to dislike. it should happen quickly. from "federallly times" talking about the postal service. the house is coming in to take up the continuing resolution bill passed down from the senate without the mechanism for defunding of the health-care law. john boehner is going to meet with the caucus at noon today to debate the next steps. stay close. here's the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's room, washington, d.c., september 28, 2013. i hereby appoint the honorable chris stewart to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, john a. boehner,

speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the house of january 3, 2013, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour ebate. the chair will alternate recognition between the parties with each party limited to one hour and each member other than the majority and minority leaders and the minority whip each, to five minutes but in no event shall the debate continue beyond 11:50 a.m. the chair recognizes the gentleman from oregon, mr. blumenauer, for five minutes. mr. blumenauer: thank you, mr. speaker. we are here in the capitol awaiting decision by the republicans in the house about the next step to deal with the fiscal crisis they have created. it's not really that complicated. the monday deadline approaches to continue the operation of the federal government with a shutdown looming because the republicans have refused to work on a bipartisan basis to

resolve the funding issues. the centerpiece of the rhetoric has been objection to the affordable care act and their childish insistence that a program that's been approved by congress, president obama re-elected defending and validated by the supreme court that somehow this bell can be unrung. billions have already been spent, hundreds of thousands of people are working to make the reform operational and it seems to be working. better prescription drug benefits for senior citizens are putting more money in their pocket. children under the age of 26 have been able to stay on their parents' policies. beginning tuesday enrollment starts for the exchanges, and on january 1, it goes live with better health insurance. people can't be refused insurance for pre-existing conditions. there will be no lifetime limits on benefits. health insurance will be more affordable with subsidies for

millions and there will be more competition for all. these provisions are overwhelmingly supported by the american public. the health insurance program will save billions of dollars for the federal government, reducing the deficit. that's the judgment of the c.b.o.. in fact, isn't it ironic that having campaigned against these health care savings and losing, paul ryan and the republicans include those very savings in their budget? my republican friends are paralyzed in part because they've adopted a draconian budget that actually requires savings in the very health plan they want to defund. now, they claim to want to reduce government spending. yet, they have refused to allow the house to vote on the spending bills their budget calls for. we have been waiting for two months to finish the

transportation and housing spending bill. they got halfway through it on the floor of the house and they realized that their own members wouldn't vote for it because it was so awful and they stopped. they didn't even bother to bring the interior spending bill to the floor. now, if their budgets are so bad that their own members won't vote for them, they shouldn't throw a tantrum, threaten to shut down the government or destabilize the global economy by playing games with the debt ceiling. if they're afraid to have their own members vote on their spending bills, shouldn't they allow a conference committee between the house and the senate to resolve budget differences? that's how the system is supposed to work. they whine the president won't negotiate with them. how is the president supposed to deal with people who are unwilling to face up to the consequences of their own irresponsible budgets or refuse

to allow congress to work the process to establish a consensus budget by having a conference committee? how are democrats supposed to deal with republicans as they up the ante, seeking to damage the american people by cutting off vital services in a shutdown? how do you deal with republicans who are willing to default on paying america's debt, breaking our moral and legal obligations and risking not just america's but the world's economy? earth to my republican friends. america pays its bills. always has, always will. it is the height of hypocrisy to blame this on the president, the affordable care act, or the democrats. we wait breathlessly to see if republicans can agree to have anything to be voted on today, but the american people should insist that if my republican friends are serious, they should bring their own budgets

to the floor, allow the process to work to have a conference committee between the house and the senate to reconcile our differences. then, we can act like grownups, not children throwing tantrums and we wouldn't need to threat the global economy over the debt ceiling. thank you and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. williams, for five minutes. mr. lliams: thank you, speaker. yesterday, the president yet again chose to bash congress and blame the house republicans for the failure of america's economy. i've seen him make this argument on television many times, but he never shows up on capitol hill to actually engage in productive conversations. he does talk, however, with the russians, the chinese and the iranians. this is no surprise. this is the same man who spends more time with hollywood stars than with members of congress. it's not congress that will

shut our government down. it's our president. and i will argue that he already has shut the government down. five years ago, unemployment was at 5%. the national poverty rate was at 12.5% and approximately 30 million americans received food stamps. today, unemployment sits at 7.6%, the poverty rate exceeds 15% and a staggering 47.8 million americans are enrolled in the food stamp program. and 48 million people between the ages of 18 and 64 have not worked one day the last 12 months. the president's economic agenda is only pushing us further into danger and it's a disaster. for more than four decades i have owned my business and i can say with certainty that today's economy is the toughest economy our country has seen from a small business standpoint. everything from health care to taxes to regulations are killing businesses and forcing job creators to play defense. rather than generating profits, business are saving profits. this isn't the sign of a

rebounding economy. despite this, in his public address to the nation, president obama said the economy has gained traction and continue to place the blame on congress. but the american people need to hear solutions, not sound bites. as a small business owner, i live it every single day. we need lower taxes. it means more income. more specifically, we need to cut taxes for all taxpayers across the board and quit picking winners and losers. the first step in doing this is cutting the corporate tax rate, the personal tax rate, the capital gains tax, the dividends tax and eliminate forever the inheritens tax. the next step is to begin a dialogue on whether we should move to a fair or a flat tax, either one of these is certainly better than what we have today. second, we need to change health care policy. with the addition of obamacare, the government now comprises 1/6 of the nation's economy. this is a complete travesty and the private sector must be

given more control of health care, not the federal government. consumers should be able to shop across statelines which creates more competition. as a result, premiums will go down and service goes up. that's what competition does. the consumers will own their own health care, and it needs to be tax deductible. it needs to be portable so if you retire, lose your job or move around. let's favor an all-american approach father all sources of energy and let the private sector -- approach of all sources of energy and let the private sector do this. we need to advance safe nuclear and alternative energy sources. let the private sector tell us where to go. developing our domestic energy sources will undoubtedly lower energy prices for families and businesses. we need to ensure america remains the world's superpower with the strong and well-equipped military. our men and women in uniform must have the best equipment, must have the best training to

fight for our freedom and our liberty. it shouldn't even be an option to balance our nation's books on the backs of our military. doing so diminishes our military's readiness and threatens our national security and it simply shows weakness across the world. these are real solutions. they will allow businesses big and small to invest to take isks and they also will be rewarded. they need to know that federal government believes in people getting checks and let's everyone feel good about themselves. we should never accept 7.6% as the normal level for unemployment. we should never accept a 15% poverty rate. we should never accept $2.5 billion in free cell phones. we should never accept 15% underemployment. we should never accept 52% of our graduates not getting a job. and we should not accept an economy that creates more food stamps than jobs. it's time to wake up, america. big government is taking a toll

on our families, our businesses and our budgets. let's get back to regular order in washington and start passing responsible budgets that give our nation much-needed certainty and security. business and families do it every single day. there is no question that america is the greatest country in the world. in the unforgettable words of abraham lincoln, america is the last step. let's keep believing in the american people and not big government. and let's say goodbye to obamacare, the largest takeover of the people by the government that we've ever seen in our history. it's our generation's valley forge. let's be shepards and not sheeps and let's be patriots and not victims. in god we trust. thank you very much. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new york, mr. tonko, for five minutes. mr. tonko: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i have one basic

question. what are we doing here? i mean, just that. what are we really doing here? each day we talk about problems, problems, the real problems that face our country, that are fixable with compromise and clear-headed solutions. and each day this chamber does nothing to overcome those challenges in front of us, and each day the american people think we can't sink any lower or be any more dysfunctional. right now there's talk about passing a one-week budget to simply provide the time for elected officials, people charged with running the government of this great nation of ours to get along for enough time to pass yet another extension. say it isn't so. one week. there are lemonade stands with better budgeting practices than what we've seen in this body in the past two years. this is unacceptable. this is absurd, and this

certainly is not what the american people deserve from any layer of government, especially their federal government. let's get this done. let's pass a budget, a budget that cuts where we can, that invests where we must, that grows jobs and ends the painful consequences of sequestration. the absolute misery here is that all of this dysfunction could have been avoided. we could have avoided the reach to yet another kicking of the can down the road if we would come together at the conference table and do a real budget. we could reach to a budget process. we could reach to regular order. i have requested with many of my colleagues, i have urged with them that the leadership in the house resort to naming the panelists who will sit at that conference table to

realize regular order through a budget process, a real budget process. that request has been turned down time and time again. the statements made in the past were, well, the senate hasn't moved on a budget or we haven't heard from this entity about what their plans are. well, the truth be told, this year the senate, the united states senate passed its version of a budget. this house passed its version of a budget. the president and his administration have advanced their fiscal blueprints for the coming fiscal year. the entities have spoken. the process needs to be addressed and respected. we need to bring those panelists to the conference table, those that will represent republicans and democrats in the house of representatives and the united states senate to come to terms,

to develop the compromise, the spirit by which our founding parents developed this wonderful blueprint of a republic guided by the democracy. why are we rejecting that opportunity? a sound budget could allow us to escape the terrible consequences of sequestration. i have witnessed what that sequestration has meant in my own district. during our 5 1/2-week district work period, i visited with many of those head start programs, with early intervention, with nutrition programs, with food banks that addressed the nutrition needs of people of this great nation. . i have worked with the small business community to understand more fully what the impact of sequestration might mean to them. cuts to research, programs that have furloughed my federal employees if given the opportunity to serve this nation through their work force. all of that consequential damage

could be avoided if we could resort to the soundness of the tool called the budget. the sequestration issue is painful. it's a hidden attack, it's mindless, thoughtless, and pervaded itself into the fabric of our communities into the quality of life of the people that place within us the trust to be their voice in washington. so we need to do better than this paralysis that has stalled the process, that finds us in the midnight hour searching for answers in the most unusual format that will resort to yet another kicking of the can down the road that will fuse the smoke and mirrors to balance the budget for some uncertain period of time that doesn't provide the predictibility to the business community or working families of this nation. the partnership with their government should be real. it should be stated in terms that allow for the respect of businesses to invest and hire

and be productive. and so we have had a plan of attack coming from the democrats. representative van hollen has introduced a plan that will reduce the deficit in greater fashion and avoid the painful cuts of the sequestration. with that, mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from tennessee, mrs. blackburn, for five minutes. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to begin my remarks to just make a couple of comments about the budget process. i think my colleagues could be a little bit confused on this. and i will remind my colleagues, it is this body that every single year meets our statutory duty and constitutional duty to ring forward a budget that funds the operations of the united states of america. we do not miss our deadlines. and this year we did it. i know that the white house did

their sweet 16 bracket before they did their budget, but you know, we were still pleased to see that they were willing to participate in that process, and we were pleased that our friends in the senate for the first time in five years decided they would enter into the budget process. we were very disappointed, quite frankly, when they said they would not move to the conference table with us until we agreed to a tax increase. now, that is what they want is an agreement to a tax increase in this kind of an economy with about 8% unemployment? with 20 million americans either un or underemployed, they want more taxes more control over people's lives, we are not willing to do that, we are continuing to stand and fight for the american people, for responsible government, for

getting this budget balanced within the next decade, and for getting this country back on the road to fiscal health. now, i will also remind my colleagues that one of the things we continue to hear from this white house and this administration is that they want a government shutdown. now, they try to blame us. we realize that, but i got to tell you i have a titanium backbone, let them blame, let them talk. it's fine. they want the government shut down and for my colleagues, i would direct their attention to the congressional research service for the summary of what happens in a government shutdown. now, for the interest of my colleagues, mr. speaker, i will just walkthrough some of the points. one of the reasons they want it is because the president wants control of the checkbook.

right now the u.s. house of representatives has that control and we want to keep it. we don't want a government shutdown. we want to keep the government open and keep cutting it. we want to keep the government open so we can delay, defund, repeal, and replace obamacare. and this budget process going into a shutdown gives control to the administrative branch. there's another little tidbit when you read this circular, and it directs you to the 2011 revision of circular number a-11 . o.m.b.'s current intrucks would have agency heads use the d.o.j. opinions, department of justice. i can tell you the american people and a republican-led house do not want eric holder and barack obama making the

determination of who and what will be open in this federal government, what will be funded, and what agencies are going to be working. we don't want to give them that, i know they want that. i know they are trying to get a government shutdown, but i have to tell you, that is not what we want. now, what we are for, as i said, is making certain that we protect the future and the financial solvency of this great nation. and one of the reasons we have worked so diligently on budget for this body is because we know the cost and the impact that obamacare is going to have on the nation's fiscal health. and we are very concerned about it. we see what is happening in our communities. i just want to reference some of the correspondent -- correspond and conversations i'm having

with my constituents in tennessee. yesterday i spoke with a who went to a check cashing store, borrowed $400, started a retail business, and now has 45 employees in five locations. great business. great business. and what he is looking at is he can't even expand. he can't hire anybody else. he is having to deal with all the books that really weigh this business down. it is because of obamacare. i know my time has expired and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from connecticut, mr. himes, for five minutes. mr. himes thank you, mr. chairman. and i'm happy this morning to be able to follow the rank partisan

remarks of mrs. blackburn because i wanted to speak this morning on the subject of compromise. compromise is not an easy subject to speak on because of course we all have it in our minds here that the right thing do is to lead great ideological battles, to stand unbending by your principles, to stand up for what you think is right. it is the right thing to do to stand up for what you think is right. compromise is a hard thng to discuss because of course those on the fringes, those on the extreme, those who are unbending will accuse us of not standarding by our ideal if we compromise, but the fact is that most if not all of the accomplishments in the history of this country that have been achieved by the united states congress have been achieved through compromise. let's talk for a moment about one of the reasons i'm happy to represent the state of connecticut much the congress in which mrs. blackburn and i

serve, the very structure and architecture of that congress, was formed by something known as the connecticut compromise of 1787. when roger sherman and a group of people who disagreed on stunning issues of the day were some of the people who were disagreeing were inviting foreign powers in to stand with them. they came together and said, you know what, we'll have a bicameral legislature, a senate and a house that will balance the big states and the small states. and roger sherman's statue is here in the capitol. the capitol is here because madison and jefferson and others of our founding fathers made a compromise where they said the federal government will assume the remaining revolutionary debt of the state in exchange for putting the capitol in the southern states. compromise is how we get things done around here. those who might challenge my own credentials on compromise, i will point out i was one of 38 members in this body, less than

10% of the house of representatives, that voted for the soft moneyson-bowles budget. everyone else said, no, i'm not going to compromise bus that's difficult. what about the crossroads where we find ourselves today? possibility of a government shutdown that would hurt our economy and certainly hurt an awful lot of americans and even more egregious possibility that we would not honor the full faith and credit of the united states for the very first time in our 240-year history. is this a great national battle between north and south, between republicans and democrats? no, it is not. it is something far more unnecessary and uninspiring. on one side of this debate we've got actually the majority of republicans and the majority of democrats who say, let's come together. let's not bring an unnecessary crisis to our country, a manufactured artificial crisis. let's compromise. on the other side you have a handful of maybe three or four senators, maybe 30 or 40 members

of the house of representatives who are so possessed of the lord's wisdom they so embody the tradition of our founding fathers that they will listen to no one and they will refuse to compromise. but who are these people? these are people that believe that the best way today to spur economic growth is to put in place savage cuts that will fire teachers and firefighters and nurses because that will help. despite all evidence to the contrary. these are people who believe that the storms and tornadoes that have ravaged just about every state in this country have absolutely nothing to do with climate change, despite all evidence to the contrary. these are people who believe that obamacare today is doing great damage to this nation despite all evidence to the contrary. these are people who don't believe that the president of the united states was born in this country, despite all vidence to the contrary.

mr. speaker, so much could get done. comprehensive immigration reform, a budget that looks a little something like the simpson-bowles budget for which i voted. so many things could get done, mr. speaker, the gentleman from ohio, if you would setaside this small run and hit group of dead enders and say we will govern, we will govern this nation in the tradition of george sherman, of james madson, of thomas jefferson by listening to the other side. by shutting down the extremes and thinking about the long-term interests of this great contry. mr. speaker -- country. mr. speaker, with that i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from california, mr. cclintock, for five minutes. mr. mcclintock: thank you, mr. speaker. a crisis is not a good time for

inflammatory rhetoric or other attacks. i believe that my colleague from connecticut just missed the mark a moment ago when he threw out terms such as dead enders and extremists, and i'll simply say that yesterday the president missed an opportunity to bring both sides together. that responsibility now rests solely with us. nobody on the republican side of the aisle wants to see a government shut down or a credit default, let's make that clear. and i'm confident that nobody on the democratic side wants to see millions of americans lose the health plans they were told they could keep or see the health care costs skyrocket or lose their jobs or work hours because of the unintended consequences of obamacare. but these events that nobody wants to see are now unfolding. they will do great damage to our nation, but nobody wants to see

happen. if we agree on these fundamental issues, our course should be clear and it's only blocked by the kind of partisan division that we heard yesterday from the white house and a few moments ago. we can avert these calamities and redeem this institution if we can put aside the name-calling for a few days and get down to business. the good news is we have a process of government that's evolved over centuries. it's very good at resolving differences of opinion between the two houses of congress and within the two houses of congress. in this case there shouldn't even be much to resolve. all of us want to see the government stay open. all of us want to see the government's credit preserved. all of us want to see americans protected from losing health plans that they want to keep or from being socked with questioned premium increases or from losing their jobs for having their hours cut back. if we all agree on these objectives, isn't the

appropriate course self-evident? senator manchin seems to have laid it out very clearly the other day, a temporary continuing resolution to keep the government opened, a temporary increase in the debt limit while we complete the normal appropriations process, and a temporary delay in obamacare until the unintended consequences of its mandates can be corrected. is that so unreasonable? . they have exempted big corporations and more than 1,000 politically connected groups. and they protected members of congress from its crushing costs. that ought to be the ultimate wake-up call. if members of congress can't meet obamacare's costs, how can we expect the average american to do so? why don't we give everyone the same relief by delaying these mandates and replace it with

provisiones that actually fulfill the promises made to the american people when it was enacted. i don't like continuing resolutions at all. congress has a responsibility to superintend the nation's finances and it's developed an appropriations process that requires painstaking review of every expenditure of this government. that review involves countless hours of committee work, scores of hours of floor debate and hundreds of individual amendments. continuing resolutions cast aside this work and abandon congress' responsibility over the nation's finances. they shift enormous authority to the executive branch that the founders never intended. i had hoped to be done with continuing resolutions. those who enacted obamacare no doubt hoped it would lower health care costs and help the economy. sadly, events in this imperfect world can often disappoint and transfigure our fondest hopes. we've not completed the appropriations process. we need additional time to do so. and we need to correct the

damage being done to existing health planholders and employees by obamacare. if we could all agree on these objectives, then our course should be clear to all of us. we should fund the government long enough to complete the normal appropriations process, and we should delay obamacare long enough to preserve the jobs, working hours and existing health care policies of the millions of americans who are now losing them. so let's cool the rhetoric and do what this institution is designed to do -- come together in support of the objectives upon which we all agree for the good of the nation and the people who have entrusted us with its care. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from california, mr. bera, for five minutes. thank you, mr. speaker. in three days, three days this body threatens to shut down the

government. the government shutdown is going to affect millions of americans. a government shutdown is going to affect middle-class families at a time when our economy is slowly recovering, at a time where people are just starting to feel a little bit better about their home values, at a time where my constituents in sacramento county are just now starting to feel a little bit better. mr. speaker, we can avoid this. let's do what our history has shown us we can do. president ronald reagan was able to work with speaker tip o'neill and get something done. that's what happens in divided government. president bill clinton was able to work with speaker newt gingrich and get something done. that's what happens in divided governments, you work together, you listen to each other. you don't play this blame game. you act like adults. let's start talking and let's

start listening to one another. that's what the american public wants. they want democrats and republicans to bring their best ideas forward, put those ideas on the table and put the people first. it's not that hard to do. that's what we teach our kids to do. that's what we do for those of us that have worked in the private sector. that's what american families do every day. they learn how to work together. now, the house is controlled by republicans, the senate is controlled by democrats and president obama was re-elected as a democratic president. this is divided government, so, mr. speaker, sit down with the president, sit down with the leadership, put the best ideas forward and compromise. we can't operate in a my way or the highway mentality, winner-take-all mentality, because that's killing our country. the public is watching, and in these next three days, i hope

this body acts like adults and we don't start playing the blame game. oh, it's republicans' fault. oh, it's the democrats' fault. yesterday, the senate passed a continuing resolution to keep the government funded for two months. that isn't a solution but at least it gives us two months to act like adults and put together a real budget. at its core, that's what we need to do. the number one job -- elected officials for all of us in this body is to put together a real budget that takes the best democratic ideas and the best republican ideas, puts them together and puts the american people first. now, we can -- we can listen to all the rhetoric that says, oh, the house has passed a budget and we did it on time, the senate's passed a budget, the president's passed a budget, but the sad fact is all three budgets are different. how do you operate a business like that? how do you manage your

household like that? let's act like adults and let's go to conference, let's take those three budgets, let's figure out a solution and a compromise and agree on one budget. and then bring that back to this body. so, yes, the senate passed a continuing resolution. mr. speaker, i'd urge you to bring it to this body today, give us a chance to vote up or down. if you don't like that resolution, then the republicans control the house and they'll vote down on it, but give us a chance to vote on it, to vote up or down. that's how this should work. the senate's passed a farm bill that's important to this country. it's important to my constituents in california and in sacramento. give us a chance to vote on that bill up or down. that's how government should work. we've got to start coming together. now, yeah, there are a group of us that are working together. i am the leader of a group called the problem solvers. it's now up to 83 members.

it's democrats and republicans. we don't agree on everything, but we listen to one another. we put our ideas forward. we want government to work. we want to fix problems. we want to actually take those ideas. you know, one of the first bills i passed and i co-sponsored was no budget no pay which says if we don't actually put a budget together, why should members of this body, why should members of congress get paid? nobody else in america gets paid if they don't do their job. well, this body is not doing their job. no budget, no pay and we passed it. the senate passed it. the president signed it into law. so let's actually pass a budget. so if we get two months, if we get three months in funding the government, let's use those thee months wisely to pass a budget. the public is watching. here's three things that we could do. number one, go to conference committee. the senate's appointed folks to talk about their budget. the house has not appointed

those folks. let's get this done and let's start moving america forward and releaving the debt burden on our kids and grandkids. we can do this. the public is watching. three more days. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. fitzpatrick, for five minutes. mr. fitzpatrick: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise first to thank my colleague from california, mr. bera, for recognizing that in divided government, which we've had in the past, it's important that we sit down, resolve differences and we negotiate. and he correctly pointed out that president reagan in the 1980's was willing to and quick to negotiate with then speaker of the house tip o'neill and they accomplished great things. they reformed the tax code in 1982, 1986. they reformed social security by working with tip o'neill and senator moynihan from new york. and then 12 years later, president clinton was willing to sit down and speak with then

speaker of the house newt gingrich and they performed important things for this country. they reformed welfare and they balanced the budget. and those things weren't easy. those things took resolution, took resolve, took willingness to sit down and talk to each other. but here we are in the year 2013 and many of us on this side of the aisle are feeling like we don't have government that's willing to sit down and negotiate. in fact, this morning it's reported in "the hill," the headline says obama to republicans, i will not negotiate. and so here we are at the 11th hour, ready, willing to compromise to negotiate with the commander and chief and chief executive that will not negotiate with us. what you need in order to compromise many times is time and space. i'm here today, mr. speaker, to express my support for delaying the affordable care act by at least one year.

since the law's passage, time has shown that the affordable care act is a misguided effort that's divided americans of a common goal to affordable access to world-class health care as opposed to bringing us together to rise to the challenges we face as a country. what has most of us deeply troubled is that not only will the law leave over 30 million americans uninsured and forced to pay a tax, but it is forcing physicians to fundamentally question the nature of their profession and its pursuit. the role of the doctor fundamentally changes under this law. as opposed to being a healer, doctors are now bureaucrats. the law arose the -- erodes the core of american medical, exceptional care who are driven to innovate and improve for the common good. instead, this law leads to medicine by bureaucrat and checking off boxes.

as for the 30 million who will remain uninsured under the w's design, it -- they'll be continue to be left out of the outside the system. the president told us would not happen but it is happening in the eighth congressional district of pennsylvania with workplaces struggling to deal with the law's overreach and the law's burdens. additionally, former president clinton has highlighted another 500,000 americans who will become uninsured due to the president's health care law. children. he's referring to it as the family glitch where the law's complicated formula removes children from their family's health insurance leaving them without coverage. furthermore, nearly 1/3 of those children will not qualify for medicaid or for chip. glitch? this is a catastrophe. both the intended and unintended consequences of the

law are far reaching and will not be fully understood until this week as americans begin to live under this new system. as was said during the health care debate by the law's supporters, we have to pass the law to find out what's in it. that is the prevailing attitude by people in the beltway who've continued to put themselves between patients and doctors, workers and workplaces, students and teachers, and families and their faith time and time again. one of the keys to our nation's success is the manner we have adopted to solve problems. it is hard wired into our culture of freedom. americans believe we can solve our own problems and are more apt to work together when we know the solutions lie in our hands, not in somebody else's. this is what makes america exceptional. while many of us agree that there are some good in the law, there is no telling what elts we're about to find out -- what

else we're about to find out about the health care law and the impact on families, workplace and the environment. and as congress struggles to deal with the cost and the unintended consequences of the health care law, americans need answers and they need answers now. at a minimum, glaring deficiencies like these are reasons for pause. all policymakers, including the president, should take a step back and delay the law's implementation for at least a year to ensure that americans are being helped and not hurt. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from illinois, mr. davis, for five minutes. mr. davis: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. davis: thank you, mr. speaker. you know, i believe that obama does in fact care, and that care is evidenced by the fact that we passed the most major piece of health legislation

hat we have done since the mid 1960's, since medicare and medicaid. and so it's amazing to me that i continue to hear colleagues in both the house and the senate, who are attempting to deny the existence of this legislation, legislation that was passed by both houses of congress, signed into law by the president of the united states of america, upheld by the supreme court that says that it is indeed constitutional, and still there re colleagues trying to deny the existence of this law.

that is amazing. as a matter of fact, it's real, it's passed, it's been affirmed and it's going to stay. . my county government, cook county government, has already with the waiver signed up more waiting,000 people just to get enrolled. -- enrolled into its county care program. 100,000 people, none of whom would have to worry about pre-existing conditions. 100,000 people in cook county, none of whose children under 26 will have to worry about having health insurance coverage because they can have it on their parents' policies.

100,000 people, none of whom will have to worry about running out of benefits. 100,000 people in cook county, one county, who will have their own primary care physician, who will be able to see a doctor and go to the clinic on a regular basis. but that's nothing compared to the more than 30 million people in this country who for the first time in their lives will have health insurance coverage. i hear all the discussions about the negative impact. well, you ask a person in need of health care, never being able to get it, how much negative impact it's going to have on them. i agree that the senate has passed a continuing resolution

which does not fund the government for the extended period of time that we'd like to see and need to see, but i can tell you, i'd rather have that than to have people worrying and wondering whether they are going to be able to see a doctor when they need to see one, or go to the hospital or take their child to a regular doctor rather than having to go to the emergency room. so i would urge my colleagues, let's be in agreement, let's be in agreement with the senate and -- move right now to today, if not today tomorrow to pass a continuing resolution that keeps our government funded. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back.

the chair recognizes the gentleman from missouri, mr. smith, for five minutes. mr. smith: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, deficit day is the symbolic day each calendar year when the federal government runs out of money and begins adding to the already enormous debt. despite the $2.7 trillion the government is estimated to collect this year from taxes, tariffs, fees, and other sources on a calendar-year basis, the money ran out this past wednesday, september 25th. as of debt limit approaches in mid october, the federal government continues to spend money it does not have on things that americans do not want. washington is projected to spend over $10 million day until this point until december 31, every

dollar it spends from this point on adds to our enormous national debt. which is already nearly $17 trillion. in the last four years, congress has raised the debt limit seven times. today the debt for every man, woman, and child averages over $53,000 per person. mr. speaker, families and small businesses from across the united states are forced to live within their means. the federal government should be held to the same standard. if my friends back in my home state of missouri can successfully balance their budget each year, we should be capable of doing the right thing here in washington, d.c. that is why i introduced the -- an amendment to the constitution to require the government to produce a balanced budget each and every year. mr. speaker, i look forward to working with all my house and

senate colleagues to pass a budget, to balance a budget, and reduce our national debt. i ask unanimous consent to enter into the record an article which appeared in wednesday's "wall street journal" entitled happen debt today, uncle sam. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from colorado, mr. lamborn, for five minute. mr. lamborn: permission to address the house for one minute. -- permission to address the house for five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: lamborn. the clerk: mr. speaker, i rise today to urge my fellow members of congress to delay obamacare for one year. president obama has already delayed the employer mandate and now he has delayed the opening of the small business exchanges. he has already signed into law seven changes to the health care law. it's clear that obamacare is not ready to be rolled out. one of my constituents, nicole,

who manages her household budget for her family of five, called me recently to say her health care premiums are skyrocketing as a result of obamacare. her insurance company notified her that her family's monthly emiums will go from $431, to $1,003. her insurer told her that under obamacare she might qualify for subsidies to offset that increase. but nicole like many americans doesn't want a subsidy. she doesn't want to take a government handout. her family is responsible, self-reliant, and they don't want to be bailed out by their neighbors. the federal government is broke and cannot afford another large entitlement program even if obamacare would work, which it won't. it's time to admit the obvious. obamacare is not ready for prime time. let's delay it by at least one year and protect millions of americans from its harmful

effects. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from california, mr. lamalfa, for five minutes. r. lamalfa: mr. speaker, as we all know we have important deadlines approaching this coming monday on our budget fiscal year, farm bill, as well as the obama health care takeover of the exchanges implementation. what do we get around here? drama. lots of drama from the left, from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, from in the press. saying government shutdown. government shutdown. my daughter, who is in school, she tries to avoid drama at school with her friends and stick to what she knows needs to get done. yet around here that's a pretty

big byproduct of the instead of the work we should be doing, allowing key things to make our country run better, fiscally sound. for example, working towards actually balancing the budget, long term. i see the plans are coming from the white house, over in the senate, there is no plan to move towards a balanced budget in the future. it's going to take hard work. it's going to be difficult. there will be a lot of infighting and catter walling in this place to move to that direction. republicans actually offer a plan to in the future move towards a balanced budget, to make those lines finally come together after many, many years of overspending. you don't see those ideas coming from the other side. unfortunately, we are not going to get out of this pattern of having to raise the debt ceiling until we receive the balanced budget we need. that's the dirty secret. the debt ceiling will be the

future until we get to balance. real solutions are needed to move us in that direction, not more drama. mr. speaker, stop the drama. let's get together and work on these solutions. i heard my colleagues on the other side talking about this. let's do budget. not c.r.'s. i don't like continuing resolutions, either. we have to have some kind of fiscal reality that says we can't spend more man -- than we take in. we can't implement a program like obamacare, that's killing jobs, giving people less choices on health care. running doctors out of business. it's no fun anymore. let's go to what the republican study committee is working on with the health reform act which gives people choices which addresses the high-risk schools, allows people that are in a permanent situation needing long-term health care to find

those solutions. instead, we get something that we know, we see is not going to work. look at all the delays in implementation of the health care exchanges. delay after delay after delay. yeah, we need delay because it isn't working. so instead we hear threats government shutdown, you republicans are doing this, doing that. mr. speaker, let's stop the drama and get to the real solutions. let's do the math on the obama health care takeover. how it's not going to work. let's do the math on how the c.r.'s are not really a solution but a temporary measure. let's do the math on getting towards a truly balanced budget sometime in the future that the republican house has offered and doesn't seem to be coming at all from the white house when we have asked the white house do you have a plan to balance the budget or the senate, do you have a plan to balance the budget, ever? we don't see them. we have to balance them in our own personal lives whether households, businesses. why does government continue to

have a blank check to give away the taxpayers' money, with the taxpayers' future. how many trillions of dollars of debt do we have to get to before we learn this lesson that we leave for the coming generations. i want to be part of a solution that moves these lines together so we get to balanced budget sometime in the near future, not never. this nation requires it. if we want to have jobs, we want to have the prosperity we once knew, we need to go back in that direction. mr. speaker, i ask this body, i ask our colleagues in the senate, i ask the white house let's stop with the drama. get back to the table and negotiate. when our president says he will not negotiate with us, the american public should be appalled in the process of the give and take of the institutions our founders set up here with these three branches of house, senate, white house supposed to get together, compromise, hammer things out, argue, get along, all those things.

when one doesn't want to get together to talk and compromise but instead wants to be on the phone with iran and russia than our own colleagues. we should be appalled. let's get back together. let's stop the drama, name-calling of threatening government shutdown where republicans are not moving towards that. we are trying to find solutions. let's get it done for the american people. i think the american public demands that. let's have solutions. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. thompson, for five minutes. mr. thompson: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, the president in his remarks to the country yesterday demonstrated a willingness for diplomacy and negotiations. sadly any leadership he reflected in his remarks was a willingness to communicate and negotiate with the terror states of iran and syria and not the

united states house of representatives. what the president also made clear was his unwillingness to serve the will and concerns of the majority of american citizens, feaments, and businesses when it -- families, and business when is it comes to their health care. health care is one of the more intimate issues in america. there should be no surprise of the emotional reaction, rejection, by the majority of the country when this legislation is passed unilaterally by one party without adequate debate or vetting and mandated on 311 americans. the september 4 through the 23 real clear politics compilation of seven major national polls show an average of 52% of americans are opposed or against the affordable care act, while only 38.7% are for or in favor of this law. mr. speaker, i understand the political divide that unfortunately exists in washington, but what i do not get is how the president ignores

the will of the majority of the american people. we expect leadership from the president, but there is no leadership when the direction you want to take the country is rejected as a wrong direction by the majority of american citizens. some have said that the affordable care act is the law. so just implement it. that makes a dangerous assumption that congress never gets it wrong. history certainly shows precedence that congress can and has corrected the mistakes it has made. prohibition, which was repealed in 1933, had been fairly unpopular, probably more disliked than even obamacare. more recently the medicare catastrophic coverage act of 1988, a bipartisan bill, was intended to provide supplemental health care insurance for the elderly, but it also include add surtax on middle and upper income seniors and was quickly repealed when the will of the majority of americans was taken into consideration. what is more dangerous than a

government that may err on occasion or supposed leaders that are incapable of recognizeser roar and taking a course of correction. mr. speaker, the senate democrats yesterday recklessly voted to disregard the will of the american majority. it essentially endorsed a government shutdown rather than take any course or correction on what is a fundamentally flawed law that is raising premiums and already limiting access. millions of children are covered under chip. the chip program originated in pennsylvania and provides support to parents of these children to allow them to buy health insurance for their children from the commercial insurance market. chip program provides access to quality health care, not a government-run program but through a partnership with the private sector. under obamacare, these children

are being ripped out of chip and placed in medical assistance where the parents will be hard pressed to find a pediatrician, even willing to see let alone treat their child. mr. speaker, the unwillingness to admit the err of obamacare is throwing america's most vulnerable children, who are growing up under poverty circumstances, under the bus. they deserve better and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from north carolina, ms. foxx, for five minutes. ms. foxx: thank you, mr. speaker. thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate the recognition, and i want to give high praise to my colleagues on this side of the aisle who have been here this morning talking about the really, really important issues that are facing our country these days. why are we here in washington,

d.c., on a saturday? we should be at home in our districts. you know, republicans believe that the wisdom of the world is not in washington, d.c. it is back in our districts. it's back with the american people. but we're here because of a failed policy that was passed without bipartisan support but rictly on behalf of liberals in this body, in the senate and the failed policies of a very liberal president. so we wouldn't have to be here today if it weren't for that failed policy. unfortunately, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are trying to put the blame on us for saying that we're

hearing because we're fighting what we see is a failed policy. the american people see it as a failed policy also. the majority of the american people are opposed to what we have come to call obamacare. it was not passed by bipartisan vote. our colleagues keep talking about bipartisanship. it was passed purely on a partisan basis. no republican has ever voted for obamacare, and every republican who has had the opportunity to vote against it has voted against it. why? because we believe we represent the american people. we don't want to shut down the federal government. in fact, we passed bills to keep the government running. we want to have the policy right. my colleague from connecticut talked about the need for

compromise, and he said erroneously, this is the first time that we would shut down the government over a failed poll -- over a policy. he must have forgotten that the federal government has shut down 17 times before. sometimes when democrats were totally in control. sometimes when there was split government, but it's happened 17 times before. what are we doing here on our side of the aisle? we're fighting for the american people. we know this is a failed policy and we do not want to see this failed policy go any further than it has gone. and as my colleagues have said, the sad thing about it is our president's willing to negotiate with a country that we call a terrorist country but is not willing to negotiate.

and he said, what i haven't been willing to negotiate or will not negotiate is on the debt ceiling. he doesn't want to negotiate on obamacare either. but we know that the president did negotiate in august, 2011. we know that six other -- five other presidents have negotiated on this issue. we also know that there are going to be people who are not going to be covered by this program that is supposed to be overing all americans. mr. speaker, i'd like to put in the record an article by daniel henniger in the september 25 "wall street journal" called "let obamacare collapse." the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. s. foxx: because it points out many, many problems with this program that haven't all been

pointed out this morning, but we have another issue that we're going to be facing in the next few days and that is the raising of the debt limit. and i want to quote someone who talked about the failure of eadership if we have to face raising the debt limit. the fact that we're here today raising america's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. it's a sign the u.s. government can't pay its own bills. it's a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our government's reckless fiscal policies, increasing america's debt weakens us domesticically and internationally. leadership means the buck stops here. instead, washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and our grandchildren. america has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. americans deserve better. that was president barack obama

on the floor of the u.s. senate . rch 20, 2006 yes, mr. president, we have failed leadership and the buck stops with you. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. all members are reminded to address their remarks to the chair and the chair now recognizes the gentleman from colorado, mr. tipton, for five minutes. thank you, mr. speaker. let's begin with where you can all agree as americans. at the very beginning of debate when it came to health care in 2008, it was about affordability and accessibility when it comes to health care. we can't disagree about that. it's americans, it's small business. we felt the pain of seen ever-increasing premiums, but we also wanted to make sure that we had access to real doctors. what are the results that are

now coming out of the affordable care act? let me give you an example that was just emailed to me last night out of a small community church in my direct in during ango, colorado. they were just -- durango, colorado. they were just able to expand their plan before the affordable care act took effect. for six employees working at the church, their premiums will now be $50,665 for the collected group this year. when the affordable care act is going to impact them in the next cycle, those rates will now rise for those same six employees to $72,069. for the same employees. a 68.7% increase. so the question we have to ask is, has the affordable care act achieved the goal that as americans we can all agree that we desire to be able to have? affordability. let's talk to those six people working in that small church in

durango, colorado, who are relying on charitable contributions to be able to have their jobs, to be able to have affordable health care. the answer's no. let's talk to senior citizens that i visited with throughout the third congressional district of colorado. many who just became senior citizens and are now required to sign up for medicare under the law. just because of a birth-day over the last year or two -- birth-day over the last year or two, -- birthday over the last year or two, they can't find a doctor that is accepting medicare. i just spoke to people in grand junction, colorado, serve of whom expressed by the year 2014 they're closing their practices. so have we addressed accessibility in america? we have not. what the administration fails to understand is there's quantitative difference between affordability and accessibility in just having an insurance

card. we can insure every american, but does that mean you have access to quality health care? at an affordable price? the republican party's putting forward real solutions to be able to address this challenge. let's let the free markets work. let's have real competition. let's allow businesses to be able to come together to be able to negotiate lower rates. let's incentivize rather disincentivize, as the president's law does, those private medical health care savings accounts if we really care about health care. let's indeed make sure that people with pre-existing conditions have access and affordable health care as well. these are the plans that we are putting forward. but it's going to require that we work together. what is not helpful is when we hear an administration say it is nonnegotiateable while at the same time saying we have to work -- nonnegotiable while at the same time we have to work together. we can't work together if we

don't have a dialogue. that is what this house of representatives is putting forward, real solutions to be able to address the real problems to help real americans that are struggling right now. and the bottom line is if we want health care we also need jobs. if you talk to the people in my district, small businesses, they aren't able to hire right now simply because of the cost of the affordable care act and the impacts that they're feeling. these are affecting real americans, real problem and real lives. the solution cannot and should not be just bigger government, just a legacy piece of legislation. i believe that the american people deserve actually a policy that will work for them. that can only be achieved if we work together. we are putting those ideas forward today. we are not about shutting down this government.

we want to keep it open. that's the policy of our conference. but we also need to have a policy that's making sure that government laws are not hurting the american people. the affordable care act is hurting the american people. it will hurt the economy, will hurt jobs. this is something that we can achieve a positive solution on if the administration will open that door to dialogue rather than distrust. let's work for the american people rather than for bigger government. with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from florida, mr. ross, for five minutes. mr. ross: thank you, mr. speaker. you know, the only thing worse right now than having the implementation of this health care law, known as obamacare, on october 1 would be the implementation of this law with special consideration to members of congress. and some may say, well, that's

not going to happen because members of congress are subjected to and not exempted from obamacare. and the short answer to that is yes, but the real answer is no. and the real answer is no because there is a state of confusion over whether we, as members of congress, and certain staff members, continue to receive a 72% contribution to our health care benefits. now, i understand let's go back to how this became an issue. senator grassley at the time the obamacare bill was being debated, wanted to make sure that members of congress and their staff were subjected to the painsed a the ills and everything else of obamacare. and he offered an amendment that said, notwithstanding any other provision of law, members of congress and congressional employees would be required to use their employer contribution to purchase coverage through a state-based exchange rather than using the traditional federal employees health benefits plan. that was offered. what became law is different.

the language that became law specifically says that members of congress and congressional staff with respect to their service of a member of congress shall be health plans that are either created under this act or the exchanges. and then it went on to further say, staff is just considered those that are employed by the staff -- by the members of congress. it doesn't include staff of committee and staff of leadership. now, why all the confusion? i don't know. but i know for a fact that when the office of personnel management came out with their letter august 7 and said without any basis, any basis in law or fact and said, you know what, we're going to let congress continue to have their 72% contribution even though the law was clear that was passed that we are not going to receive anything other than the subsidies allowed under the law and those subsidies only are available to those who make 400% of poverty level or less. and so we're here on the eve of watching a health care plan go into place, when the american

public, who's given us and probably deservingly so, an approval rate in single digits and said, here we go again. congress has found a special provision themselves so they won't feel the pain, the economic harm caused by this health care plan. mr. speaker, we can correct this. we can stand up as a collegial body, republican and democrat and say, you know what, we believe we need to be subjected to the law 100% and we think o.p.m. is wrong and if we want the american public to need which is the credibility of this congress, then we need to pass my amendment to the continuing resolution being offered today that says that this o.p.m. letter was wrong and that all members of congress, all staff, the president, the vice president, all political employees will be subjected to the laws of obamacare and not receive this contribution because my friends back home will not receive this contribution. we shouldn't carve out a

specialty to ourselves. what's further worse is if we don't make some change to this law, people will say there will be a brain drain. no, i see more of a litigation train starting, a litigation train because we already see in the law special classes of employees. my employees are now subject to the laws of obamacare, but the employees of staff and the employees of leadership aren't. i see litigation ensuing on employment discrimination cases that are absolutely unnecessary and could be avoided if we have the foresight, if we have the ability to say, america, we're going to correct this. . . thereby, members, i ask, i implore you, please consider this amendment, consider doing what is right not only under the law but in the eyes of our constituency. with that, mr. speaker, i yield

back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from tennessee, mrs. black, for five minutes. mrs. black: thank you, mr. speaker. in just three days the obamacare exchanges are set to go live. the security of millions of americans' most sensitive personal information remains at risk. for the purposes of enrolling people in the exchanges, the administration is building the largest network of america's personal information ever reated called, the federal services data hub. this data hub will have the name, birth date, social security numbers, taxpayer status, gender, email addresses, telephone numbers of millions of americans expected to apply for the coverage in the exchanges. this poses an alarming and

obvious risk of identity theft and cybersecurity attacks. to date there has been no independent certification that the information will be kept safe. we are simply supposed to rely on the administration's word that reliable security systems will be in place come october 1. this is the same administration that has already failed to meet half of their self-imposed deadline for the implementations of this disastrous law. their word is simply not good enough. d this is why 13 attorneys general have sent a letter to the h.h.s. secretary, kathleen a billous, expressing their -- see billous, expressing their concerns over there whether is adequate safety measures to protect their constituents' personal data. making this situation even worse is the obamacare navigators that are asked -- tasked with the --

assessing this information to help people enroll. now, these navigators are not required by federal government to have background checks or even have a high school diploma, and yet they will be tasked with handling america's most sensitive personal information such as their medical records and their tax returns. in fact, in fact, earlier this month a navigator applicant in minnesota released -- recently received 2,400 social security umbers by mistake. this raises serious concerns about the lack of safeguards in place to protect our personal information. mr. speaker, we know that obamacare is simply not ready for prime time, and we cannot allow america's most personal information to be exposed to these threats. it is completely irresponsible for this president to be encouraging people to sign up

when these threats exist. the president has already delayed portions of this law to help business and insurance companies. it is time for him to work with this congress to stop this train wreck and to shield the american public from widespread fraud and abuse. thank you. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. poe, or five minutes. mr. poe: thank you, mr. speaker. i posted on my facebook the question -- how has obamacare affected you or will it affect you in the future? . received almost 400 responses i will just read a few of those. i certainly won't read the ones that were volatile, mr. speaker,

because a lot of people are just mad. it is true that about 20% of those responses like obamacare, and about 80% not so much. lisa says, my son was lowered to hours last week for a new full-time norm because the owner doesn't want to pay obamacare. sharon says this, my mother is a diabetic and couldn't take insulin for three days because she couldn't get her test strip prescription filled due to a glitch in obamacare. kristi, my hardworking husband can only find temporary contract work. no one wants to hire permanent positions, and those that do have permanent positions are hard to even get an interview with. i hope it doesn't last long. we have a baby due in mid october. and already three children. joseph, i expect my employer

will not be able to afford future raises due to the enormous expense he has to pay under obamacare. victoria, my husband has not been able to get a job because folks are not hiring due to obamacare. they are actually laying people off. my parents are elderly. and they have three doctors who have quit medicine because of obamacare. so, no, mr. poe, it is not the greatest thing ever. april, she says this, since the implementation of obamacare, i have not been able to find a job. no one wants to hire a permanent position. everything is part-time or temporary for all those jobs, and they also tell me that i'm overqualified. i think the whole obamacare thing needs to be done away with. janelle says, my husband and i

are in our 70's. our co-pays for prescriptions have doubled. our doctor told us that he will not be able to treat us with the same quality we now get when bamacare goes into full steam. mary lou probably said it the best, she said, ted, we pray even more fervently we just don't get sick. now, those are some responses of people out there who actually work for a living. and are concerned about health care. they are not so sold on this. so here we are on this saturday afternoon and the president is spending time negotiating with the iranians about things in iran. he's spending time negotiating with the russians about things going on in syria. but he won't negotiate with congress. i don't get that. why doesn't he come over here to the house? let's sit down on an envelope -- informal basis and chat about

the problems we have. the idea, people in syria and russia and iran are more important to talk with than members of congress? i don't get it. obamacare, we just don't want to get sick. and now today we are facing a we are ing problem, facing continuing to fund the federal government problem, we have obamacare that gives special treatment for about 1,200 groups that got waivers. none of these people got waivers. let's talk about those things. let's find out and maybe we can work out something, but let's at least talk. so, mr. speaker, you're in good with the president. give him a phone call. ask him to come over here and chat this afternoon with the house, the democrats, the republicans, and let's work something out about the continuing resolution about the debt ceiling, but at least let's talk and negotiate and not refuse to talk to even members

of the house of representatives. that's just the way it is. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from florida, mr. mica, for 2 1/2 minutes. thank you, mr. speaker, and my colleagues, saturday morning and we are here in the house of representatives in an unusual session. some people had the opportunity to go home last night and come back this morning. some people said, this is unusual duty and you're working hard and all of that. nd i said to them, listen, i represent millions of people across the united states who are going to work, they go to work sometimes at midnight, work all night, get up in the morning, go to work at 6:00. they are struggling to put food

on the table. they are struggling to educate their children. they are struggling to pay their mortgage and keep their home and family together. so i believe that it's congress' responsibility, and there's no question about it, that we work. that we work on saturday. we work on sunday. we work on monday. we'll work until we get this situation resolved. now, where are we? . are at a crossroads rarely in the history of the -- of our nation have we come to a crossroads like this. we have the biggest government program, probably, since world in the obamacare president's health care plan going into effect in a few days. we have the government running out of money in a few days on october 1. then we have the country facing financial deficit in less than two weeks. so this is an important crossroads. we need to get it right because there are a lot of hardworking americans counting on us.

we must avoid the biggest government takeover of health care or any segment of our economy in history. we must avoid forcing people into part-time employment. the government making decisions about our health care. even the unions are walking away from this plan now. we have a short time to accomplish that. the deficit, now listen to this, $17 trillion and they want to extend it almost another $1 trillion. $900 billion for one year since the beginning of the obama administration, in five years, we have gone from $9 trillion to $17 trillion in debt. almost doubling it. finally, funding government. we must keep the government opened. we must be responsible stewards to the public. but the spending spree in washington has to stop. republicans have held the line. we need to hold the line responsibly. we can cut waste.

we can cut inefficiency, we can make government accountable to the people. with that, mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declares the house

looke are going to take a at a conversation on the likelihood of a government shutdown from this morning's " washington journal." let's start with the house, the choices that speaker john banner has concerning the short-term funding bill. aret: the republicans scheduled to meet at noon today. i think that will be a pretty important meeting. they've got to decide as a conference if they get behind a specific alternative to send

back to the senate. they have some choices here. they could take the senate bill and put it on the house floor and it would probably pass with mostly democratic support and many republicans would not vote for it because it does not defund obamacare. or they can put on something smaller like a piece of obamacare or something else smaller like getting rid of the medical device taxes, something that has passed the senate before. there are things they could conceivably do and hope they could get through the senate even though harry reid has already said they will not accept anything related to obamacare. question thathe even if they do agree on

something they can get through the house whether they can get it through the senate once it gets over there. the way the senate works, anyone senator can delay a bill for days. need something called unanimous consent to do something quickly. it's not entirely clear that a bill that would be signed by the president could get through the senate on a return trip. it is a potentially messy weekend we're looking at. the papers say harry reid and mike lee have been meeting openly. guest: absolutely, when the senate was voting yesterday, there was maybe a dozen conservative house read a book in's on the floor, basically cheering on ted cruz and

company. it does not take that money votes on the house side to really handcuff the speaker. if he wants to pass something that has a republican wish list item on it, he will not did any democratic votes. votesl need republican because 18 or 20 or 30 republicans are sort of d in thatfund or bust mode limits john banner's options. -- john boehner's options. conceivably john boehner could go into that meeting conceivably and say we have three choices -- we can all agree to do something that we think can pass the senate. we can let the government shutdown and be blamed for it or

i can put the senate will on the house floor and see where the votes are. we have to decide which way to go. host: as part of his thinking, i'm sure he has to figure out which faction he has to appeal to the most. guest: i think that's right. republicanslot of in the house who are not happy with ted cruz, not happy with his strategy, who want to keep the government open, who want to at least cast some kind of though to have their constituents -- their conservative constituents feel like they are doing something about obama care. i think that's where a lot of republicans are. they want to see something done and they want to show they are fighting obama care.

they have been resisting the idea of having some kind of shut down over obama care for over two years. it's not clear how strong he is as far as being able to put something on the floor that potentially could have his own conference turn against him. the papersof connected this decision to the future of the speakership as far as john boehner is concerned. absolutely, the fact that we had not had a shutdown -- this is the one thing that congress, despite all of the crazies we have seen in the past couple of years, the one thing they have been able to do and sometimes after the midnight deadline in a case or two, is they have kept the lights on. they have not shut the government down. part toue in no small the fact that john banner does

not want to do that and he thinks it would be bad for republicans. number ofa conservatives and plenty of conservative -- outside conservative groups have oh -- who have been agitating for a tougher stand. the speaker came pretty close to you -- losing his speakership earlier this year. there were a number of defections when they were voting for speaker on the house floor. you cannot really lose that many more. is a problem for the speaker if he wants to stay speaker for much longer. he's kind of caught between two very difficult positions. isther very important issue how do you deal with this bill a week or a few days,

how do you deal with the debt ceiling bill? that is potentially a bigger issue for the economy and potentially a bigger issue for john boehner. that will goes through clean as the democrats are demanding, as the president is demanding, i think that would be a bigger 6oblem for the speaker tha a - week cr. you pass a clean debt ceiling bill, that is potentially more problematic. dennis covers leadership in the congress and covers the white house and is joining us, thanks for your time. >> a photograph of the speaker of the house taken by "the new york times." is meeting with republicans

at noon today in the basement of the capital and what happens next depends on what he hears his party. even if he can't manage to get republicans to agree on a new spending bill in time to avert a shutdown on tuesday, senate democrats will not accept any measures that threaten obama care or include any moves the gop favors. if the speaker were to try to pass the senate bill with the support of moderate republicans and democrats, he would face a level of fury from conservatives. that is from "the washington post." president obama talked about the budget bill in his weekly address. we will hear from him and washington representative his p. even if he can't manage to get republicans to agree on a new spending bill in time to avert a shutdown on tuesday, senate democrats will not accept any measures that kathy gets theroberts who republican address this week. she talks about the debt ceiling. >> this tuesday is important for our economy. it's the day a big part of the affordable care act kicks in and tens of millions americans will have the same chance to buy

affordable healthcare as everybody else. it is also the day a group of far right republicans in congress might choose to shut down the government because they don't like this law. here is what the affordable care act means for you. vastu're one of the majority of americans who already have health care, you already have benefits you did not have before like free mammograms and contraceptive care with no co-pay and discounts on disk -- on prescript and medicine for seniors. you've got new protections in place like no more lifetime limits on your care, no more discriminating against children with pre-existing conditions like gets the republican address this week. she talks asthma or being able o stay on your parents plan until you turn. 26 that's all in place and available to americans with health insurance right now. if you don't have health insurance or buy it on the individual market, starting this tuesday, october 1, you can visit healthcare.gov to find the health insurance marketplace

in your state. the us is a website where you can compare insurance plans side-by-side, the same way you would shop for a tv or a plane ticket and you see new choices and new competition. many of you will see cheaper prices and many of you will be eligible for tax credits that bring down your cost even more. six in 10 uninsured americans will be able to get coverage for $100 or less. if you are one of the up to half of americans with a pre-existing condition, these new plans mean your insurer can no longer charge you more than anyone else. i cannot charge women more than men for the same coverage and they take effect on january 1. healthcare.gov and spread the word. these marketplaces will be open for business on tuesday matter what. the affordable care act is one of the most important things we have done as a country in decades to strengthen economic security for the middle class and all who strive to join the middle class and it will work.

that's also one of the reasons why it is disturbing that republicans in congress are threatening to shut down the government or worse if i don't agree to gut this law. congress's responsibility is to pass a budget and pay our bills on time. if they do not pass a budget by monday, the end of the fiscal year, the government shuts down along with many vital services the american people depend on. on friday, the senate passed a bill to keep the government open. republicans in the house have been more concerned with the extreme faction of their party than working to pass a budget that creates new jobs or strengthens the middle class. in the next couple of days, these republicans will have to decide whether to join the senate and keep the government open or create a crisis that will hurt people for the sole purpose of advancing their ideological agenda. past government shutdowns have disrupted the economy. this shutdown would, too. in a moment when our economy has

steadily gained traction and their deficits have been falling faster than at any time in 60 years, osha down would be a purely self-inflicted wound. that is why many republican senators and republican governors have urged republicans in the house of representatives to knock it off. pass a budget and move on. this brings me to a second responsibility the congress has. once they vote to keep the government open, they also have to vote within the next couple of weeks to allow the treasury to pay the bills for the money that congress has already spent. failure to meet this responsibility would be far more dangerous than a government shutdown. it would be an economic shutdown with impacts not just here but around the world. unfortunately, some republicans have suggested that unless i agreed to a longer list of demands, not just cutting the healthcare law, but things like cutting taxes for millionaires rolling back rules on big banks and polluters, they will push the button throwing america into default for the first time in

history and risk throwing all of us back into recession. i will work with anyone who wants to have a serious conversation about our economic future. i will not negotiate over congress's responsibility to pay the bills it has already racked up. i don't know how to be more clear about this. thene gets too threatened full faith and credit of the united states of america just to extract ideological concessions. no one gets to hurt our economy and millions of innocent people just because there are a couple of laws that you don't like. it has not been done in the past and we are not going to start doing it now. the american people have worked too hard to recover from crises to see extremists in congress cause another one. every day this goes on is another day that we cannot continue the work of rebuilding the american middle class. congress needs to pass a budget in time, pay its bills on time tom and refocus on the everyday concerns of the people who sent them there. that's what i am focused on.

that's what i will keep fighting for. thanks so much. >> right now, we have a golden opportunity to fix the problems coming out of washington. margin,erwhelming americans believe any debt ceiling increase should be coupled with solutions that help solve error debt and groner economy. have put forward a plan that does just that. it contains real reforms to help build a 21st-century economy from approving the keystone pipeline and fixing our at dated tax code to delaying the president's healthcare law. our bill also increases the debt limit. the best way to preserve the full faith and credit of the united states is by strengthening it which is what our plan does. coupling an increase in the debt limit with efforts to rein in spending is common sense, so much so, that it has been used

from presidents from both parties. president reagan did it in 1985 when he signed the graham rudman hollings reduction bill. five years later, president bush reached a budget deal with a democratic congress that included a debt limit increase. president clinton reached a similar agreement with the democratic majority in 1993. with a republican majority on the balanced budget agreement of 1997 as well. finally, president obama himself worked with republicans on a large deficit reduction deal tied to the debt limit in the summer of 2011. it has its flaws including the sequester, the president devised and insisted on, but it has cut spending. unfortunately, the president is now demanding that we increase the debt limit without engaging in any kind of i partisan discussion about addressing our spending problem.

he wants to take the easy way out. foolishnesskind of that got us here in the first place. it it is hard- working people like you who would ultimately pay the price for business as usual through higher taxes, higher prices, and fewer jobs. every major -- deficit reduction effort of the last years has been tied to the debt limit. this time should be no different. if anything, it is more important than ever if we are serious about adding people working again and protecting our children's future. thank you for listening. the houseicans and will be meeting at noon today to talk about how they will approach the bill that was sent to them yesterday by the senate to fund the federal government. yesterday, house republicans

talked about the impact of healthcare law on americans. >> ready? you all i want to thank for coming out today. we just came out to provide a little perspective here. some of the things that are not being talked about with regard to the cr and obamacare at the center of this debate -- we know america is up to its eyeballs in debt and we don't think it's time to rush forward with trillions in new entitlement spending. i am introducing a resolution that would simply ask the and members can say yes or no. my question is -- does it make 1.5e to move ahead with trillion dollars in new entitlement spending when we are in the middle of a debt crisis? we will put that question to all the members, our answer is no. we hope that our colleagues across the aisle and across the capital would see that as an

opportunity to also say no it doesn't make sense and maybe we can take some appropriate action. that is our resolution, calling on members to explain why they think it is a good idea to rush forward with $1.3 trillion in new entitlement spending when we are in the middle of the debt crisis. the said, i want to thank members that have come out today. they are all busy and have things to do so i appreciate them coming out and being here today. are any questions, i would be happy to answer them. i will let dr. fleming speak, he is a medical doctor and ken, and with some detail. >> thank you all for coming out. i am congressman john fleming from louisiana, a small-business owner. yesterday,, the president was giving a speech in maryland and he quoted a congressman saying that congressman said that obama care is the worst piece of legislation ever.

ladies and gentlemen, that congressman was me. i fully stand behind that i am congressman john fleming fromstatement. as you just heard, congressman crawford said that in the. when we have entitlement programs that america can ill afford, we are now launching a new entitlement for graham that will be a massive transfer of income from one class of people destroying our income, destroying jobs, and perversely removing people from the healthcare roles they are already on. why in the world would we want to do that? in the final analysis, what obamacare represents for the american people is not only loss of the insurance they already have but a steep rise in the cost of their health care and insurance and the loss of their jobs or reduction of that job down to part-time because we

know that since the beginning of the year, 77% of all new jobs are part-time jobs. as you justthat's because compas moving theirapidly employees from full-time to part-time jobs. they are losing not only their health care in some cases but they are losing their jobs, their income, and certainly their standard of living. i certainly stand behind this measure. i think we should remind those who voted for obama care, all of them democrats, not a single republican ever voted for this bill. we should have them remind their that this is a whole new entitlement for graham that is destructive for america. thank you. i got an e-mail from a constituent this morning who works at one of the largest hospitals in my district. the had a meeting and administration rolled out the

news that their healthcare costs were going up and as a result am a their retirement benefits were going down. these are some of the symptoms we are seeing already manifest themselves with the implementation of this law. we want senator reed to answer the question -- does it make sense to go forward with 1.3 dollars trillion in new spending in the middle of a debt crisis? if anybody else wants to weigh in, i welcome them. if not, i will take questions. what about a fallback position if the funding is not achieved? >> we don't know what to expect from the senate. we don't know what they will do. this is not anything other than the fact that we need to make sure our folks back home know where their center stands and where their member of congress stance. we want to get them on record. it has been three years since the law was signed and people

just need to get a little reaffirmation about whether their member of congress are senator thinks it's a good idea to continue to spend recklessly and we think it's not. >> in the president's speech yesterday, when he talked about your comment, you brought up the fugitive's -- he brought up the fugitive slave act. reference to a state representative from some other state who had made a reference to that. i did not supply any particular legislation in the past. the point is that remember, obama care takes over, puts under the government rule, 1/6 of the entire economy. what could be more intimate for each individual american than their healthcare? not only do americans now have be accountable for their

finances to the irs, they now have to be accountable to the irs for their healthcare. if you add that to the loss of jobs and the loss of health care and the cost of healthcare, i think it is in comparable. the democrats will come back at you. do you want to clarify exactly what you talked about? >> what i said was very clear. >> i will yield to my colleague from kentucky, mr. andy barr. i am from kentucky. this resolution is important because it points out that obamacare threatens to further ofermine the solvency important health care programs that are currently in existence. in my district, we have a number of seniors, obviously, just like

district, dependent on medicare. you are all ready seeing this fiscal pressures obamacare is putting on medicare. the medicare trustees are saying the hospital insurance trust fund is set to go bankrupt in the year 2026. program willment cost over $2 trillion in the next few years and will put rusher on medicare. theacare rates medicare to tune of $716 billion. there is rural hospitals around kentucky that are seeing their as aursements slashed

result of obama care. obamacare victimizes medicare. the independent tame and advisory board which is a financing mechanism for obamacare is threatening to ration health care services are our seniors. this resolution makes a point. obamacare threatens an already fiscally insolvent safety net in our country. when need to focus on saving medicare. we need to focus on forcing the government to keep the promises it has already made. obamacare makes that impossible and that's another important dimension to this discussion. >> thank you. i heard from one of the -- am iin my district going to have to choose between medicare -- social security and obamacare? i cannot answer that question and as a i don't know that anybody can with certainty. as was indicated, this presents a major challenge to the solvency of those programs we have promised to our seniors and we intended to deliver.

i would ask that senator reed answer the simple question -- does it make sense to speed ahead with $1.3 trillion in the middle of a debt crisis? for the folks in my district, that answer is no and for me, the answer is no, it does not make sense. we need to slow this down a little bit and give the american people new perspective. in 2008, the national debt was $4 trillion and four years later, it is up to $16 trillion. while that debt has increased by 60%, the annual interest six ounce has decreased. eluent dollars1 because billion interest rates are being artificially suppressed and when they normalize, that will put even further pressure on our budget. that means that probably the

interest on our debt becomes the single biggest line item in the federal budget. as we see oh, care continuing to put pressure on medicare -- as we see obama care continuing to put pressure on medicare and hospitals are asking how we can fix this problem and i know what the wrong answer is. that is speeding forward with 1.3 trillion dollars in the middle of a debt crisis. having said that, any further questions? i know congressman king was planning on being here but i don't see him. if there are no further questions -- what got here late but about republicans saying there is a risk of a shut down?

they say that anyone who does not think there is a high risk is not playing with a full deck? >> the point of this discussion has nothing to do with a government shutdown. positionspeak to the of other members. i am the first republican since 1873 so i would hardly consider my district to be a safe republican district. i am not a proponent of shutting down the government. this is athis is a measure thatd force members of congress and senators to say yes, it makes sense or no it doesn't to spend 1.3 trillion dollars in additional and title months in the middle of a debt crisis. it has nothing to do with shutting down the government. it is a clarification so that folks back home know where their member of congress does and their senator stands with regard to our spending problem in this town. reassesse need to that, reaffirm that, and gives senators an opportunity to speak to their folks back home through

voting yes or no on this resolution. >> how can you call yourself christians and you want to deny healthcare to 30 million people in america? note, i think it is time to end. >> you call yourself christians. these are killers. they are worse than the guy at the navy yard. these people are demons. we are here today calling on the pope to exercise them. them, they need god's power to be relieved from these demons that are possessing them. they broke up the press conference when we talked about god. they do not represent children of god. they are not children of god. they are not.

we are praying for their souls. we are praying for their souls but we need to do something about it. we need to vote them out of office. they are destroying us. i just asked him a question. hey refused to answer because he is a demon. maxine waters of congress said these are demons. you are not christlike in your cell. >> i am doing christ's work. house have ain the link back in and you can watch the rest of this online at www.c-span.org. we will now go to the floor of the house expected in 41 minutes the federalunding government through mid-november and current funding runs out on

monday. dear lord, we give you thanks for giving us another day. we come to you as a nation in the midst of great uncertainty and worry as people look for causes and solutions, the temptation is great to seek ideological position. we ask that you might send your spirit of peace and reconciliation, that instead of

the opponents, the members of this people's house and all elected to represent our nation might work together humbly recognizing the best in each other's hopes, to bring to resolution the current impasse over the economy. give your spirit of consolation to those who are concerned about the stability of their income, especially those who serve in our armed forces. may their welfare inspire those engaged in this debate to find fair and lasting solutions. may all that is done be for your greater honor and glory. amen. the speaker pro tempore: the chair has examined the journal of the last day's proceedings and announces to the house his approval thereof. pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1 the journal stands approved. the pledge of allegiance will be led by the gentlewoman from ohio, mrs. beatty.

mrs. beatty: i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the speaker pro tempore: the chair will entertain up to 15 requests for one-minute speeches on each side of the aisle. for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina rise? mr. wilson: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. wilson: mr. speaker, the current administration has dictated for the environmental protection agency to unilaterally institute regulations without seeking congressional approval. south carolina energy producers have been forced to expedite closing of 12 coal facilities, which has driven up energy costs for consumers, destroyed jobs and made our workers less competitive. earlier this month, the e.p.a. acted alone again by proposing new regulations. this week, i spearheaded a letter signed by other members of the south carolina

delegation to the president and e.p.a. administer supporting legislative -- administrator supporting legislative review. they need a voice in promoting jobs and lower energy costs. my sympathy to sarah clarkson and her family of colombia, south carolina, on the death of her husband, a true southern gentleman of scottish heritage, by the fficer awarded governor. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from north carolina rise -- ohio rise? without objection. -- the gentlewoman from california rise? without objection. ms. chu: we have not paid our bills on time. on as "the wall street journal" asked recently of the g.o.p., are you nuts?

f they shut the government down, our military, including people serving overseas now, will not be paid on time. if they default on our bills, 10 million americans won't receive their social security checks on time. families will pay higher interest rates on their mortgages, loans and credit cards. the last time republicans took us to the brink, s&p downgraded our credit rating. if the g.o.p. doesn't compromise, they could trigger a worldwide financial crisis and cause long-term economic damage. since when have these cutthroat tactics been an acceptable way to govern? the answer is, they're not. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from tennessee rise? mrs. blackburn: to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. speaker. it's interesting, what brings us here to the house floor this

saturday morning, as we are looking at a continuing resolution to fund the government, as we are looking at ways to address what is happening with obamacare, where 17% of our nation's economy is being nationalized and federalized, those are concerns that we are hearing from our constituents. they do not want obamacare to be put into action. they do not want these insurance exchanges to be stood up and put into action, and there are a lot of good reasons why. first of all, they're not ready. that's why we need to delay this for one year. delay it. we know that there are problems with the exchanges. we know that there are problems with all of the interactive technologies. we know that obamacare has already missed over half of its deadlines. why would you move forward on a program that is not ready for

primetime? delay, defund, repeal, replace, that is what we need to do with obamacare. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from north carolina rise? mr. butterfield: to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. butterfield: mr. speaker, republican extremists have put the federal government on the drink -- brink of a shutdown in less than three years. yesterday, the senate sent over a resolution that funds the government through november 15 using the sequester level of $986 billion. what is the republican leadership going to do with this resolution that will keep the lights on through november 15? are you going to continue to listen to the 40 to 50 ultra conservatives in your conference whose agenda is to disparage president obama and hold us hostage until we gut the affordable care act, as the gentlelady from tennessee just made reference to, and make deeper cuts to the american people? is this where we're headed?

i pray for reasonableness on the part of republican colleagues. it's a critical mass within the republican ranks who are beyond reason. a very sad day in american history is upon us. i urge speaker boehner to listen to voices of reason in his conference and pull together like-minded republicans who can join with like-minded democrats and get this done. the american people want compromise. they want it today. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from north carolina rise? ms. foxx: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. foxx: mr. speaker, compromise is an agreement reached by each side making concessions, but how can we reach a compromise if president obama isn't even willing to negotiate? the president has said he will not negotiate raising the debt ceiling even though every major attempt to deal with the deficit over the last 30 years has been tied to the debt limit. he will not negotiate delaying the individual mandate even

though he delayed the employer mandate until 2015. will not negotiate repealing the medical device tax even though 33 democrats voted to do precisely that. however, he's willing to negotiate with labor unions and special interests over their objections to obamacare. he is willing to negotiate with dictators who use chemical weapons against their own citizens. he is willing to negotiate with iran. he's just not willing to negotiate with congress and he's not willing to listen to the american people who are demanding a reprieve from his half-baked health care law and real solutions to america's debt and deficit problems. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from ohio rise? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mrs. beatty: thank you, mr. speaker. congress is faced with much unfinished business, a budget that needs to be passed, sequester repealed and debt

limit that needs to be lifted. i remind my republican colleagues, citizens want us united. they want compromise, not to be shut down. if the united states defaults on its debt, the results will be devastating. it could mean 3.4 million veterans not receiving disability benefits. drug reimbursements for medicare could stop, and in the first week, 10 million americans would not receive their social security. but in these frightening times, all hope is not lost. john hogan, founder of team force, an enterprise dedicated to solving the youth employment crisis in america, recently received the white house champion of change award from the president of these united states for contributions to the administration's jobs program. john and his family are here today. let john and other champions of change serve as an example to us all -- in hard times, if we

work together, if we compromise we can make a difference. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? mr. johnson: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. r. johnson: thank you. you know, we're just three days away from october 1, the day obamacare's health care exchanges are scheduled to open. yet, every constituent phone call, news headline and report i come across proves that this law is simply unaffordable and unworkable. on thursday, at 11:22 a.m., president obama said, quote, most of the stories you'll hear about how obamacare can't work is just not based on facts. we're only five days away from finishing the job. exactly 23 minutes later, i received a news alert saying the white house postponed

another portion of obamacare. the sixth unilateral delay. worse in my home state of texas, premiums will increase by 53% for young males and 11% for females. mr. speaker, i've heard the personal stories. i've seen the facts. obamacare is unaffordable and unworkable. americans want, need and deserve patient-centered reforms, not this government knows best health care. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from minnesota rise? >> to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. ellison: mr. speaker, i remember being in this house not that long ago, august, 2011, in which we were told that we got to -- we got to threaten the breaking the debt ceiling of the united states because of debt and deficit. well, deficits come down. so here we are again threatening to harm the economic for turns of americans

with a shutdown and even the debt ceiling, but we're not talking about debt and deficit no more. now we're talking about obamacare. my advice to my republican colleagues is to try to overturn the affordable care act at the ballot box. oh, that didn't work. another piece of advice. go to the court and try to have it found unconstitutional? oh, that didn't work out either. ok. well, try to go through the regular legislative process. 43 times later that didn't work. so now we're going to literally damage the economy of this nation? the fact is this is wrong. it's going to hurt veterans, seniors. it's going to hurt children. it's going to hurt our parks. it's going to hurt our own country. and i pray that my colleagues stop this. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the entleman from california rise? without objection.

>> thank you, mr. speaker. again, we hear about compromise, yet the president says he's unwilling to talk to us, he's unwilling to negotiate. how is that compromise. mr. lamalfa: we hear more and more talk about shutdown. now, if the democrats talk about shutdown, they talk about offering solutions including the full faith and credit act to keep the government operating for the american people. finally in this debate, in this drama we hear deception or people using tactics to threaten the american people and scare them, mr. speaker, by saying that your social security is going to be taken away, which it would not, if the democrats actually pushed this thing to a shutdown. so let's stop the deception and once again stop the drama which maybe my daughter would actually watch this on tv because she's sick of the drama at school, we're sick of the drama here. we have 48 hours or less to get this out. let's work together, compromise, work with the

president, work with the senate, work amongst ourselves. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from hawaii rise? without objection. ms. hanabusa: mr. speaker, can you just tell me what's going on so i can tell my constituents? i can't believe we are here, saturday morning, three days away from a potential government shutdown with no plan from you. i can't believe that we're about 20 days away from the greatest nation on this earth, the united states, defaulting on our obligation with no plan from you. mr. speaker, being speaker means leading. mr. speaker, the majority party, your party, has an obligation to all people of this great nation to lead. instead, you choose to play games with people's livelihoods and the full faith and credit

of our nation, the greatest nation on this earth. it is our nation, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, it's time for you to listen to the people. don't shut down government, don't play with the debt ceiling. it is time to listen, time to talk. i yield back. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? >> i ask permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> mr. speaker, we are faced with the threat of a government shutdown on tuesday due to the republican party tea party extremist's inability to compromise and pass a spending bill for fiscal year 2014. mr. veasey: once again we have been pushed to the blink of a government shutdown by tea party members whose only goal seems to be to provide hardworking taxpayers the right to insurance.

while the republican-led house has voted 42 times to sabotage uninsured americans gaining health care coverage, not once have they allowed a vote to repeal and replace the sequester. over 400 hardworking taxpayers in fort worth, texas, have lost their jobs due to the sequester. to make matters worse, once again, republicans are placing the livelihoods of american families at risk by threatening to furlough government employees. the bottom line here is that congress has a lot of work to do this weekend, and in the weeks and months to follow. this is the work that we as members of congress were elected to do. i take this responsibility very seriously and expect my colleagues to do as well. mr. speaker, thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlelady from california rise? >> i ask permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. hahn: thank you, mr.

speaker. once again the clock is ticking. with the deadline looming before congress, republicans are bullying this nation with the threat of a government shutdown unless we get rid of the affordable care act. republicans have tried over 40 times to repeal the affordable care act, and it hasn't gotten them anywhere. now they found themselves a hostage and they are saying give us what we want or we are going to blow up the economy and shut down this government that will cause critical services to be stopped for the american people. which could mean that over three million veterans will not receive their disability benefits. 10 million americans may not receive their social security checks on time. and the s.e.c. and e.p.a. will be closed for business. careening from one fiscal crisis to the next is no way to run this country. that's not how we are supposed to do business. there are enough problems in this nation without congress manufacturing new ones.

let's end this man-made crisis and get to the business of not hurting the american people. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania rise. >> permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> mr. speaker, once again congress is set to play politics by threatening to shut down the government rather than work toward a compromise. mr. cartwright: last month we parked a disgraceful anniversary of our nation, the s&p downgrading of the full faith and credit of the united states. gridlock and extremism did what wars, natural disasters, and other natural crises could not do, cause credit rating agencies to question whether or not america had the political will to pay its debts as they come due. right now we are faced with another deadline with the end of

the fiscal year fast approaching, a budget that needs to be passed, and a debt limit that needs to be lifted so we can continue to do business. congress has a lot of work to do. we need to do it fast. this is work we elected to do. let's stop holding blame game press conferences and get the job done. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from florida seek recognition? >> request unanimous consent to address the house. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> mr. speaker, with due respect to my friends on the other side of the aisle, this shutdown talk has evolved to ridiculousness. ms. frankel: to quote dr. seuss, when beatles fight these battles in a boddle and the poodles is eating noodles they call this a muddle puddle tweetle poodle

paddle battle. mr. speaker, it's time to work together and stop these beetles. sop the battle. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from michigan rise. >> permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. kildee: mr. speaker, like a number of the previous speakers, i'm a freshman and i'm frustrated. frustrated because we haven't done our job. mostly frustrated because i continually hear the talking points spouted that the president will not negotiate. and that's the reason that we are in the position we are in. nothing could be further from the truth. the president won't negotiate on the full faith and credit of the united states, just like we can't negotiate on our oath of office, and you can't negotiate on the law of gravity. some things can't be negotiated.

what's frustrating to me is that the failure to negotiate falls on the clearly on the shoulders of the republicans. the senate and the house passed budgets. what we failed to do, what the leadership on the republican side failed to do, is to appoint conferees to do what? to negotiate a budget. one that we might not like, the senate might not like, but that we come together and adopt the budget that the american people can support. this is a failure to negotiate, that's right. ut it's a failure that every fourth grade civic student knows how a bill becomes the law. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from nng new jersey rise. a -- new jersey rise. mr. pallone: address the house for one minute. mr. speaker, i heard the same thing on the republican side of the aisle. why doesn't the president compromise? but the bottom line is the president's always willing to negotiate on the issues of the

budget. as are the house democrats. but what we are seeing from the g.o.p. is they just want to kill the affordable care act. that's what this is all about. they do not want the affordable care act to proceed. i know myself in my district there are plenty of people that can't wait until october 1. they don't have insurance. they want a good benefit package. it makes absolutely no sense to link the budget, which has nothing to do with the affordable care act or obamacare, and say, well, we want to kill that because we don't like it. we had an election. we had an election last november, less than a year ago, president obama said he was going to continue with the affordable care act and his opponent said no, he would repeal it. and the president won. this is over. the republicans should not continue to come back and insist that there be cheanings, repeal, defunding of the affordable care act. that's not the way this government operates. no one on the republican side of the aisle has asked to sit down with the democrats. and no one on the republican

side of the aisle has suggested they'll do anything, but they have to repeal the affordable care act. that's what this is about and it should not be, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the entleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlelady texas seek recognition? ms. jackson lee: to address the house for one minute. revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. jackson lee: mr. speaker, we are here on a saturday, and we are probably in the, i don't believe it crowd, not because we are here on a saturday, because the people's business must be done. i hope that the backdrop of the u.n. resolution that dealt with 15 countries that stood together to bind themselves against

syria's holding of chemical weapons, may be an example for the coming together of this body , something historic happened because people listened to each other. and i would hope that as we move towards some mode of peace, as we work to reconcile the terrible violence in syria, the killing of syrians, but first by ensuring that those chemical weapons do no harm to anyone in this world, the republicans can listen and understand that it is always the other person's interest that should be promoted and put first, and that is to say that this nation must fund itself and we must pay our bills. a good lesson for once from the u.n. we all would do well to understand we can work together. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired.

the chair announces the speaker's appointment pursuant to 22 u.s.c. 276 and order of the house of january 3, 2013, of the following members on the part of the house to make up the mexico-united states interparliamentary group. the clerk: mr. pastor of arizona, ms. linda sanchez california, mr. gene krein of exas, mr. polis of colorado, for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? mr. sessions: mr. speaker, by direction of the committee on rules i call up house resolution 361 and ask for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the

resolution. the clerk: house calendar number 56, house resolution 361, resolved, that the requirement of clause 6-a of rule 13 for a 2/3 vote to consider a report from the committee on rules on the same day it is presented to the house is waived. with respect to any resolution reported through the legislative day of september 30, 2013, relating to any of the following. one, a measure making continuing appropriations for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2014. two, a measure relating to the public debt limit. section 2, upon adoption of this resolution, the house hereby, one, takes from the speaker's table the bill h.r. 2642, to provide for the reformed and continued education of agricultural and other programs of the department of agriculture through fiscal year 2018, and for other purposes. with the senate amendment thereto. and two, concurs in the senate

amendment with an amendment substituting for the matter proposed to be inserted by the senate amendment the text of h.r. 2642 as passed by the house, modified by the insertion of a new title 4. h.r. 3102 as passed by the house with designations, short titles, and cross-references conformed accordingly. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for one hour. mr. sessions: thank you, mr. speaker. for the purpose of debate only, i yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman, my friend from worcester, massachusetts, the gentleman, mr. mccoven. pending which i yield myself such time as i may consume -- mr. mcgovern, pending which i yield myself such time as i may consume. during consideration of this resolution all time is yielded for the purpose of debate only. mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to .evise and extend their remarks the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. sessions: house resolution 361 provides this body with an

expedited procedure necessary to ensure that all legislation needed to prevent a government shutdown can be splirble considered -- expeditiously considered without delay. that's why we are here today. additionally this resolution allows for consideration of legislation designed to ensure that our government does not default on its debt obligations. finally, house resolution 361 provides the necessary framework to move forward with the consideration of the farm bill with our friends in the senate. mr. speaker, midnight on monday, just two days from now, the federal government would shut down if congress does not act to provide the necessary appropriations. there are varying schools of thought on what these appropriations should look like, but i believe that all members, regardless of party affiliation, are united in the understanding that a government shutdown is

detrimental to this nation and to the american people. over the next couple days there will be much deliberation over how to appropriately fund this effort and the government. this resolution before us today is necessary to ensure that once a decision is reached this body can quickly react without undue delay to prevent a government shutdown. i recognize that this is an important time as do all of my colleagues, even the house chaplain is here on the floor of the house today because he has great expectation that we as a body can work together to do the things that will ensure that our government is seen in the light by the american people as doing the right thing for them, because that is what our job and oath of office is, to make sure that the american people are protected and that we as one nation under god will move forward together. i urge my colleagues to vote yes

on the resolution and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas reserves. for what purpose does the gentleman from massachusetts rise. 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, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. mcgovern: mr. speaker, this is a martial law rule that will allow for consideration of a yet-to-be-seen continuing resolution and yet-to-be-seen debt ceiling rule. 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 1p 0,000 unemployed veterans. this was a truly awful piece of legislation and the way the republicans continue to diminish the plight of poor people, where they continue to beat up on programs that benefit them stuns me. it takes my breath away. to adhere

the house majority is 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 the house majority. speaker boehner applied with the end of the three-day rule, he said. no. in the same interview he 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, end quote. those promises seem a million miles away today. sadly, since that time, the republican majority has epeatedly vylate their own promises of open and transparency. 33 times they violated their three-day promised and rushed legislation to the house floor. they avoided the committee

process and brought legislation straight to the floor and despite promising to let the house work its will, they had 57 closed or structured rule and 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. now, why have they done this? not because they're letting the house work its will. they have abandoned regular order because of an extreme faction of the republican party is so uncompromising that they're willing to shut down our government or implode our economy unless they get their way. as the potential government shutdown looms, just a couple days from now, we still do not know what the republican majority's planning to do. what we do know whatever proposed will be written behind closed doors in attempt to appease the most extreme elements of the republican conference. mr. speaker, time is really 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 down this government down. now, we've heard rumors behind closed doors republicans are gathering and trying to figure out what to do, and i know you have to check with ted cruz before you bring anything to the house floor, but the rumors that we're hearing is you're proposing is even more right wing than what the senate has already rejected. nornede, a nonstarter. i'd -- in other words, a nonstarter. i'd urge my friends, don't put the american people through another manufactured crisis that will do great damage to our economy. stop the drama. this has become theater of the absurd. i pray there are grownups in the republican conference that

will take charge and avoid an unnecessary shutdown by passing a clean c.r. 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. do the right thing, do your job. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from texas. mr. sessions: thank you very much, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i'm with great respect for the gentleman from massachusetts, we have been debating these issues for a long, long time. the st a closed rule and way that the obamacare bill was rushed to the floor a couple years ago, but since then a complete denial about what really the real impact of obamacare is. and the gentleman is right. the gentleman's absolutely

correct. republicans, 100% of us, are absolutely opposed to obamacare. but there are reasons why. it's not some narrow political ideology. in fact, it's reality. and the reality is -- and i'll lay these out in several different formats, mr. speaker, just to make it easy for the american people to understand what we're talking about. the cost to taxpayers -- i know we were told won't be any cost $716 ayers, but in fact billion cut to medicare. that means senior care. this obamacare cuts seniors' care, takes $716 billion out of medicare to pay for obamacare. that's wrong. that is taking this out on america's seniors. next, there will be $1,8

,000,000,000 that we know about that will be spent over the next decade alone to fund obamacare. cost to families -- on average -- i am from dallas, texas -- on average, texas families face a potential premium increases from 5% to 43%. in the individual market. and 23% increase for small groups. that's the little bit that we know about what the announcement that came out the other day. could be up to 43% increase. the cost to employers -- well, the cost to employers is also a cost to their workers, is a cost to the economy, is a cost to stock prices which people have their pensions in. recently, delta airlines announced that obamacare will cost the company $100 million

in increased premiums in just one year. hat's a huge cost. $100 million. the impact on the health insurance coverage, americans are losing their current health insurance. employers had begun dropping spouses from their health insurance. ust last week, u.p.s. also announced an extra 15,000 spouses of its employees will be dropped from their health insurance plan. obamacare on the impact of american jobs -- fewer jobs, according to the c.b.o., obamacare will shrink employment by half a percent. well, let's see what that does. doesn't just increase it by half a percent. it really means that if they're part-time workers is what full-time workers are becoming directly as a result of

obamacare. obamacare puts 3.2 million jobs at risk in the franchise industry alone. fewer hours and more part-time jobs. since obamacare was passed, there have been seven part-time jobs created for every one full-time job. that's simple. i get that. as a former employer, i understood if you put rules and gulations on who is required to pay for full-time workers, they simply understood that and ducked out by having part-time employees. full-time growth has only expanded by .23%. at's .2% since obamacare has passed. this is not the direction america ought to be going. the republican party is opposed

to obamacare. we are here on the floor of the house of representatives again, and i think we're gathering support across the american -- across the lines of the american people, including union leaders who say this is the wrong way to go. i don't know that this is the last time to say no, but we're taking every opportunity we can as a republican party to say that where we are headed with this costly health care change that will diminish and destroy america's greatest health care system in the world is what we're going to stand up for. mr. speaker, i believe the facts of the case are a daunting task for our american economy to overcome, and that's why the republican party, the party of full-time jobs and careers, is on the floor of the house of representatives thoughtfully articulating here and to the american people about why we're doing what

we're doing. i reserve my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. mcgovern: mr. speaker, i'd like to ask unanimous consent to insert in 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. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. mcgovern: and mr. speaker, 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 co-pays. we see the doughnut hole and the medicare prescription drug bill that the republicans passed where they're asked to pay huge out-of-pocket expenses closing down. we see the young people being able to say on their parents' insurance until they're 26. it is no longer considered to be a pre-existing condition if you're a woman in this country

because of the affordable care act. and i 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 re-election. the whole election was about the affordable care act. he won re-election by five million votes. democrats picked up seats in the senate. we even picked up seats in the house. by the way, in terms of congressional races, democrats received a 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 do with it. you can try to win more seats and then you can come to the floor and introduce bills, bring them through committee, you know, have the senate do the same thing, conference thing and send it to the president's desk and by the way, you can try to win presidency. that's the normal way to do legislative business. what you're doing here is distorted the legislative process. this is making a mockery of the legislative process. you have turned this house of

representatives into a laughing stock. 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're all huddled in this secret meeting somewhere in the capitol where there's nobody -- there's no transparency, where we have absolutely no say, 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. that y to my colleagues the notion that somehow that your health care benefits have been decreased from the affordable care act is so far from the truth it's comical. at this point i yield five minutes to the gentlewoman from new york, the distinguished

member of the rules committee, ms. slaughter. ms. slaughter: thank you very much. i really appreciate my colleague for yielding and thank you, mr. speaker. i think he did a very good job refuting what we had heard and the talking points, but let me add just one or two things about it. we've always known that if people say untruth often enough, loud enough that they begin to believe it themselves but we still hope that the country out there will not. let's put this succinctly. the same group fighting today also fought the social security law and the medicare law. they hated it all. they didn't want any of that done. and i don't believe that the american people now -- don't want to give up either one of them. the fear is when this bill goes until effect not until january all the awful things is not in effect, this bill is not in effect, that it's going to be a success and they are going to have a lot of explaining to do.

now, a report just released that i heard about yesterday showed that only 1% of businesses in the united states of america have made any changes at all. and indeed, small business gets great benefits providing health care in tax rebates. now, the most important thing i want to say, because contrast to what we're doing here today is so glaring. when we did the health care bill and every president since teddy roosevelt has tried to, when we did it, it went through the committee process in both houses and everybody had a chance and every committee in the house and in the senate contains both republicans and democrats who proposed amendments. some of them accepted. in fact, one of the ones we're working with now is to try to make some sense out of the one that was added by senator grassley over in the senate, a republican. the idea that we rammed this thing through in the middle of the night and nobody ever seen it is absurd. everybody knew about it. the whole thing was transparent. the committee meetings were all open and everybody had a

chance. never in the world have we ever seen people fight so hard to do away with a piece of legislation that is a legitimate law. and what do they do? they have dropped the entire process of governing the house of representatives. we have seen over the year not a piece of work get done. absolutely none. so we are having to do a continuing resolution because we have no budget. the budget was passed in the house, budget was passed in the senate. the republicans in the house of representatives have refused what is normal process to sit down and come -- confer over that budget and give us a budget. since january of 2011, 42 votes have been held here to defund or undermine the historic law. they have repeatedly failed to complete the most basic of congressional functions, which is passing the appropriations legislation to keep the government opened.

in fact, what their mantra is, we need to create jobs in america, let's repeal obamacare. do we need to balance our budget? let's repeal obamacare. we need to keep the government opened? let's repeal obamacare. the answer to everything, the cure for absolutely nothing. and now their legislative malpractice, i don't know of anything else you can call it, has led us to the brink of a major crisis. read just this morning from frank keating, former republican governor of oklahoma what in the world is going on here. what in the world do we think we are doing? as we begin to see the consequences of their actions, they are doubling down, putting forth a list of demands that even the greediest child on christmas morning would be put to shame. in exchange for averting a government shutdown and global economic crisis, the house majority considers making the demand. a one-year delay of the individual mandate which would cut the health care law.

the implementation of congressman ryan's tax reform plan, which does away with medicare, by the way. despite the fact that voters, my deleeg said, rejected his draconian vision as he ran for vice president last year. the repeal of dodd-frank -- additional minute. mr. mcgovern: additional minute. ms. slaughter: repeal to dodd frank -- dodd-frank, construct the keystone pipeline. none of this has anything to do with what is facing us today. they want to do away with all of the environmental regulations. so the list goes on and on. but it's time for this temper tantrum, mr. speaker, to end. cooler heads to prevail. there must be some cooler heads here on the other side. with time running out the majority has to act to keep this government opened and try to get this economy on track. the american people must be spared from the consequences of a majority that cannot find the will or the ability to

legislate. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the gentleman from massachusetts reserves. the gentleman from texas. mr. sessions: mr. speaker, thank you very much. 10 days ago we had a debate object this floor -- on this floor we heard about what the republican party is doing, taking food away from disabled people. that's not true. today we hear about how republicans want to repeal all laws that are related to clean water, clean air, all of these onerous things that they talk about, not true. we are for clean water. we are for clean air. myself and many of my colleagues are outdoorsmen who believe in not only the wilderness of this country but also the freedoms that come with that, and we are for clean water, clean air, but we are not for the rules and regulations that kill jobs like

the democrats' will on coal. that's when republicans do stand up, mr. speaker. we stand up and say we are not going to tolerate taking away our constitutional rights, nor the rights of free people, to have their jobs from rules and regulations that are based upon premises that just aren't even true. that cannot stand the test of sound science. mr. speaker, at this time i'd like to yield to a young man who is one of the brightest members of our body, but also sits on the rules committee, the gentleman, dr. michael burgess, for five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for five minutes. mr. burgess: i thank the chairman for yielding to me. a term used legislative malpractice, it's an interesting term because i believe it applies so succinctly to the process that gave us the affordable care act, many people don't remember december 21, 2009, a dim memory, on that very

night, on the longest and darkest evening of the year, the senate held a cloture vote to allow the affordable care act to proceed to a vote in the full senate. and it passed. the 60-vote margin. on christmas eve the affordable care act on that passed same 60-vote margin right ahead of a big snowstorm because all the senators wanted to get out of town. let's think about this for a minute. when they are hearing hearings on 3590 held? o, there were not. but there was never a hearing on h.r. 3590, save the hearing in the rules committee the night before it came to the floor of the house in march of 2010. the hearings on h.r. 3200 were vastly different from the law as written in h.r. 3590.

here's the real crux, mr. speaker, here's what is really wrong and why washington is in such a lather right now. the affordable care act was never intended to become law. it was a vehicle to get the senators home on christmas eve before the snowstorm. it was never intended to be law. the law that was passed by the senate was a rough draft. it's like the dog ate my homework, and unfortunately the rough draft got signed into law the following march. that's why there is so much difficulty with this. h.r. directors across this country, labor lawyers across this country are just literally pulling their hair out trying to make heads or tails of what they, what they are required to do under the law. they get conflicting information from people at the federal agency. goodness knows in our committee hearings on energy and commerce, we have yet to have an administration person come in and really be prepared to answer our questions. what they are prepared to do is

try to mislead us and try to filibuster, and live through the hearing of the day and then get on to whatever it is they do. i asked the director of the center for consumer information and insurance oversight just last week, will you be ready on october 1? a yes or no question. i asked for a simple yes or no answer. he gave me a long convoluted answer about people going on line, and i said you can't answer the question yes or no? he repeated the long discourse. then what happened? while the president was out giving a speech on the greatness of the affordable care act, oh, yeah, the department of health and human services put out a little memo that in fact people won't be able to go online. they might have to fax their information in on october 1. and here's the real point. sure, you can criticize republicans for having 42 votes to repeal parts of the affordable care act. seven times we have been successful. passed the senate, went on to the president, and signed.

gone are the 1099's, gone are the class act. there are some things that have happened to actually make the affordable care act better. but who has been the delayer in chief on the affordable care act? it has been the white house. it has been the president himself. why do i say that? they extol the benefits of coverage for pre-existing conditions, but no one can go to the department of health and human services and sign up for that federal pre-existing program. they closed the window on february 1 and said, good luck. we'll see you next january 1 when you can signed up for obamacare. that's no answer to the problem. look, what happened on july 2, right before everybody was to leave for the fourth of july holiday? 6:00 in the evening on a blog post they delayed the employer mandate. look, h.r. directors across the country are calling my office and asking what twitter feed do we need to follow to find out what's happening to this law? do i need to go on i.n.s. at that gram -- instagram to keep up? the president of the united

states has been the delayer in chief. the caps on out-of-pocket maximums, delayed for another year. small business health exchanges gone for another year. the story repeats itself over and over again. i dare say we will see a depression of morbidities next week and week after after this thing is supposed to go live. mr. speaker, the fact of the matter is had we had hearings, had we had hearings we might have actually come to anence that would be more logical. why didn't we ask any governor what they thought of what the congress was doing with health care in 2009? where was governor mitch daniels who managed to hold down costs in his state employees' health care by 11% over two years with his healthy indiana plan? why didn't we have him in the committee to find out how he had managed to do that? why didn't we have the governor view cost who is was attempting to set up exchanges in his state. i ask for another 30 seconds. mr. sessions: additional minute. mr. burgess: the governor of utah trying to set up exchanges

in his state for some time who came to our committee and after ed after the fact, this thing passed, after the republicans were back in the majority and we invited him in, i don't know what to do. i'm on shifting sands. nothing seems stable right now. where were the governor when is this law was written. where were the governors in our hearings? mr. speaker, we are at a concurrent resolution anaheim our country. the house is going to put forward legislation today that will keep our government opened and funded. i pray, i pray that harry reid and the president of the united states will not shut the government down. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from texas reserves. the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. mcgovern: oh, my goodness. first of all i say to the gentleman from texas who just went on this 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 is the right wing decided to do in terms of bringing a c.r. to the floor or debt

ceiling? i'd be happy to yield to him 10 seconds to tell me what's going on downstairs. if you tell us what's going to the floor? i was referring to the other gentleman from texas, if this gentleman from texas can inform us what in fact -- mr. sessions: i i can. mr. mcgovern: i yield 10 seconds. mr. sessions: we are gathering our ideas together and we are going to come to this floor of the house this afternoon with resolve help the american people. i thank the gentleman. mr. mcgovern: that's not particularly enlightening. let me ask the gentleman are we going to have any hearings on what is being decided in the backroom somewhere in the capitol here? are we going to -- members be able to offer amendments or are we going to be given something and told take it or leave it? i yield 10 seconds. mr. sessions: i appreciate the gentleman engaging me. an announcement has been made, mr. speaker, the rules committee will be in this afternoon to do just that. i thank the gentleman. mr. mcgovern: in other words, none of the committees of jurisdiction that oversee a lot of the issues in the c.r. will be having any hearings or there will be any markup on that. i also say to the gentleman, mr. burgess from texas, who 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'd like to ask him how many hearings were there on the bill 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? none. zero. this is becoming a habit in this house where the committees of jurisdiction don't even have a say in it. the agriculture committee never even had a chance to hold the hearing or markup on that bill. this is the way this house is being run. and 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 majority of the 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. you didn't like it, 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 the people in this country, once they understand that all the falsehoods that -- distortions being told here are nothing more than republican talking points. they are going to appreciate the fact that health care will be a right in this country and not a privilege. at this point, mr. speaker, i'd like to yield three minutes to the gentlewoman from connecticut, ms. delauro. the speaker pro tempore: before the gentlelady from connecticut rise, i remind all members to remind them to direct their comments to the chair and not to others in the second person. the gentlewoman from connecticut. ms. delauro: let me begin by paraphrasing sir walter scott and i think it's a really accurate description of what is going on on the other side of the aisle with the republican majority. and to walter scott said oh, what a tangled web we weeve when first we practice to deceive. this is about deception of where

we are moving forward. mr. speaker, i rise in opposition to this rule. it aims to put our country on the same radical, dangerous, ideological path that would -- was decisively repudiated at the polls last november. we all know one definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, well, here we are again. house majority is trying to move one step closer to locking in the deep, automatic cuts caused by sequestration. everyone in this room knows these cuts are destroying jobs all across america. robbing children of the education they need. slowing the pace of lifesaving research. and threatening everything from public safety to public health. even the chair of the appropriations committee, i might add, a republican, has said, and i quote, sequestration and its unrealistic and inconceived -- ill-conceived

discretionary cuts must be brought to an end. this rule does exactly the opposite. it allows the majority to advance a budget that makes these dangerous cuts permanent. this resolution also seeks for e 43rd time to deny quality, affordable health care to millions of americans. in fact, the affordable care act passed the congress, house and senate. it was signed into law by the president. it was upheld by the supreme court, and it was reaffirmed by the american people at the ballot box. let me say to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, get over it. the nation doesn't want to repeal this bill. if do want to see that there are problems, change it. in short, it is the law of the land, one that will help

lives s lead healthier without having to worry about being bankrupted by an injury or illness. and what my colleagues want to do, quite frankly, is they want to return your decisions on your health care back to the insurance companies to make the decision on your health care, to tell you that they're not going to cover you for a pre-existing condition. they won't cover your child who may have asthma or autism or someone like myself who was a cancer survivor. mr. mcgovern: i yield the gentlelady one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. ms. delauro: the majority is threatening to bring down the government and soon the economy to get their way. this could not be more irresponsible.

they also want to push forward a rule that will move their farm bill, $40 billion cut in the food stamp program, while at the same time providing $90 billion in crop insurance subsidies for wealthy agribusiness. deep cuts to the food stamp program have nothing to do with cutting the debt and everything to do with the majority's radical ideology. the department of agriculture reports it spent $14 billion on crop insurance last year alone. this majority chooses to force over four million low-income americans to go hungry, children, seniors, veterans, working families, while continuing to provide the richest of subsidies to the rich. let's be clear, we are at the 11th hour. it's time for the majority to stop playing games, stop trying to repeal the last election, stop trying to push the government and the entire economy into a shutdown. we need to do better. i ask my colleagues to oppose this rule. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired.

the gentleman from massachusetts reserves. the gentleman from texas. mr. sessions: i yield one minute to the gentleman from houston, texas. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. culberson: we are re-elected to change the law no matter what happened in previous congresses. the american people will see the constitutional conservative and majority in the house stay true to our districts, to our nation, to stand on principle. we will have the courage of our convictions to do with a we need to do to slow down this destructive law that was rammed through this house in less than 24 hours so rapidly that even speaker pelosi said we had to pass the law to find out what was in it. we are elected every congress to come back and try to change the law, but today the nation will see the courage of the convictions of the constitutional conservatives that are in the majority in this house doing our job for our district and our nation and we will be 100% unified in this effort because we're standing on principle. thank you, mr. speaker.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from texas reserves. mr. mcgovern: mr. speaker, maybe the gentleman from texas can enlighten us 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 is in this bill. i mean, could you enlighten us what's happening in the secret meeting? is ted cruz in the meeting? what's going on. i yield to the gentleman from texas five seconds if he has any -- mr. sessions: and i thank the gentleman. it is a meeting where all republicans are and we're meeting together and speaking and we will be at the rules committee this afternoon. i thank the gentleman. mr. mcgovern: i would say to the gentleman who spoke -- the other gentleman from texas that we are all elected too. and it sounds -- and we -- and we respect and appreciate and

value the constitution every bit as much as he does, and there is a constitutional way to run government which we are all supporting here. it seems what the gentleman wants to do is trash all that. want to say what happens in the house and the senate doesn't matter, the president signs it, it doesn't matter, the supreme court rules, it's ok, doesn't matter. i mean, i don't know where he's coming from. at this point, mr. speaker, i'd like to yield three minutes to the gentlewoman from texas, ms. jackson lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from texas is recognized for three minutes. ms. jackson lee: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. jackson lee: i thank the gentleman from massachusetts, and i also thank him for his leadership. we do live in a constitutional republic, and that constitutional republic requires for this nation not to held hostage by self-centered special interests. we come to the floor today to and in opposition to the

minority of the majority holding the vast numbers of americans who want a rational approach to continue the operation of this government to be able to make a difference. mr. speaker, the house is not in order. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is correct. the house is not in order. the gentlelady will continue. ms. jackson lee: so i rise today in this martial law, even the concept of it is one that finds itself with a very difficult premise. whatever we want to throw down today, the american people have to take it. and so someone rises and says there are medicare cuts, we have to take it and believe that it happens. the affordable care act did not do that. in fact, the affordable care act rescued seniors from the abyss of the doughnut hole. when you threw them over the doughnut hole, when they were drowning in the doughnut hole because of medicare part d, we helped them cut their

prescription costs. and so this misrepresentation about the affordable care act and the urgency to defund it is a misnomer, it's incorrect, it's just plain wrong. and this proposed c.r., continuing resolution, that now will delay the individual mandate, mr. speaker, i don't think my colleagues remember the hours and days and weeks of hearings that we had in this place. maybe they don't remember the little girl that went into an insurance company with her family in california who was suffering from leukemia and died because the insurance company would not cover her because she had a pre-existing condition disease. wonder what it feels like to see your child die in your arms because there is no insurance. i will not vote for anything that will delay the individual mandate while young women who is susceptible to early cancer over the age of 26 will not

find affordable, reasonable health insurance. not on my watch. and i will not vote for this rule. and i ask you not to vote for this because it is interesting that we can cut $40 billion out of food assistance for 46 million americans, many of whom 75% are children, 23% are disabled, 11% are elderly and some of them are the families of soldiers, but we can vote today to give fat cats subsidies. you want to divide us like that, you want to make sure you take care of your district and not take care of america, well, i came today to rise on the floor of the house to say that the founding fathers stuck together in the 13 colonies when they declared their independence. there's something about unity for the greater good, and i refuse to let this house fall on the spear for individual self-respectives because i got mine you get yours.

america deserves better. we will vote in the best interest of america. it is to continue this government and provide for obamacare and make sure that there's a healthier america and a better america. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. the gentleman from massachusetts reserves. the gentleman from texas. mr. sessions: mr. speaker, thank you very much. and i appreciate the gentlewoman's arguments that she makes on the floor, but the facts of the case are the facts of the case. out care took $716 billion of senior care, medicare, to fund obamacare. and secondly, since obamacare was passed, there have been seven part-time jobs added for every one new full-time job added. we cannot pay for this bill. it is nonsustaining, and it's harming america and its future. that's why republicans are here and gathering in numbers in strength and resolve and i

reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas reserves. the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. mcgovern: it's clear what's going on today, my republican friends didn't get their way and they're throwing a tantrum. i see many members on the floor today as the speeches have gone on. i'm curious, can anybody enlighten us what happened in your secret conference, what we will vote on? i think the american people would like to know what we'll vote on. i wonder if anybody could tell me what in fact has been decided. i guess nobody wants to tell us, so i yield two minutes to the gentleman from minnesota, mr. ellison. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from minnesota is recognized for two minutes. mr. ellison: thank you, mr. speaker. and the gentleman from massachusetts, you're yielding to me, but i don't know what they got cooking over there. what i do know this, mr. speaker, and this is abundantly clear. unless we take up the senate bill, unless we take up what the senate has passed, we will be in a situation where whatever, whatever is put on the floor and passes will have to go back to the senate and

harry reid has indicated we don't have time. so unless we take up the senate bill, we are going to head for a shutdown. that means the republican majority has just shut down the government. now, we still have time. reasonable heads still can prevail. but if we do anything other than keep the government open until november 15, vis-a-vis the senate bill, the republicans will have done what they did 17 years ago, shut the government down. now, this is extremely irresponsible, mr. speaker. it's extremely irresponsible because people on social security who need to call and get their questions answered, who might need to get some real responsive answers, won't get them because there won't be people there to man the phones. veterans will be slowed down. national parks, medical research, all types of people working for the federal government will have a payless

payday. they will have time where they are -- it's suspended animation. no matter what's going on, their lives will be turned upside down because they don't know what's going to happen. so we are not taking up the senate bill apparently. we don't know what we're taking up but we're not taking up that and that is irresponsible and wrong. now, why are we doing this? is there some big reason? the reason was, oh, the deficit. you recall, mr. speaker, august, 2011, we had to break the debt ceiling or threaten to order to -- the speaker pro tempore: the lady is correct. the gentleman will suspend. the house is not in order. the gentleman will continue. mr. ellison: august, 2011, the republicans threatened to break the debt ceiling and default on america's full faith and credit because of debt and deficit. we are not talking about that today. it's all now about obamacare.

i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts reserves. the gentleman from texas. mr. sessions: mr. speaker, there's a lot of words that are coming out of my friends' mouths about a secret meeting, about things that are happening, like they can't figure it out. mr. speaker, right behind me are going to be 230 strong republican members of congress who were in a meeting where we, with great resolve, saw the future of this country -- not just the same way, but we're going to do our job. i think the height of irresponsibility is any of those two bodies is sending their members home. mr. speaker, mr. boehner has the members ready, willing, able to vote. and you're right, you did hear these members gathering together with excitement about helping our future, helping the

american people. that's why we're here today. we're proud to be republicans. we're proud to be americans. one nation under god. and i reserve my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. mcgovern: mr. speaker, i say to the gentleman, if it's not a secret meeting, can someone tell us what happened in it or is it just for republicans only? i think we need to know what we're voting on before we vote on it. it's a radical deal in this republican-controlled house. it's a reasonable request. i yield two minutes to the gentleman from texas, mr. green. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for two minutes. mr. green: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, it is time for my republican colleagues to do more than repeal. it is time for my republican colleagues to pass a bill. who can deny that the house is controlled by my republican colleagues? they control every committee,

they control every subcommittee, they are in control. who can deny that they have the opportunity to pass the perfect bill to deal with health care in this country? where is the bill that will deal with closing the doughnut hole for senior citizens? where is the bill that will help those who have pre-existing conditions to acquire insurance? where is the bill that will deal with the cap that has been placed on insurance prior to obamacare? . . they are in charge. the lgical question is why haven't they passed a bill since the affordable care act passed more than three years ago? it is time to do more than repeal. you have to have a bill. it is time for my republican colleagues to do the logical thing, to do the judicious

thing, prudent thing pass your bill. hen we can see how obamacare passed to what you have, which, of course, is a perfect bill. it's time to do more than repeal. it's time to pass a bill. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from massachusetts reserves. the gentleman from texas. mr. sessions: mr. speaker, thank you very much. mr. speaker, we have our republican majority members here ready, willing, and able not just do the work of the american people, but to do the things that will make sense about our future for the next generation of americans and i am through with any speakers we now have and reserve my time to use the time as he chose. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas reserves. the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. mcgovern: how much time do i have remaining? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman has 2 1/2 minutes. mr. mcgovern: i yield myself the balance of the 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's been a secret meeting with republicans to talk about what they could pass. right now that information hasn't been shared with us. there have been no hearings. 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, especially when it comes -- >> the house is not in order. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is is recognized. -- is correct. the house will come to order. please take all conversations off the floor. the gentleman. mr. mcgovern: the stakes are very high. come monday at midnight if we don't do the right thing, the government's going to shut down. and as i said earlier in the debate, that will cost the american taxpayers a great deal of money. shutdowns aren't free. and part of the problem here is

that my republican friends can't get over the fact that they lost the presidential election. they have this -- right wing is holding the economy hostage based on a fixation on this view that everybody in this country doesn't deserve health care. 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. passed the house and senate, signed by the president. supreme court upheld it. you want to work with us to make it better, we are willing to do that. the idea you want to hold this economy hostage to repeal this is ridiculous. i 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. they don't want you to defund the affordable care act. listen to your constituents. they are not some guy in the other body, another one of his colleagues referred to as a wacko bird. do the right thing. keep this government opened. do not shut the government down. i appeal to the grown-ups in the

republican conference to come together and let's have a compromise that we can pass and then we can send to the president, keep this government going. also address our debt ceiling issue. let's not -- let's stop the theatrics. let's do the right thing. vote on a clean c.r. and get on with our business. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. a reminder to all members to please make their address and remarks to the chair. the gentleman from texas. mr. sessions: mr. speaker, thank you very much. in fact i will confine my remarks to you, mr. speaker, because we appreciate your great service. we also know that you represent john boehner, our great speaker, who has republican members here today to do the business of the american people. we are not a body that cuts and runs. we are a body that stays here and gets our work done. the gentleman from massachusetts asked and made a point about same day rules. in fact, democrats in the 110th congress were faced with this circumstance 17 times.

11th congress, 26 times. it becomes normal and regular. you have to be here to get done your work. that is what we are doing. mr. speaker, plain and simple, the republican party is here today because we are opposed to obamacare and the big government that comes behind it. we are opposed to what it is doing not just to the american people and our economy, but taking freedom away from people and making us more reliant upon the federal government and less pride and freedom will be available in america if we do not do something about it. the cost is simple. the cost means that we are finding that $716 billion was taken by the democrats out of senior care in obamacare to fund the obamacare issue and the bottom line is, since obamacare was passed, there have been seven part-time jobs created for every one full-time job.

that is not a future that we are going to stand with. the republican party is here in strength in numbers today. i yield back the balance of my time and move the previous question on the resolution. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. without objection, the previous question is ordered. the question is on adoption of the resolution. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. mr. mcgovern: mr. speaker. on that i ask for the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. those in favor of a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this will be a 15-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 225. he nays are --

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yea are 226. the nays are 191. the resolution is adopted. without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. the house will be in order. he house will be in order.

the house will be in order. please take all conversations off the floor. the house will be in order before further proceeding. members, please take your conversations off the floor. please. members, please clear the aisles and take all conversations off the floor. he house will come to order.

the house will come to order. members take all conversations off the floor. members please clear the aisles. the house will come to order. members please remove conversations. members please remove yourself from the aisles.

pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the chair will postpone further proceedings today on the motion to suspend the rules on which a recorded vote or the yeas and nays are ordered. or on which the vote incurs objection under clause 6 of rule 20. record votes for postponed questions will be taken later. for what purpose does the gentleman from michigan seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i would move to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 3204, the drug quality and security act. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the will. the clerk: h.r. 3204, a bill to amend the federal food, drug, and cosmetic act with respect to human drug compounding and drug supply chain security, and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from michigan, mr. upton, and the gentleman from california, mr. waxman, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: mr. speaker, i would -- the speaker pro tempore: the entleman will suspend.

the house will come to order. mr. upton: i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material into the record on the bill. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. upton: mr. speaker, i yield myself three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. upton: i rise today in strong support of h.r. 3204, the drug quality and security act. i am so proud to say that this piece of legislation is the product of two bipartisan and bicameral work. the senate and house, republicans and democrats, have come together to produce a bill -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman will suspend. the house is not in order. please take your conversations off the floor. the gentleman is recognized. mr. upton: thank you, mr. speaker. the senate and house republicans and democrats came together to produce a bill that will protect american patients by ensuring they receive safe drugs. this legislation would

strengthen the prescription drug supply chain in order to protect american families against counterfeit drugs. the bill also eliminates and prevents increases in drug prices, avoids additional drug shortages, and eliminates hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of government red tape on american businesses that is arming job growth. the speaker pro tempore: the house is not in order. please remove conversations from the floor. please cease conversations on the floor. again, please remove all conversations from the floor. please remove from the aisles all conversations before the entleman can continue. the gentleman will continue. mr. upton: mr. speaker the supply chain provisions of the act are the product of many years of tireless work.

we know from stakeholders that this is just not a patient safety issue, it's a jobs issue. this bill will bring certainty to the drug supply chain and ensure patients will continue to receive the medicines that they need without interruption. this bill also addresses drug compounding. this bill is the result of energy and commerce committee's thorough investigation of the necc meningitis outbreak which began its devastating spread almost a year ago today. today the c.d.c. has linked 64 deaths, nearly 750 cases in 20 states to contaminated drugs from the necc. my home state of michigan has been the hardest hit by the outbreak with 19 lives needlessly lost with three in my district. and the sad truth is that, yes, they could have been prevented. this legislation is an important step in helping to prevent any such tragedy from ever occurring again. and by reviewing countless documents, holding four

committee hearings, reviewing various legislative proposals, we better understand what is needed to help prevent a future necc and built that into this legislation. mr. speaker, this bill upholds the current section 503-a of the law and provides us with clarity that the f.d.a. needs by eliminating the unconstitutional provisions. the bill also requires the f.d.a. to engage in meaningful communication with state boards of farmcy. further, under this bill, entities engaged in sterile drug compounding can voluntarily register, voluntarily register with the f.d.a. and operate under f.d.a. regulation. and finally, and importantly, this bill protects traditional pharmacy compounding that occurs in community pharmacies across the country. that's why the bill has the support of the national committee pharmacy association. i'd like to thank them for working with us so closely. i also want to thank chairman murphy, vice chair blackburn, mr. latta, and particularly mr.

griffith for their outstanding leadership on these issues. i want to commend mr. waxman, mr. bloom, mr. dingell, ms. degette, and matheson for their work as well. additional one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. upton: i also want to thank chairman harkin and chairman alexander for their leadership. i talked with him a number of homes over the last number of weeks. waint to thank our staff on both ides, particularly our side. it is because of their collaborative and tireless efforts that we are near the resolution of last year's deadly outbreak. and their work is to be applauded. to all the families who have lost loved ones and those still suffering today, i talked to someone whose relative is still suffering within the last hour, we are near the resolution of last year's deadly outbreak. so let's say to those families and to those who lost loved ones

and those still suffering today, with this bill we are going to say never again. so i urge my colleagues to support the bill. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. waxman: i yield myself three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. waxman: i rise to support passage of the drug quality and security act. it's been a year now since the tragic fungal meningitis outbreak caused by the new england compounding center in massachusetts. at least 64 people died, over 750 people were sickened. more than 14,000 others are still waiting and must live in fear for years to see whether they, too, will get meningitis. this was the largest outbreak of health care associated infections in u.s. history and one of the nation's worst public health disasters in recent memory. recognizing the need to act in the face of this tragedy, members on both sides of the

aisle in both houses of congress came together in the months try tong the outbreak to figure out how to solve this problem. one thing was clear, f.d.a.'s authority over compounding pharmacies were not up to the task. divergent court decisions on the underlying statute has forced he agency to cobble together a piecemeal approach to regulating compounding pharmacist that was different in some parts of the country than in others. that untenable legal situation created loopholes that companies like necc were able to exploit. f.d.a. was also facing a pharmacy compounding industry that had dramatically changed since 1997, the last time congress passed legislation on this issue. since that time hospitals have grown dependent on so-called

outsourcers, very large compounding pharmacies that mix batches of customized drugs for hospitals. the legislation we are considering today will take a major step toward addressing these issues. first it will correct the constitutional defect in the underlying law that has wreaked havoc on f.d.a.'s ability to regulate compounders. second, it will give hospitals and doctors the ability to access a source of compounded medicines that are made in a facility that is subject to stringent f.d.a. quality standards and oversight. all other compounding pharmacies will continue to be subject to current law. third, the bill will remedy one of the major problems that surface in the legislation, a lack of communication between state boards of pharmacy and the f.d.a. specifically it will create a system that would let state

boards of pharmacy and f.d.a. can notify each other when there are concerns about violations occurring at a particular compounding farmcy. these authorities represent a significant improvement of the current law. they will go a long way toward better protecting public health. in addition to these important compounding -- i yield myself 30 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. waxman: in addition to these important compounding authorities, this legislation will establish an electronic, interoperable system at the federal level that traction each package of drugs at the unit level and then involves the entire supply chain. this will help prevent americans from being harmed by counterfeit and substandard medicines. there's no question in my mind that this bill represents a step forward. i urge all members, my colleagues, to support it. i reserve the balance of my time.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from michigan is recognized. mr. upton: at this time i yield tea minutes to the chairman of the health subcommittee, mr. pitts, from pennsylvania. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. pitts: i'm very pleased that the house is considering h.r. 3204. the drug quality and security act today. this legislation would address two important issues affecting the quality and security of america's drug supply. first, the bill would protect traditional pharmacies and clarify laws related to human drug compounding in response to last year's nationwide meningitis outbreak. one of the largest public health crises in recent memory. secondly, the bill would strengthen the prescription drug supply chain in order to protect american families against counterfeit drugs. as we all remember, in the summer and fall of 2012, a massachusetts company, new england compounding center,

necc, shipped over 17,000 vials of an injectable steroid solution from three contaminated lots to health care facilities across the contry. after -- the country. after receiving injections of necc's contaminated steroid, over 64 people died from complications associated with fungal meningitis, and 750 others were stricken with meningitis or other persistent fungal infections. title 1 of h.r. 3204 is based off of representative morgan griffith's compounding clarity act and is the culmination of a nearly year-long house energy and commerce committee investigation. it clarifies f.d.a.'s authority over the practice of compounding drugs and requires f.d.a. to engage in dialogue with state regulators to prevent against another tragedy like necc, while protecting the role of traditional pharmacies and

compounding. title 2 based on representative bob latta's safeguarding america's pharmaceutical act, addresses the safety of our nation's drug -- prescription drug supply chain as drugs travel from the manufacturer to the farmcy. it creates -- pharmacy. it creates a uniform national standard for drug supply chain security to protect americans gent counterfeit drugs while eliminating needless levels of bureaucracy. the drug quality and security act is the result of months of bipartisan, bicameral negotiations, and i would like to thank chairman upton, ranking member waxman, chair emeritus dingell, representative griffith, latta, pallone, degette, and green for their work on important legislation and also senators harkin and alexander in the senate. finally, i would like to thank the staff of the energy and commerce subcommittee on our side, especially clay,