letter and continue to hang on and stay in public service. if our political system can't function, our institutions and the people that work in them and rely on their services suffer. in one of the most damaging legacies of this shutdown could be the crisis of confidence that it will create among the american people towards their own government. that would be devastating. i'm not arguing that government should be the answer to all of our problems, provide all of our services, but the services it does provide should be worthy of the people, families, and communities we are providing them for. having a dedicated federal work force is central to that goal. and our job as senators is to give that work force confidence that their work is valued, that they are valued, that their contributions are worthwhile. this shutdown fails miserably in all of those respects.

we have the privilege of serving in the united states senate. let's do our job for the people all across our country who, like all these people who wrote to me and who wrote to all my other colleagues, expect nothing less of us. let's reopen the government. speaker boehner, let the house vote on the bill that the senate sent to you and let's get back to working on what we can do better to better serve the people, families, and communities that gave us the privilege to be here. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. nelson: mr. president, i want to thank the senator from hawaii for her comments and say that on the basis of what this senator just discovered, having gone down to the other end of capitol, senator hirono, it's

going to take a lot of loud voices to get the speaker to hear us because they have shut down. they have gone home. they're not even coming back until next monday. and i was just wandering through this deserted capitol, i encountered congressman steny hoyer, one of the great leaders of the united states congress, the minority whip now -- used to be majority leader -- in the u.s. house of representatives, and so he just gave me this report. those chambers down there at the other end are darkened. and here we are.

and on the basis of a small group of people in the house of representatives who insist on having it their way or no way, we have all of these people and all of the specific events that all of these senators have chronicled of the deprivation, of the lack of security, i mean you can go on and on as a result of the shutdown, and this senator is going to enumerate a few examples of that. while the two senators from hawaii and the senator from wisconsin are here, our great presiding officer, one of the bright lights of the new class that just came in to the senate, if you really examine

what is the problem, the problem is it actually goes back to the hebrew scriptures. when in the hebrew scriptures two commands that then were reiterated by jesus in the new scriptures, first commandment, love god with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and the second is like unto it, love your neighbor as yourself. and there was a practical how-to and that we know as the golden rule. treat others as you want to be treated. that is a practical application of the second great commandment of love your neighbor as yourself. and it is part of the root of

the problem of what we see that's not only gripping the capital city of the united states where people are so ingrown and insular and unwilling to respect the other fellow's point of view, and work out your differences, the very underpinnings of the greatness of our democracy that has lasted over two and a quarter centuries, is on that basic principle of treat others as you would want to be treated, in other words, in the political context, do what tip o'neill and ronald reagan used to do, have your fights

but at the end of the day you respect each other, so when it's time to do the deal, you can come together and resolve your differences. another great modeling for this senator when he was a young congressman was the two leaders in the house of representatives, tip o'neill, the democratic speaker, and bob micheal, the republican -- bob michel, the republican leader. it was the same relationship tip had with the president. they'd fight like the dickens during the day but they kept that personal respect through a personal friendship so that even though they vigorously disagreed about an issue, they realized that they were not the only ones

in this country, and that there were other people who thought differently than them, and in the grand tradition of american democracy that when it was time to build the consensus to achieve a workable solution, then they could come together and work it out. but what we see is a small very, i would dare say, totally inward looking group that thinks that they know it all, and that their opinion is the only opinion, and that because they have the political leverage since the speaker of the house has said that he will only pass something with

republican votes -- by the way, it didn't used to be that way. they now call that the hastert rule named after the speaker hastert. well, before that, it didn't used to be that way. we used to pass things in the house of representatives with republican and democratic votes. and i give you that great example. i want to give you one of the finest examples of government being able to work during a time of economic emergency. and it was in 1983. we were within six months of shutting down social security because social security was starting to run out of money where it could not make its full payments. it would have made partial payments.

and those two irishmen, tip o'neill and ronald reagan, they said we're going to fix it. and what we're going to do 1% first thing, we're going to take this iron rail of american politics, we're going to take it off the table to be used to as a hammer to beat your opponent over the head with in the next election. and then we're going to appoint a blue ribbon panel, and they're going to bring back their recommendation to the congress and we're going to pass it and all of that occurs, and it passed overwhelmingly, and it made social security actuarily sound for the next half century, well into the 3020's, all the way from 19 -- 2030's, all the way from 1983. that's an example of the finest traditions of governing under

the american constitutional method in our democratic systems. and so when you get at logger heads in a time like this, where is that respect, that genuine, not that superficial respect, not that respect that, fortunately, we show to each other out here on the floor of the senate but where is that genuine respect and where is that recognition, mr. president, those words right up there, scrolled in the marble, e pluribus unum, out of many, one, that we gain our unity from many people's -- many peoples, many ideas, but we all think of ourselves,

unum, as one, as americans. now, that's what we're missing, and you boil all this down, that's what's going on in american politics today. we don't talk to each other, we're shouting past each other. turn on your tv cables, look at the shouting matches there. or turn on one cable and you get only one perspective, turn on another cable, you get another perspective. we're not talking to each other. we're not. also as the good book says, as lyndon johnson as president often reminded us, come, let us reason together. that's what's happening. mr. president, i see other senators that want to speak

here. i've got a whole bunch of things that i wanted to enumerate that are happening in the state of florida where the shutdown of the federal government is affecting the state of government. i'm not going to list those things so my colleagues can go on and speak. i've got a bunch of things to talk about, national security, where we are genuinely harmed today with the shutdown of the government, and i want to point out that one of our military commanders -- it happens to be a tanker unit. you know, the big kc-135's, tankers, they fly, they refuel all of our aircraft so they can refuel in the air. he says -- quote -- "we are effectively shut down."

and another commander of another active duty wing, colonel dethomas, says that when you take the furloughs -- these furloughs now -- on top of the six days that they lost, unpaid, in the sequester in the last fiscal year, which ended september 30, when he says you do that, he says it creates a double whammy. that's what's happening, and that's just one little snippet of our national security. so, mr. president, i'm so glad that these colleagues are here to speak, and i will share all

the details that i intended to share at a later time. i thank the senate for their attention and, mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from wisconsin. ms. baldwin: thank you, mr. president. i have come to the floor today to deliver a message from the people of wisconsin. they are fed up with the political games that are being played here in washington. they've had enough. on tuesday, congress failed the american people and our government shut down because the tea party faction in the house put their own personal agendas and partisan politics ahead of progress for the american

people. the republican leadership in the house could end this shutdown by simply letting the house vote on the senate-passed bill to fund the government. instead, the speaker of the house has for over a week prevented the house from voting on a clean funding bill that would open the entire federal government. in my home state of wisconsin, we believe in hard work. we believe that hard work should be respected and rewarded. and every day people get up and go to work to build a better life for themselves and for their families. they trust in the promise that if you work hard and play by the rules, you'll get ahead. and they are right to expect that both parties in washington work together to help keep that

promise. and they are right to expect that both parties in washington work together to respect the hard work of americans who have helped lift this country up from the worst recession since the great depression. and they are right to expect that both parties in washington work together to reward the hard work of families and small business owners who through sheer grit and determination have been moving our economy and our country forward. in my home state of wisconsin, our state motto is one word: "forward." the people of wisconsin live up to that motto every single day, and i would say that all americans do as well. but as i stand here today in the midst of the fifth day of a

government shutdown, i can't say that congress has. instead f working together to move our economy and our country forward, the republican leadership in the house has offered day after day of political games and brinksmanship. and here is the price, in wisconsin, more than 800,000 workers in the national guard are off the job, hardworking people who have committed homes to public service, to something bigger than themselves. they get up every day and work their our common good. they deserve to have a congress that does the same thing. you know, these are particularly tough times for my state. even as the national economy is rebuilding and rebounding, my state's economy has lagged

behind the rest of the nation. and our economy cannot afford to have the tea party extremists in the house making it harder for small business owners to create jobs. but their shutdown has blocked small business loans and investments in wisconsin. and that threatens our made in wisconsin economy and tradition and our work ethic and our entrepreneurial spirit. due to this tea party shutdown, wisconsin small businesses are missing out on about $3.5 million in s.b.a. supported loans every day. that means wisconsin small businesses have been denied access to critical loans since this shutdown began. we know that the majority of new jobs in the united states are created by start-ups and small

businesses are engines of our economy, creating two out of every three new jobs right now. so our economy needs to have a congress that is supporting and strengthening small business efforts, not a congress that steers from one manufactured crisis to another. in wisconsin, groundbreaking research supported by the national institutes of health adds more than $800 million a year to wisconsin's economy. we should all be able to agree, both parties in both the house and the senate, that in order for america to out-innovate the rest of the world, we must protect and strengthen our investments in research and science and innovation. but the failure of the house leadership to step up and actually lead has put in place a

shutdown that is threatening wisconsin's leadership on bioenergy research, on biomedical research. this failure in leadership in the house means that new patients are being turned away from the benefits of cancer research being done at the university of wisconsin. on a broader scale, our n.i.h. director, dr. francis collins, told the "wall street journal" on tuesday that as long as the government is shut down, the national institutes of health says it will turn away roughly 200 patients each week from its clinical research center, including children with cancer. we've had to tell people, "i'm sorry, you can't come here," dr. collins said. this is the price extracted by a

small tea party group in the house who can't see past their own political agenda to defund or delay or repeal the affordable care act. you know, it's reckless and it's irresponsible but it doesn't have to be that way. it's time. it's time the house leadership step up and actually lead. more than one week ago, the senate passed a clean bill that funds the government, that ends the shutdown and that opens the federal government for business again. they have obstructed that measure from going to the house floor for a simple up-or-down vote. the house republicans need to end these political games. it's time. it's time for the house to have an up-or-down vote to end this shutdown. house republicans need to break

with their divisive threats. they need to start governing and pass a responsible budget that invests in the middle class and that strength inens our economy. it's time. it's time for the house to have an up-or-down vote to open our government for business. house republicans need to stop standing in the way of progress. they need to start working to build a better and stronger future for our country. it's time. it's time for the house to have an up-or-down vote to end this gridlock and to move our country forward. i yield back. mr. casey con. mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from pen. mr. casey: thanpen -- mr. casey: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. casey: thank you, mr. president. we're grateful for the work

you're doing presiding this weekend. i don't know if you're at the beginning of the end. mr. president, i want to start by commending the work of the capitol police. i didn't have a chance to do that yesterday in light of what happened here on -- here in washington just the other day, a terrible incident, a terrible tragedy. and as usual, the capitol police handled it with professionalism and with very effective policing and law enforcement and kept -- kept people safe. but we should -- we should commend them on -- on every -- every day, not just on days when there's a dangerous incident that takes place. so we thank them for that. and question gather here today to talk about our country and whether or not we're going to finally, after almost a full week now, finally have a government that's open and operating and functioning. i think a lot of people in both parties, and maybe more -- more so in -- on the republican side of the aisle, have a better

chance this week to understand or to appreciate or to have insights into what our government does every day, how it helps people, how it keeps our economy moving and how it keeps us safe. i just hope those lessons are being learned. what i'm in pennsylvania or when i'm here and getting communications from pennsylvania, people say to me, they ask, in light of this -- this shutdown, they -- they ask some basic questions. a lot of the questions are the same: when will it end? how will it end? is there a way out? those kinds of questions. and they really don't know because there's -- there's often not a readily identifiable answer. but as complicated as this is and as difficult as it's been, especially for people directly affected or even affected indirectly, for folks around the whole country, there actual ilys a pretty simple answer and maybe it's been overlooked this week,

and it really comes down to really one word. and i -- technically it's two words. the first word is "just," and the second word is "vote." but in our social media age, often words are -- are kind of jammed together. so maybe we'll just say it's one word -- "just vote." people might say, what's that mean? you should have votes all the time. and i understand that the house and the senate vote on things all the time. what does "just vote" mean? well, it's -- it's actually rather simple. a week ago yesterday, the senate voted on a -- on a measure, really just an amendment, that was sent over to the house that was a -- a clean resolution, in other words, a continuing resolution -- which is another way of saying keeping the government operating -- and it didn't have anything attached to it, nothing about anything extraneous or anything additional. and that's where the phrase "clean c.r., continuing resolution" comes from. but it's really just a -- a way to keep the government open.

the house, led by speaker boehner, decided not to -- not to consider that. but here it is. it's actually pretty simple. it's -- it's an amendment to house joint resolution 59. it's amendment number 1974. and you can see the -- the markings on it when it was being considered here. but it is all of 16 pages, not even -- doesn't even get to the end of page 16. but it's a -- it's a simple document and it's been sitting over there for a week. i won't -- of course, won't read it, but it's -- it's a very simple way out of this predicament. and this has overwhelming support across the country, even for people that disagree with -- with me or disagree with democrat dems about health care, about -- with democrats, about health care, about any other issue. there's overwhelming support for this. so when someone says, "just vote," this is what we should just vote -- they should just

vote on in the house. the house passes this, it's over, the government shutdown is over, the president will sign it, and literally within -- i don't know how long it would take them to consider it over there, 20 minutes for a vote or an hour for all the procedural mechanisms to -- to play out, and then the president would sign it. i'm sure there are people here that would drive it to the white house to have him sign t. but that'it.but that's what this isa 16-page bill that's simple. and it's -- it has growing support even on the republican side. so when we say "just vote," it's just vote on this 16-page document. it's -- it may not look like a key. it's a -- it's a -- it's 16 pages of -- of legislative language, but this is the key to -- toning what i think is not a -- a republican, democratic shutdown. this is the key tonin to endinge

tea party shutdown. that's what this is. and i think most of people understand that now that we're into it a couple of days. that -- that vote would be i think rather easy to -- to take place. it would transpire very quickly. the speaker would only have to put the bill on the floor. he wouldn't have to vote for it. most republicans wouldn't have to vote for it and likely would not. but the combination of getting democrats voting for it -- virtually every one -- and a handful of republicans is not only possible but i think there are people waiting to do it. and maybe the number would eve even -- even grow if it actually happened. so that's what -- that's what should happen and that could happen today or i guess the next opportunity would be monday. but i would hope that the speaker would do that because i think a lot of people are asking

kind of a fundamental question about who -- who is in charge, who runs one part of the -- the house or the other. and it's my judgment that the tea party is in charge now, and i hope that -- i hope that conservative republicans and very conservative republicans and moderate republicans can get control of their party. because what i -- what i worry about, and i think what economists worry about even more than i because they know more than we do about the economy, but the concern is that -- that a -- that if you don't get control of one -- one wing of one political party, you're going to have an economy that gets out of control. and to one wants that i don't believe in either party. the other point i wanted to make about where we are -- and i know there are people out there hear a lot of back-and-forth and they -- they get a little tired

of the debate, they'd rather just -- they'd rather just have everyone vote in the house and this would be over, but i think it's important to talk about t the -- the words "compromise" and "negotiation." they've been used a lot by -- by the speaker and by republican members in the last couple of days. i think the record is pretty clear, even though some have forgotten it -- but there are some reminders this week -- that the negotiation and the compromise on the resolution to keep the government operating already happened. it happened weeks, if not months ago where both sides agreed that a resolution to continue funding the government would go forward with nothing attached to it. the hard part for democrats is that we had to compromise in a very substantial way, and i think that's an understatement. the compromise that we put on the table -- and we adhered to

-- is the compromise of a $70 billion cut in fiscal year 2013-enacted levels. what does that mean? well, that just means that we agreed to a much lower number. democrats on this side had passed a budget resolution in the early hours of -- i forget which day it was -- a saturday among. we voted all night, throughout several days and then all night. we passed a budget resolution that had a higher number than the number we agreed to laimpleo later. so we compromised substantially. i think you could even make the argument that the compromising so far has been all on one side, the democratic side, to agree to a much lower number. one of the important parts about that is that we compromised on the core issue that's before us. this continuing resolution and funding the government, keeping

the government operating, is not a health care gaivment debate. i realize people have made it into a health care debate. the core issue, will the government remain open? we said "yes." will the government remain open at the democratic number? we wanted that, but we said, no, in order to keep it functioning and moving it forward, we agreed to a lower number. that's the core issue. what will the number be to fund the government? so the compromising and the negotiating was done a long time ago. and we were the ones who compromised. the idea that we should have a drawnout discussion, which they call negotiating, to open the government doesn't make a lost sense. now, once the government is open, we've got a lot to debate and to talk about and to negotiate. now, one of the -- one of the illustrations of what i'm talking about in terms of what

happened here, that transpired over many months, where democrats compromised to keep the government functioning, was set fortunately in several -- set forth in several news articles. i won't read this. but it's -- the presiding officer: the senator's time has expired. mr. casey: could i ask consent to have three more minutes? the presiding officer: without objection. mr. casey: looking at the october 3, thursday, "politico" on page 19. here is the headline. i'll read it because it is probably not readable from a distance. "how the shutdown fight is obscuring a major republican victory." so, they're saying here that the compromise the democrats made to cut $70 billion is the compromise that already happened and should keep the government open. so that's -- that's the reality. now, the good news is that there is a growing number of republicans in the house and

senate that are saying just what i'm saying. let's just vote -- meaning let's have the house vote -- and pass the continuing resolution as it is. i have a number of -- i have a number of examples from pennsylvania. maybe i'll be able to a little bit later get to walk through some of those. but i won't do that right now. i've got some examples of what middle-class families are facing. let me conclude with this: i think the -- one of the best lines of this week about this piecemeal approach that the house is taking day after day instead of just voting on the measure before them to open up the government came from the commander in chief of the v.f.w., veterans of foreign wamplets "we expect more from our elected leadership and not a piecemeal approach that would use the military disabled veterans as leverage in a political game." i think that's a pretty good summation of why we shouldn't go

in the direction of piecemealing. the house should, in a word, just vote so that we don't have -- and i say this respectfully to my republican friends -- we don't have a tea party shutdown evolve into a tea party default, which is -- it's bad enough that we're in a shutdown. it would be a lot worse if for the first time since 1789 the united states government defaulted and the full faith and credit of the united states was badly, badly damaged. mr. president, i would yield the floor. mr. levin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. mr. levin: mr. president, the other day a reporter came up to me and he said, you've been here a while. what do you think it will take to end this shutdown? i rebelied a single sentence: the speaker of the house needs to lead. the majority of house republicans want to end this shutdown by voting for a clean continuing resolution. but a small number of the most

ideological members of the house oppose such a move and oppose a vote, and the speaker has given the small group a veto over the functioning of the united states government. congressman charlie dent, a pennsylvania republican, made one of the most stunning statements about this situation. in a television interview this week, congressman dent said the following. he says, "i do believe it is impair that i have we do have a clean funding bill to fund the government. that was the intent of the republican leadership all along," he said. "but obviously there were a few dozen folks in the house republican conference who weren't prepared to vote for a clean bill, and that's why we're in the situation we're in right now." so, congressman dent, a republican, makes it very clear

what's going on over in the house of representatives. there's a few dozen folks in the house republican cfn conferenceo aren't prepared to vote for a clean bill, and that's why we're in the situation we're in right now. so the speaker of the house is allowing a -- quote -- "few dozen folks" to shut down the united states government. what an indictment of the house republican leadership. speaker boehner could bring up a of this chaos to an end, and all he has to do is bring the senate's bill reopening the government to a vote. the senate has voted three times on house continuing resolutions. speaker boehner has yet to schedule a single vote on the senate's bill. why? because it would pass. now, that has got to be -- sound totally counterintuitive that

you don't bring a bill to the floor because it would pass when you, the speaker, yourself say yoyou want the government to opn up and 90% of your own republican government wan kaw ce government to open up. you would have to depend 2407b a few government votes to pass the bill. that is anathema to the speaker of the house. a bill with bipartisan support cannot be allowed, in his jiewment, to comjudgment, to coe because it would pass. and that means that it would be a bipartisan bill, it would depend upon some democratic votes, and it is his policy -- his policy -- that you cannot hold votes on bills that require democratic votes to pass. i cannot think of a more

striking example of rank partisanship than that policy. and i hope the speaker will be asked one of these disa days to explain his refusal, why he is following the dictates of a small group of his caucus when there is a bipartisan solution right in front of him. we have looked through the media. we cannot find that the speaker has ever been asked or answered this question: why will you not bring the senate continuing resolution vote to the floor of the house of representatives for a vote? why will you not allow a vote on that bill? instead, the speaker sends us piecemeal bills and demands that we open up the government one program, one agency at a time. today there's a new element. a bill that would pay federal

employees, whether they're on the job or not, during this shutdown. now, federal employees didn't ask to stop working, so we should pay them. but why, in heaven's name -- why, in heaven's name -- should we not let them get back on the job sesqujob serving this countf we're going to get paid? why not pass a resolution to let them work? this resolution to pay employees who are not working, retroactively, passed apparently unanimously in the house of representatives. why not let them work? pass a continuing resolution. now, i also want to ask the republicans who support this bits-and-pieces approach this question: when all this piecemeal legislating is through, what is it that you propose to remain

closed? is it the usda i inspectors or offices that process small business loans? is it the agency that works on pell grants for college students? it noaa forecasters who keep the watch on hurricanes? is it fema workers who respond when storms come? is it the furloughed workers at national institutes of health who process the grants that fund so much of our nation's health research? just which americans do the house republicans intend to keep as hawrnling hostages to hostag? it makes gross judgments as to who will be ran system and who will remain a hostage, what agencieagencyies get ran systemh remain hostaged. i don't think we can ran system some hostages while the rest remain captive.

we're not the united states of the n.s.a. or the united states of the national park services. that's why the attempt of the house republicans to pick off one group of americans at a time is going to fail. then i heard one republican over here tai say the other day that our call -- the democratic call -- to open the entire government was, and i quote, "cynical." what a remarkable statement. here's what i call cynical. shutting down government cancer trials for young patients, head start classrooms for students, benefits for the families of our troops who have fallen in combat, shutting down all of that and hundreds of other things, and then offering to restore the government in slivers, piece by piece, while pretending you're doing the country a favor. boy, that's pretty doggone cynical. acting as if it is a compromise worthy of praise to shut down our government and then to allow portions of it to reopen today,

perhaps another portion or two tomorrow, and another portion or two the day after that. that's cynicism. the anecdote to that cynicism is the true spirit of this country and it's embodied in people like congressmacongress people like n dingell and former senators like bob dole. both of those gentleman, congressman dingell and senator dole, served this country in peace and war. when the house republicans try to cover up their destructive behavior by draping it in the love that our nation feels for our world war ii veterans, these two men -- republican and a democrat, both world war ii veterans -- said it clearly: you want to honor the service, give the nation we risked our life for, its government, back. all of it.

here's what they said. "if this congress truly wishes to recognize the sacrifice and the bravery of our world war ii veterans and all who have come after, it will end this shutdown and reopen our government now," senator dole and congressman dingell added. "piecemeal or partial spending plans do not adequately ensure that our veterans and indeed all americans have access to the system of self-government established to serve and protect them." so, mr. president, republicans have a simple choice: iring's continuchoice --continue their d approach or reopen the government. and then have discussions about health care or the budget or other issues that they wish to discuss. it is time for those republicans who say that the government should be open, who say that they don't believe in these destructive tactics, to match their words with deeds. it is time for the rhetoric now to give way to leadership.

speaker boehner can end this all now, end this farce of rifl rifle-shot funding that leaves our government full of holes and bring to the a vote in the house of representatives a clean continuing resolution. open it now, speaker boehner, by allowing the house to vote on the senate bill, which will reopen this government. mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. sh-tsz sh-ts thank you, mr. president -- mr. schatz: most people believe in compromise. it's part of who we are. when you live on an island, no matter how contentious issues may get you know because of geographic location, you may always see someone the following

morning at the safeway, coffee shop or back at work. so i am deeply, personally inclined towards compromise, and so are the people i represent back in hawaii. but the problem here is that the house republicans' supposed compromise is not a compromise at all. absent from their press conferences and their photo ops is the truth. they are attempting to extort the end of the affordable care act in exchange for doing the job that they were elected to do, a job that 800 thousand federal employees need them to do, which is simply just to pass a bill to fund the government. passing observers, people who were busy last week, may be tempted to cast blame on both parties, but the reality is that there's no question by any objective measure whose recklessness has forced our government to halt many of its most important services. this shutdown is on the speaker

and the tea party. meanwhile my friends and neighbors back home are suffering. 25,000 people in hawaii are federal employees, and most of them are going without paychecks. more than 36,000 women and children in hawaii depend on the supplemental nutritional program for women, infants and children, which makes sure that low-income mothers and infants are fed. without funding, these families could actually go hungry. more than 3,000 children in hawaii participate in head start programs. head start is a program that provides early education and related social service programs to children and their families. without funding, these kids will have no place to go every day. only three weeks after 250,000 gallons of molasses spilled into honolulu harbor, one of the worst environmental catastrophes

in the history of oahu, federal support for restoration, clean up activities essentially had to stop. the environmental protection agency and national oceanic atmospheric employees responsible for assisting are not allowed to report to work. and at the pearl harbor shipyard, 2,600 employees are furloughed. workers are forced to stay home, causing real economic hardship. this continued uncertainty not only affects them but it affects the decisions of future shipyard workers who may now choose other professionals rather than become the naval engineers hawaii and our nation desperately need. with nearly half of their workforce at home, officials at the pearl harbor shipyard are forced to make hard choices about what work they can perform. we need to end this shutdown so that the pearl harbor shipyard can continue to ensure that our

entire naval fleet is ready to respond to any contingency in the asia pacific. these are not theoretical hardships or decisions. my constituents have been sharing their situations with me. i've received many, many letters. let me give you an example of a person from kailu "let me start by saying i am a united states citizen. i love my country. i love my job. i want to work and i'm proud to support the war fighters when i can work. but i am truly disappointed and feel a sense of betrayal over the past three months. the furloughs, budget cuts and being worried about my job and career. another constituent of mine from oahu serves in the reserves. she relies on the money from the

training assembly to pay her mortgage. she knows she may not be able to meet all of her financial obligations at the end of this month which is when her paychecks may stop arriving. but she asked me not to give in on the affordable care act because millions of uninsured americans deserve access to health care. even residents who do not collect a paycheck from the federal workforce are suffering. one small business owner from makua on the island of maui is suffering because her business is near a national park which has been closed since monday. she says -- and i quote -- "many small businesses like mine felt an immediate impact on sales as tourists canceled trips into hawaii's most visited attraction. last night i got an e-mail from someone who is waiting on a small business loan, and it's not coming through because of the delay in processing through s.b.a., and this person is expecting to have to lay off 40

individuals from their small company. and so the idea that this is somehow a probusiness shutdown, the idea that they are protecting the rights of employers, the idea that this is in any way good for the economy is just belied by all of the facts. personally, working with a reduced staff, i began answering phone calls myself this week, and many of the stories were similar. without pay and federal services, life has become uncertain and worrisome for thousands of families. and this is all because house republicans are throwing a temper tantrum and refusing to take a reasonable vote to reopen the government. and that really is a tea party temper tantrum, and it's totally unprecedented. it is a low point for the united states congress. but there is a simple solution to this, and the senior senator from michigan pointed it out. it is simple.

all that has to happen is for the speaker of the house to put our legislation on the floor and let the house vote. there is a broad bipartisan majority of members of the house of representatives who want to reopen the government. and so i have two questions, mr. president. first for the media and for the constituents of speaker boehner. please ask him why in the world, if there is a majority of members of the house of representatives prepared to reopen the government, why will you not use his authority to put that legislation on the floor? i would just ask everyone to ask all of their constituents -- all of their members of congress to let the house vote. if we let the house vote, this crisis will be done on monday morning. thank you, mr. president. i yield back. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the

clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call: