Mark Takano

Mr. TAKANO

Mr. TAKANO. I thank my friend and colleague, the gentlelady from California's 35th Congressional District, Gloria Negrete McLeod. Now I yield to a true champion of small business. She sits on the Small Business Committee, as well as the Judiciary Committee. Representative Judy Chu has been a friend of mine in California. I know her from various roles we have played in California governance. She represents California's 27th District, which includes Pasadena, Rosemead, Monterey Park, and many other communities. I yield to the gentlelady.

Mr. TAKANO. I thank the gentleman. Now, I would like to recognize the distinguished gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Negrete McLeod), a Representative from a neighboring district, California's 35th District. I have known Congresswoman Gloria Negrete McLeod, gosh, more than 20 years, when we both began our careers as community college trustees. It is such a great honor to serve alongside her and sit in this Chamber sometimes when we are voting. She sits on the Committee on Agriculture and the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, on which I also sit. We are both committed to the huge veterans population that we have in the inland empire of the region of California that we both represent in inland southern California. Mrs. NEGRETE McLEOD. Thank you. Mr. Speaker, with each day that passes that the Nation is in government shutdown, we put the very livelihood of Americans and the economy in uncertainty: like the over 3,800 Federal employees who live in the 35th Congressional District, these are all hardworking men and women in the Federal Government workforce; like the constituent who wrote us asking why death benefits for veterans were not being paid out; like the dairy owner that called this very morning and wanted to know why they had not received money that was owed to them from the Federal Government. These are just a few of the cases that are going on in my district; and while progress has been made in the Nation's economic recovery from the greatest recession since the last depression, the Federal Government's shutdown hampers that very recovery. The shutdown sends a bad message to the business community, that government is unreliable. The 35th District's constituents are not being helped by the Small Business Administration because of the shutdown. The SBA is currently approving zero general small business, real estate, and equipment loans. This hurts the economic development of California's 35th Congressional District. Last year, the SBA approved almost $500,000 a day in small business, real estate, and equipment loans in my district. This money enabled job growth and benefited the community by spurring economic development in the region. This equates to more than $1 billion not currently being lent to small businesses across the country in 1 month. Businesses in my district, the State, and across the Nation are losing money every day because of the government shutdown. We should be helping businesses start up and grow. We should be doing everything we can to grow jobs and grow our economy. Congress should not be an impediment that slows prosperity in America. Without a solution to the Federal Government shutdown, low-income women and children will suffer without programs that Congress fought hard to secure. Federally funded programs like the Women, Infants, and Children program, commonly known as WIC, is at risk of having its funding diminished under a government shutdown. WIC provides nutrition education and healthy foods, enabling families to make lifelong healthy eating and lifestyle choices. In California alone, 1.5 million low-income women and children will be impacted should Congress not act to end this shutdown. This is at a time when 27 percent of California's children are considered to be food insecure, children lacking access to enough food or nutritionally adequate food. Letting a government shutdown occur when children's nutrition is at risk is irresponsible. Let us be part of the solution and end political gamesmanship that hurts average Americans. Let us feed America's hungry children. Let us get businesses back to business and help America prosper.

Mr. TAKANO

Mr. TAKANO. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the House bring up the Senate amendment to H.J. Res. 59, the clean CR, and go to conference on a budget so that we can end this Republican government shutdown that is slowing our economic growth by .3 percent.

Mr. TAKANO. Madam Speaker, what do the House Republicans want to end this shutdown, because----

Mr. TAKANO. Parliamentary inquiry, Madam Speaker.

Mr. TAKANO. Madam Speaker, before I state my unanimous consent request----

Mr. TAKANO

Mr. TAKANO. The gentleman is going to have to help me. I'm not aware of when this happened.

Mr. TAKANO. I thank the gentleman from Wisconsin. I rise today to object to this government shutdown that has been orchestrated and carried out by the House Republicans and the Tea Party. Before I came to Congress, yes, as the gentleman has said, I worked for over 20 years as a high school teacher; and I have to say, during these last few days, I've begun to wonder if my students in Riverside County had a better understanding of how our government works and how it should function than the House Republicans. It is 46 times that the House Republicans have voted to repeal or to defund the Affordable Care Act. They are doing this as if they believe the majority in the Senate, which fought to create the Affordable Care Act, would vote for its repeal. They are doing this as if they believe the President would actually sign legislation reversing his crowning achievement. That's not how our government works. There are three branches of government in this country, and any high school senior can tell you that the only way a bill can become a law is if it is passed by the House, passed by the Senate, and signed into law by the President. So now the Republican Party has resorted to hurting everyday Americans by forcing the government to shut down and furloughing hundreds of thousands of workers so they can get what they want. It is 18 times the Senate attempted to send negotiators to the House to get an agreement on a budget; and now, because of the House Republican delay tactics, we have run out of time and have passed the date to keep the government open. They have taken this moment of crisis to exercise political leverage in the most irresponsible manner. I can appreciate my Republican colleagues' passions and their world views on government, but their passions are misplaced, ill-timed, and inappropriate. They want to display those passions and undo a law at a time when Americans will be harmed by their tactics. What makes Americans so angry is when they see Members of Congress so eager to hurt our country to achieve their political ends. Let's say that our positions were flipped, that the Republicans had the Senate and the Presidency and the Democrats had the House. What if the Democrats said, Well, we don't want a government shutdown, but unless the Senate passes and the President signs immigration reform into law, that's what we will do? Or how about if we were to say, We are against furloughing hundreds of thousands of workers, but unless the Senate passes and the President signs an assault weapons ban, we will do just that? You know, we could say unless the Senate passes and the President signs into law, the option will be to shut down the government. I know our friends on the other side of the aisle would never allow such tactics to stand. Now the House Republicans are trying a piecemeal approach, attempting to fund the government one agency at a time. This is no way to run a government either. This is just legislative public relations. This is Speaker Boehner and the House Republicans reacting to the bad headlines they've received in the last few days. The press has been criticizing this shutdown for how it's harmed our veterans. What's the answer for the Republicans? Introduce a bill that funds only veterans programs. The press has exposed the tragedy of this shutdown, ending clinical trials for kids with cancer. What's their solution? Introduce a bill that funds only clinical trials. The press has shown how insulting it is to our Greatest Generation when they have been locked out of the Washington, D.C., World War II Memorial. What do Republicans do? Introduce a bill that funds only parks and monuments. This is not governing. This is damage control. The actions by the House Republicans are absurd and reprehensible. The House Republicans are pitting American against American for political gain. Do they think that a veteran would want his benefits at the expense of his grandchild's education? Do they think that poor children should go to sleep hungry so the national park in their district can open? One-half of one House of Congress of one branch of government should not get to make such outrageous demands. To make things worse, there are reasonable Republicans, as the gentleman from Wisconsin has just demonstrated, Republicans who know this is wrong, Republicans that have stopped me in the hall and told me how Ted Cruz has put them into a political conundrum. Even Grover Norquist has said Ted Cruz has ``pushed House Republicans into traffic and wandered away.'' Eighteen House Republicans have publicly stated they would support a clean CR. Let's end the GOP shutdown. Let's bring sanity back to Congress and pass a clean CR that will put Americans back to work and restore funding to the countless programs that they rely on.

Mr. TAKANO. Was that literally the 11th hour, 59th minute before they--that's right. I do remember this now because I was here that time of night. I do remember that because we were wondering what the Republican Caucus was going to do next, and the last thing of the evening on Saturday was to propose a conference. Look, the Senate Democrats passed a budget after much complaining by the House Republicans that the Senate had not passed a budget, and I believe this was way back in the spring.

Mr. TAKANO. We had plenty of time to try and hash all of this out, but let's remember the original pretext for this shutdown. What I kept hearing from our Republican colleagues was they wanted to delay the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. That seemed to be the crux of their objectives.

Mr. TAKANO. The last 48 hours, we've voted on a lot of things since then. As I pointed out in my remarks, every headline that looks bad for them, they come up with a bill, and they try to fund that headline away. Again, they're embarrassing votes for many people on our side, having to answer, Why are you voting against the National Institutes of Health? Why are you voting against veterans? Of course we're not voting against them. We're saying that you can't pit one group of Americans against another group of Americans, and that there are literally many Americans who depend on many of the programs. When people really understand what our government does for them and when it's taken away, then it comes home.

Mr. TAKANO. I don't know if you spoke about this earlier, but in just this past series of votes, there was what is called in technical language here in the House, a motion to recommit, otherwise known as an MTR. The Democrats used that opportunity to propose a motion to recommit, which was essentially that motion. We were trying to bring to the floor a clean CR, the exact Senate language for the continuing resolution. The number that we would have funded the government at would have been at the Republican's own number. It's a number that many of us feel is too low. I bet you most of our caucuses would've supported it. But what happened? There was a motion on the Republican side to table our motion. Why table it? Why were they scared? They were scared to bring it to the floor. Instead of a procedural motion that the Republicans could have voted ``no'' on, they would have been faced with voting up or down and those 18 Members would have had to make a decision to go against what they publicly stated. They could have done that today. They had an opportunity today, and let it be said right now that we missed an opportunity to fund this government and to move on. It passed away today. All I can say is this motion to table was nothing less than, I think, a motion out of fear. Fear of what? That there would be a reasonable majority that would come together. I asked earlier today a question that was rhetorical. I asked as a point of information, Who is the Speaker of this House? Is it John Boehner or is it Ted Cruz? In order to get to this vote, we have to take this Congress back from a phantom Speaker because I can't believe that--you read out the names of 18 people who are willing to go on record publicly. How many do you and I suspect of Republicans that privately feel these things, but are too afraid to move forward because of this phantom Speaker?

Mr. TAKANO

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, before I state my unanimous consent request, may I ask a point of information?

Mr. TAKANO. My inquiry is: Who is the Speaker of this House? Is it John Boehner or is it Ted Cruz?

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the House bring up the Senate amendment to H.J. Res. 59, the clean CR, to go to conference on a budget so that we end this Republican government shutdown that is adding to the veterans' disability backlog.

Mr. TAKANO

Mr. TAKANO. Madam Speaker, I rise today to commemorate an important accomplishment for our Nation, as it was 48 years ago today that President Johnson signed Medicare into law, thus cementing a promise to our Nation's seniors. Before Medicare, nearly 30 percent of seniors lived below the poverty line and American life expectancy was 70 years old. Since then, the poverty rate has plummeted all the way down to 7.5 percent and life expectancy has risen to 78-1/2 years. Madam Speaker, Medicare is a sacred promise that we made, and it is a sacred promise that we must keep, despite the House Republicans' addiction to slash-and-burn policies. If the House Republicans got their way, they would replace Medicare with a voucher system, removing the certainty of what seniors will receive. These are benefits that have been earned and paid for, but turning Medicare into a voucher system will result in reduced benefits and increased health care costs. The Democratic Party, however, believes that working families should not lose their life savings in their golden years to pay for health care, and they should not suffer without treatment due to an inability to pay for medical services. The Democratic Party believes that seniors deserve the certainty of Medicare. Madam Speaker, on this day, the 48th anniversary of Medicare, I pledge to uphold the promises we made to seniors and to never turn my back on working families.

Mr. TAKANO

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Chair, on rollcall vote No. 405, I inadvertently voted ``aye.'' I intended to vote ``no.'' (By unanimous consent, Mr. Dent was allowed to speak out of order.) Washington Kastles Charity Classic

Mr. TAKANO

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Chairman, I rise to engage the ranking member of the House Education and Labor Committee, Mr. Miller, in a colloquy. As a teacher for more than 20 years, I've seen firsthand the unintended, yet harmful, consequences that the annual assessment requirements included in No Child Left Behind and the States' poor decisions in the implementation of them have had on America's students and teachers alike. I'm concerned that high stakes and low-quality testing have caused a negative shift in our education system from teaching to testing, and our education system is no better off than it was before. Mr. Miller, you have spent a considerable time on this issue and have been a leader in the Congress on education. Will you work with me to address the issues regarding our testing in our Nation's schools?

Mr. TAKANO. Thank you, Mr. Miller. I look forward to working with you. Mr. Chairman, I have submitted an amendment with Representative Gibson to H.R. 5, which would return annual testing to pre-No Child Left Behind levels. However, H.R. 5 is just so bad of a bill that even this amendment, if it were to pass, I could not support the bill. That is why I decided to withdraw my support for the amendment. I thank Mr. Miller for his leadership on this issue.

Mr. TAKANO

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, point of parliamentary inquiry. Mr. Speaker, is it in order to appeal your ruling?

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I wish to congratulate my Republican colleagues. They really caught us off guard on this one. They have gone above and beyond the high jinks that they pulled to get this farm bill to the floor. And while they were at it, they willfully ignored the nearly 48 million Americans who rely on SNAP and over 500 agriculture groups who say that this is bad policy. There is a reasonable center here, and I know we can reach a rational compromise if we will stay here and work at it. What's the rush to get out of town? Let's stay here and get the job done that the American people sent us here to do.

Mr. TAKANO

Mr. TAKANO. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the amendment of my colleague's, the gentlewoman from Texas. It is vital we support our basic scientific research. As the ranking member of the Science Committee, she carries great weight in these matters, and I yield to the gentlelady.

Mr. TAKANO. I move to strike the last word.

Mr. TAKANO

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