't make sense. All the wildlife refuges will be closed for hunting. This is hunting season. You know, this may not seem like a big deal; but I think the American people, when this is done, are going to realize the same thing they did back in 1995: wait a minute, we want these Federal activities. We need these Federal facilities. We need these jobs. Open up our government. And any Congress that acts to close it down is disserving the American public. We are not fulfilling our responsibilities if we allow this government to shut down, but that's exactly what we are doing with the action that the majority will be taking tonight. I reserve the balance of my time, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I want to associate myself with the comments of my good friend from Virginia (Mr. Wolf). I completely agree with him that we want both DOD personnel and the personnel of our other Federal agencies to be able to continue to come to work. I appreciate his comments. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the very distinguished minority whip of the Congress who not only has substantial military activity within his district but very ably represents tens of thousands of Federal employees.

Mr. MORAN. I yield the gentleman an additional 2 minutes.

Mr. MORAN. Does my friend from Georgia have many other speakers?

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Garamendi), who has real-life practical experience in knowing what it's like to administer an agency--in this case, the Interior Department--during a shutdown.

Mr. MORAN. I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentleman.

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the very distinguished gentlelady from New York (Mrs. Lowey), the ranking member of the full Appropriations Committee.

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, since I have only 1\1/2\ minutes, I think I'll let the gentleman from Georgia yield to further speakers, but I do want to ask if the gentleman would yield some time, though, if he has time available, to engage in a colloquy. But on his time.

Mr. MORAN. Let me ask my very good friend from Georgia if he knows why over in the Senate the minority has insisted upon the cloture rule; in other words, filibustering the appropriation rules, and why they have not appointed conferees to the budget conference?

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to my good friend from North Carolina (Mr. Price), the ranking member of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.

Mr. MORAN. I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, the problem with this bill is that it assumes a government shutdown. If it didn't assume a government shutdown, then it wouldn't separate Department of Defense personnel from non-Department of Defense personnel. Why would you need it if we were assuming that we're going to be able to fund the government? That's the underlying problem with this bill. We're going to vote for it because we feel that Department of Defense personnel ought to be paid. Of course, we do. Of course, we're going to vote for this. But why are you doing it? You're only doing it because you assume that you're going to shut the government down. That's the problem with this bill. There's no other purpose for this bill. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. MORAN

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

Mr. MORAN

Mr. MORAN. Madam Speaker, this vote is about more than these two throwaway provisions, which we know are not going to be taken seriously--and should not--by the Senate or by the country, but I am going to oppose it for another reason: because I used to be very proud of this institution. I used to be able to go through my community--and many of those who have served as long as I have know what it was like--and be proud to be a Member of Congress, to know that we had improved the lives of our constituents, that we had helped them build bridges and buildings and roads, that we could walk through the NIH campus being proud of what we had done for biomedical research, knowing we were improving lives in curing illnesses. We know what the government can do. This bill doesn't allow the government to do what it can to improve the lives of our people. We need to believe in this government again. We need to do what this Congress was meant to do. We need to fund the government adequately to be a first-class society with a first-class economy that can compete and beat anyone. We can't do that on the cheap, and that's why we ought to vote against this.

Mr. MORAN

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, on Monday, just about a mile from here, once again, our Nation experienced a horrific incidence of mass gun violence. Our sympathies obviously go out to the friends and the families who lost loved ones in the shooting at the Washington Navy Yard. But as this chart shows, this mass shooting is only the latest in a long line that includes Columbine and Virginia Tech and Tucson and Aurora and Newtown. But even these horrendous mass killings don't fully reflect our Nation's problem with gun violence. Each year, 100,000 people in America are shot by a gun, 30,000 die from a gun-related injury, 10,000 are murdered by a firearm. By 2015, gun-related deaths will surpass auto-related deaths for the first time. And while it's too early to know what might have prevented this week's mass shooting, we do know what will ensure that it will happen again--doing nothing, business as usual. The chief medical officer at MedStar Hospital expressed the sentiments of many when she pleaded: There's something evil in our society that we, as Americans, all have to work to try and eradicate. If we don't do all we can to reduce gun violence through stronger laws and improved services, all we'll have to offer our constituents are only more condolences.