paths that we can take. one path is a road that's a little bit bumpy and curvy and dusty, but at the end of the day it gets us where we want to go, into a budget conference with our bills paid and our government open to the people and that's the bipartisan road. it's not easy. and i'm so proud of senators reid and mcconnell for working on a plan that is something we can accept. no one on either side is thrilled about it but we can accept it. it gets us out of this mess. that's the road we should take. the bipartisan road that gets us into the conference, that opens up the doors of government and pays our bills. the other road is the road that the house republicans are taking. that road is straight over the cliff.

that's the partisan road. and we'll dive down. we're not going to get there that way. we're going to bring a world of hurt on the people. what did the people do to deserve this? they didn't vote the way my republican friends wanted them to? sorry, that's what elections are about. i've been disappointed in election outcomes, believe me, more times than i care to admit. that's what elections are about. well, once you get here, you have to work across party lines. and even though that road is bumpy and dusty and twisty and windy and all the rest of it, that's the road that gets us where we have to go. that's the road that leaders reid and mcconnell had us on until a few hours ago, when all of a sudden that road kind of shut down and the other road, that partisan road, just opened right up.

it's -- i don't know why they're taking us down that road, leading us off a cliff. with all the pain and suffering and job loss and economic chaos that awaits if we go down that road. but i honestly think we can get back on that bipartisan path. i don't know exactly how it will come about. how a bill becomes a law is sometimes very complicated. but if the house sends us something but we can work to make it bipartisan, we'll be over this. we'll be over this. we can't have a strictly partisan political bill. i want to share with you, madam president, with my colleague the fact that fitch, a credit rating service, has put our creditworthiness -- quote --

"under review for a downgrade," according to the associated press. it means that america's aaa rating is in doubt. let say that again. fitch, a credit rating service, put our creditworthiness -- quote -- "under review for a downgrade," reports the associated press. putting america's aaa rating in doubt. just this afternoon, after the bipartisan plan was stalled here in the senate and the house went forward with their partisan pl plan. what fitch did is a warning sign. it's a warning sign for businesses in terms of their borrowing costs to expand. it's a warning sign to the job market if there's a lack of expansion by the business community. it's a warning sign that students could be paying higher

interest rates to go to college. it's a warning sign for homeowners who could be paying higher rates for their mortgages. what is going on? we're just getting out of the worst recession since the great depression. madam president, you're in the senate because you fought so hard to get this economy on track and people in your state said, that's just what we need. and you came here. and now this self-inflicted wound just as we're coming out of it, just as we're starting to see progress, why are we doing this? now, i want to talk a little bit about the -- the bill that the house is probably going to be voting on soon because it deals with a couple of things that are very problematical.

i've already said it's a partisan bill. speaker boehner didn't have a conversation with leader pelosi. he just wrote the bill with republicans only, as opposed to harry reid, who wrote our compromise with the republicans, taking us down that bipartisan road. so my understanding is that the house bill does something that is inexplicable to me and many others, both republicans and democrats. listen to this, madam president. it says that no president, starting now with this president and into the future, no president can take steps to avoid a default. i don't get it. we all know a default is chaos. everyone agrees it's terrible, it's bad. and republican and democratic administrations for decades have taken measures when there's a

little stall here or there and they need a few days to move around a bill or two. i can't believe it. from a party that said, in case we default, we should prioritize who we pay, they will not allow future administrations to avoid a default and add a couple of days until we face that. so listen to what tony fratto said. he worked in the bush administration as assistant secretary of public affairs for treasury. he said the following, madam president -- and i quote -- "restricting treasury's use of extraordinary measures is like restricting the fire department's use of hoses." so imagine if you said to a fire department, you can use every tool at your disposal but you can't use a water hose to put out a fire. they are saying to the treasury department, you have to default

even if there's an easy way to avoid it for a few days. what are they thinking? do they want this administration and others to have an easier path to default? i thought we'd all agree we certainly don't ever want to default but certainly give the ability of an administration, democratic or republican, to avert a default if they can. their language makes no sense. and then their other rider on there. it's my understanding -- i could be wrong but this is what i get from reading what their legislation i think is going to be. the other one involves treating congressional employees differently than any other employee in the country who works for a large employer by taking away the employer contribution that these workers have had for more than 50 years.

now, i don't get it. why do republicans to want punish the people who work so hard for them and work so hard for our country? what are they thinking? why do they want to treat people differently than all other workers who work for large employers? honest-to-god, i don't get it. i don't get it. if they don't like the people who work for them, then get somebody else. but don't punish your staff, who works day and night -- and i want to say, my staff and yours who are working, are working without a paycheck. well, this is a lovely thing to say to these workers, some of whom earn very little. you are going to be the only people in the country now who cannot get an employer contribution. i don't get it.

i really don't. so here we are. a government shut down because the republicans won't accept the fact that a law passed four years ago that they don't like, that the supreme court upheld -- and they didn't like that -- and there was an election over it -- they didn't like that -- so they stamped their feet and said we're shutting down the government. and is there ever pain. i've got communities in los angeles, one particular one, where kids are getting nose bleeds, they're sick, they live near an industrial site and the environmental protection agency was about to find out what the problem was when they shut down. and those kids don't have an answer. i had a plane crash in a small airport in santa monica, killed four people.

we don't know why it happened. but there's no investigation. it had to stop midstream. i don't have any inspectors on the ground inspecting clean air, clean water, safe drinking wat water. there are 505 superfund sites where cleanup has been suspend suspended. madam president, i know you have some in your state. these sites are toxic brews. they have arsenic. they have benzene. they have chlorine. they have everything in them that's bad for people to breathe, it's bad if it gets in the drinking water. no inspectors on the ground. and no cleanup at 505 superfund sites. remember fukushima? i think everyone knows what fukushima is. well, now 92% of the nuclear regulatory commission staff have been furloughed.

they have one mission -- and i'm quoting from their mission -- to -- quote -- "ensure the safe use of radioactive materials." the army corps manages 12 million acres of public lands. they host 370 million visitors annually. this is just the time of year when people still, just before we get to winter, can go out there and enjoy the recreation. no. they're closed. and just think about the mom-and-pop shops that exist around our parks, our army corps land, our wildlife refuges. 561, they're all closed because of the shutdown. and hunting season is in full swing. i already talked about the fact that the national transportaion

safety board furloughed 380 of its 400 employees and they've suspended all their pending investigations, and i talked about that. there's another crash they were investigating in san francisco, the asiana airlines flight 214. and i'll tell ya, when you stop an investigation like that, it's hard to get right back to it. and the problem is, you -- it takes you longer to find the cause of the crash. and a lot of times these crashes have clues in them that there may be a part in a certain type of plane that's defective, there may be a problem on the runway, something wrong. the consumer product safety commission, another watch-dog, in san diego last week, a 2-year-old child, anette estrada, was killed. she was crushed by a falling tv. so they can't investigate this incident and maybe some other kids are going to suffer that.

it might have been a very defective design. what does the house do? they're governing by press release. they keep, oh, we'll open this little sliver of an agency and that one. that's not how you run the greatest nation on earth. open up the government. you said you shut it down because of obamacare. obamacare is going forward. you want to fix some parts of it. we're ready to talk. there's no winners in this shutdown. it's devastating for our workers. do you know there are more contract employees tan there are federal employees -- than there are federal employees, madam president? there are. and even if you take away the military federal contractor employees -- and we hope that they're getting paid; we're not positive they all are, but let's say they are -- there's more than 2 million contract employees that don't know when the next paycheck are coming. we sent a bill over to speaker boehner in the house -- open up the government.

just open it up. and then we'll negotiate all the issues you want to talk about. he would not even allow a vote on that. so we're in a bad. and i have to say, you know, i've lived long enough to know that life does deal us some terrible blows. we know that. each of us, we've help of on our tragedies, our challenges, whether they're health challenges or financial challenges or all kinds of challenges. we have enough of those without a self-inflicted wound. two. a government shutdown over here and a pending default over here. totally unnecessary, could end in five minutes, but still the angst continues. still the anxiety continues.

still the uncertainty continues. and i'll close with a hopeful note. i laid out the two paths we ha have: the partisan path to a cliff or the windy, difficult, bipartisan path, which the senate was on until we were pulled off it. and i hope and pray that we will get back on that bipartisan pa path, that we will reopen this government, that we will pay our bills and this great nation -- this great nation can get back to doing what we do best, making sure that this american dream is there for everybody, making sure that we care about our people, making sure that they have access to their government and just getting us out of this

morass that we are in for no good reason. we can do it. the path is there, madam president. let's hope we take at that path. thank you very much, and i yield the floor. and i do note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

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