be illegally in the country and have a protest, then we'll give you permits, whatever you want. i was gratified to hear our friend, representative noem, int out to us that those sad that south dakota had four feet f snow in some places, unfortunately that covered all the barricades and cones, so strictly in the interest of safety, south dakota had to send their snowplows and wipe all the snow and there was no way to sort out the cones and barricades, so apparently they're in some ditch somewhere, but for safety purposes, because they were just trying to help those south dakotans and americans that wanted to see mount rushmore, get through that road, that state-built road. so, anyway, another chance to make americans miserable but mother nature came through

followed by south dakota making things safe. here's one. this is by a farm that hadn't gotten a dime of federal money since 1980. ormer park director of national srk service, they've lost $15,000 to $20,000 just by being closed down. they rented barricades to take out there and close down a colonial farm from the 1700's and as a result of this mean-spirited action by an administration, this farm may close down for good. they're running out of money. but i have a dear friend that has arrived on the floor and i would certainly yield to him for such time as he may consume.

mr. lamalfa: i appreciate my colleague, mr. gohmert, here on pointing out, really the hypocrisy of what's going on with the public's lands, the public's parks. the way this is being used as leverage by the folks higher up in this administration to try and extract from the american people, from those of us in this house, perhaps, what they want. , so you know, he mentioned the things on south dakota there. there's a lot of suffering going on in south dakota there. where a lot of ranchers have lost a lot of livestock. if anything, if our government has the ability to do something, it should be finding ways to help people, instead of putting up cones where they aren't supposed to be, on a state highway that they claim is on federal land. and so if all those cones are in the bottom of the canyon that they may have had to rent or what you have, same with the barricades surrounding the

monuments and memorials around town, where they have to go out and rent barricades on company time, with the furloughed employees even, to set them up, and put sand bags in place, this is an insult to the american people, it's an insult to all of our honor flight folks that have been coming into town. anybody who would use what would normally be 24-hour memorials, 24-hour monuments. so what gives? i don't understand. you know, getting to the bottom of this here, we have this impasse in the congress here in washington and, you know, mr. speaker, it's about time this is ended. we're hurting the american people by the actions of this white house, by the impasse of the senate. we've sent over various either all-inclusive c.r.'s or the bits and pieces we're doing to try and fund things as a priority one at a time that are very important to the american people. funding our veterans, funding the basic ability when we've had fallen soldiers come home

here in this -- here in this recent news story, that their families can't even go pick them up. because of an unyieldingness by this administration, by those in the various bureaucracies, to instead work to help american people in a time of fiscal straits that we're in, to help as much as possible. they're looking for ways to instead hurt them as much as possible. what is with this? we can even go back to previous impasses where at least president clinton would sit down with the republican house, the republican senate, or after a while, the republican house and democrat-controlled senate, there's been a mixture over time of putting aside the bitter partisanship and fingering out, how are we going to hammer this out? if we can do it with president clinton and previous presidencies, this isn't the first time there's been this kind of impasse or this time of slowdown or shutdown. yet this time seems to be unique in the meanness, in the bitterness that's coming down

from the intractability at the white house level and over on the senate side as we put forward solution after solution. mr. gohmert: reclaiming my time just momentarily, it's also worth noting that here in the house, we've actually had numerous democrats vote with us . so the home really bipartisan thing that's been going on in this whole capitol are our bills to fund certain parts of the government. i yield to my friend. mr. lamalfa: thank you. yes. we've had unanimous votes go out off this floor with nearly 200 democrats joining us on two of the pieces of legislation and anywhere from 25 to 35 to 40 on many of the other pieces that have gone out. it's been a bipartisan effort. i think both sides of the aisle see this is ral nonpartisan issue, on these issues we're working on -- this is really a nonpartisan issue, on these issues we're working on. so why do they have to rest on senator reid's desk? why do we get threats of vetoes from the white house when we find agreement?

we would find agreement on almost the entire c.r. if we got that one provision there where even some of the senators themselves and now we're seeing in the press where i think you were going to mention wolf blitzer has now joined with senator mansion, as well as senator bachus in thinking this is the obama health care takeover is a train wreck, we're seeing a pretty diverse group of people sailing saying, you know, a one-year delay wouldn't be an unreasonable thing. as we're seeing exchanges rolling out, they're not working very well. and people, when they're looking finally to find out what the prices are, what it's going to cost them, maybe people thought they were going to get it for free, they were going to get a rebate or a lower price. a lot of americans, especially the youth, are going to see higher prices. they're not going to see the savings. and if you look at the track record of the government operating things, government generally doesn't do things cheaper. and we're going to learn this in a very detrimental way to our economy, to the health care for the people of this country, as this obama health care takeover continues to roll out.

mr. gohmert: i'm sure that you've had people ask, as i've had, now, why in the world is obamacare costing so dramatically much more than the health insurance we had before and then we get notified we're actually getting less health care? and my friend mentioned wolf blitzer, this article in the national review online, quoted him as saying, if they weren't fully ready, talking about the website, the obamacare website, they should accept the advise that a lot of republicans are -- advice that a lot of republicans are giving them, delay it another year, make sure it's ready, make sure it works. if they didn't get it ready on time, maybe fix the problem and make sure people don't have to worry about it. but we come back, it's a disaster, it's more expensive than people's health care was

before. they're getting less health care. they're not keeping their doctor. and most -- it sounds like an awful lot of americans are not keeping the policy they have. so why is it costing so much more? and what people that don't know need to understand, when you hire thousands and thousands of people who don't provide health care to be navigators through the health care system, and you ire 18,000 or so more i.r.s. officers to go through every detail of people's personal, financial and personal life, and they don't provide any health care, they may cause some health problems, but they don't provide any health care, you add all this bureaucracy, it's going to cost more and you're going to get less treatment and it's not going to be as good of treatment. i yield back. mr. lamalfa: exactly. weren't the navigators supposed

to be vetted as to who they are, go through security? and as well, look at the track record of the i.r.s. the american people really want 18,000 or so i.r.s. individuals helping with their important personal health data? i mean, there's been laws passed to make sure that's a very secure thing. sometimes even inconvenient to the patient where you might be at the doctor and say, don't you already have this information from my other doctor? there's very strict guidelines in how your information is traded around. now it's going to be in the hands of navigators that are unvetted and with i.r.s. agents very huge ome very security issues already, with the way that's being used against certain organizations. mr. gohmert: and there's a story today from "the daily caller" about the white house, i.r.s. exchanged confidential taxpayer information, by patrick callie. so if you think your personal information is secure with the i.r.s. or with the federal

government, it's already showing you should not be comfortable with it happening. i yield to my friend. mr. lamalfa: the most outrageous thing for most folks, though, is that -- the waivers. many individuals in this country are -- asked for and got to be outside of this as it was coming together. and more and more are asking for it and some are being turned down. but especially, i guess, buying off minutes of congress through the o.p.m., allowing congress and capitol hill to be exempt from this, if it's such a great program, if it's going to work so well, why would we be subject to a waiver? why are they talking about there would be a brain drain on capitol hill, because everybody would be leaving, because they can't afford the health insurance. how does that work? mr. gohmert: apparently our time is expiring and i appreciate so much my friend mr. lamalfa helping. mr. lamalfa: i appreciate it,

thank you, mr. gohmert. mr. gohmert: we shouldn't be treated any differently. the president and his family need to sign up. mr. speaker, i think it's worth noting that when i went out to the u.s. marine corps war memorial, the ewith a gyma memorial, thised a -- the iwo jima memorial, this administration had tried to prevent world war ii veterans rom getting to the symbol of mount suribachi. there were three bus loads of world war ii vets up there at the memorial and the barricade was in pieces. god bless our world war ii veterans. with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? mr. gohmert: at this time i'd move that we do now hereby adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourn. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the motion is adopted. accordingly the house stands adjourned until 10:00 a.m. tomorrow for morning hour debate.

>> democrats stand before you united, united to have the republicans open the government, allow us to pay our bills. at that time we'll be happy to negotiate about anything they want to talk about. our request, though, is so simple. we want the house to pass the bill that the speaker told me he would help us pass. he didn't say he would help us pass it. e said he would pass it. agreeing to that do -- agreeing to do that was not easy for us but it should be easy for the speaker.

the government has been shut down for nine days. our neabs from maryland and verge will tell us how they've been affected by this, but it's not just virginia and maryland. the republican governor of nevada said something yesterday that was alarming to everyone in nevada. he said nevada is in danger of catastrophic consequences if the republican shutdown lasts longer. now, brian sandoval is a conservative republican governor. he said he may need to call a special session because nevada is already running out of money. as mark warner will explain, maybe later, because he's explained to me, having been a governor, the pass-throughs are extremely important to a state and obviously the state of nevada is a good example of that. if this republican shutdown

continues in nevada, 365,000 food stamp recipients will see their benefits halted. not cut, halted. 425,000 women, infants and chern would stop having food for their babies. n nevada, 425,000. unemployment payments will be stalled, services like the rape crisis center will be eliminated. the adjew tant general of the state of nevada, appointed by a republican, said the situation is dire. he said the national guard remaining ready to respond to an emergency, it has had to postpone drills and has no money for operations and maintenance. right now, he said, if our trucks run out of gas, we can't put gas back in them.

if our airplanes don't have gas in the tanks, they just sit there. it's pretty dire. again, his words, not mine. governor sandoval rejected the piecemeal approach being advocated by republicans in congress. here's whactly what he said. at no point do i want to be in a position where i have to pick between women, enfants and chern, and those on unemployment benefits, and those employed by the national guard. for every person, all these things are extremely important. end of quote. ladies and gentlemen, across this great nation of ours, tourism is being hurt. little strip malls are being hurt. big supermarkets are being hurt. everybody is feeling this. so as brian sandoval said, for every person, all these things are extremely important.

we are here, ready to negotiate. that's why we are here. we've been trying to open negotiation on our fiscal challenges for the better part of a year. and some of the people have been doing much of the fwoshting are going to be -- they're going to speak. as i look around and see what 've tried to do, it's really frightening why the republicans aren't willing to sit down with us. today is the 200th day since the senate passed chairman murray's budget. over 200 days, republicans have rejected -- objected 20 different times to go to conference. we've asked to go to conference, we asked to go to conference to work out a reasonable budget compromise for six months. going to conference on a budget will allow us to negotiate any

issue they want us to talk about. here's what mitch mcconnel said yesterday. he said, i should work it out with the speaker. but here's what he said earlier this year, and i quote. if the senate version is different, he's talking about the budget, than the one the house sends over, send it off to conference. that's how things are supposed to work around here rm we used to call it legislating. direct quote by mitch mcconnel. yesterday, on their legislative program for a day, because it appears the speaker is only working day or hour at a time, here's what he suggested. a supercommittee. but listen to this supercommittee. they limit what we can talk about. that's a hell of a supercommittee. so basically what we have been saying is the speaker, and my republican friends, should take

yes for an answer. we're ready to go to conference. we have a simple, simple request. open the government. let us pay our bills. we'll negotiate on anything you want to negotiate on. when you -- we're going -- you're going to hear if the maryland legislation, led by you know who, and then we'll hear if the virginia delegation led by, you'll find out. >> good morning, everybody. we want to reopen government we want to make sure that america pays its bills and we're ready to negotiate as we have been doing in the past. for those of us in maryland, we want to reopen government so that the 130,000 federal employees who live and work in maryland can go back to work to do their job. we want to reopen government so

that we reopen small business. all of the small business throughout our state. near -- who are near our military facility whors stressed and stretched because they don't have customers. we want to reopen government because we're home to 80 major federal agencies headquartered in maryland, serving not only maryland but serving the nation and serving the world. we are the home to the headquarters for social security. we are home for the headquarters for medicare. we're the home for the headquarterers in national security agency. for the headquarters for the f.d.a. we work together with virginia, e have part of the space agency, in western maryland we have a federal prison. we want to reopen federal government so it serves the nation. this isn't just about federal employees. this is also about local

business. and it's also impacting the world. let me just talk about two agencies in maryland. let's talk about the food and drug administration. headquartered in maryland. in a community called white oak. 8,500 employees work there. it is a comeback neighborhood because of the presence of f.d.a. working with n.i.h., coming up with the -- working on clinical trials for biotech products and medical devices. for t alsole is a sentry counterfeit drugs. this is how it's serving the nation and the world. the f.d.a. has furloughed, 40% of the people are furlough. we don't have people on the job monitoring counterfeit drug imports at our border and coming from china. 40% of all the drugs taken in the united states are manufactured overseas. right now, we've had to cancel

inspections in china. we've had to cancel inspections in india. why is that so important? just a few years ago, faulty products coming in from blood thinners from china sickened 800 people and killed 81. my drug inspectors want to be on the job ensuring the safety of the supply chain that when you take a drug, that that drug is safe to take and that you won't die because your regulators are not on the job. open up f.d.a., serving the nation, serving the world. this is what we want to be able to do. and then over there on woodlawn is the social security administration and the medicare administration. though we are headquartered there, serving the nation, serving the world. there are 8,000 federal employees at those agencies that have been furloughed. that means the processing of

disability check the processing of eligibility for social security. making sure that medicare is done and also the very unit that goes after waste and fraud in medicare has been furloughed. now, when you have your social security funded, it's not only in woodlawn, maryland. every social security, there's social security offices in every place. every place around the united states. open up the social security administration. keep the lights burning so that people who have earned benefits can apply and get the right answers and making sure that those who go after fraud in the medicare program, fraud in the social security program are standing sentry to make sure only those who get it, should get it. that's what social security administration is. right down the street if the social security administration is the baltimore f.b.i. field

office. i am so proud of them for all that they do every day in keeping is safe but i was particularly proud of them when they were part of a major raid in which they joined with the marshal service and rescued 105 sexually exploited chern around the united states of america. on a three-day effort in which the baltimore field office took part. we were able to rescue 105 sexually exploited children. children used in human trafficking. but guess what? those f.b.i. agents are working today but they're being paid in i.o.u.'s, and guess what? they don't even have, in many instances, gas for their tank. f.b.i. agents paid by i.o.u.'s and the gas for them to use f.b.i. cars is limited to 00 miles a week. let's get gas gas iner that tank, let's get ba gas ba income our government, let's get it on

the senate floor and let's keep america rolling. we want to reopen government and get america back. now i'm going to introduce my colleague from maryland who is a real fighter for what our government is and what it should be and he will tell you the other impacts in maryland. >> thank you. senatormy cuskey -- senator mikuski thank you very much. and leader reid, thank you for bringing the democrats together to speak about the importance of speaker boehner voting and reopening government. we have harmed our country. this shutdown has put america at risk and caused harm. last week president obama should have been in asia at the economic summit. to represent america for economic fro gress. he would have been the headliner at that economic summit. instead the president of china was the headliner. the international community was

wondering about america, is america open for business? the shutdown has harmed our country. it's harmed our economy. we're coming out of the a downturn in our economy. we're growing, starting to see the job breath this shutdown will hurt our economic rae covery. this shutdown has hurt our federal work forest. 00,000 federal workers have been on furlough. more than 300,000 of that 800,000 are from this region. that's why senator mikuskki and my colleagues from virginia underscore the impact it's having on our local economy. but it's not just the numbers. these are people. each one is a family. each one represents harm that's been done as a result of the shutdown. this week, i talked to a 15-year-old who called my office to tell me about the fear that she had for her family, for both

her parents are federal workers. and she sees the fear on her parents' faces on how they're going to support their family. melissa ayers was furloughed from the social security administration, senator mikuski talked about the furloughs at the social security administration. now melissa explained to me that her husband had been unemployed for 2 1/2 years as a result of the downturn in the economy. now she is furloughed. just when she was helping to support our family. she says to me, she says to the american people, i've always been the primary earner up until monday. now i think, what do i do to support my family? these are real people. not numbers. each one has been put at risk as a result of the government shutdown. it's not just the federal workers. we have now 400 that have been laid off from lockheed as a

result of the shutdown in my state of maryland alone. small business owners who have had to close their businesses as a result of not having enough business. this is affecting employment all over. it's affecting economic growth. senator mikulski talked abbt -- about the impact of different agencies. the fact that the environmental protection agency has 93% of their workers on furlough, we have an important economic site in downtown baltimore. harbor point. a major economic growth. it's a river site which means it needs the e.p.a. signoff for the economic plans to go forward. that signoff is on hold that economic growth is on hold. that is no way to run a government. and it's not just our region. as leader reid pointed out, the entire country is at risk. colorado just is starting to recover from the floods that really hurt its economy this shutdown is having the same

impact that that flood had on the economy of colorado. the big difference is, you can't -- you've got to plan for natural disasters but you can't stop them. this is a government-created problem that government needs to solve. so our message is simple. speaker boehner, take the gun ut of the head of this nation. stop your tactics. open government. pay our bills. and let's negotiate a budget under the normal process. democrats have asked for that for six months. we're ready to talk. but first, open government, pay our bills. it is now my pleasure to bring up senator tim kaine from virginia. >> thank you all. i want to thank senator reid and all my colleagues for giving us the opportunity in virginia and

maryland to share stories. any of my colleagues can do this from their own community. i want to talk about one community and one person. to start with the community a beautiful place, maybe many of u know it, chiconteague, virginia, on an island off the shore of virginia, near maryland. it's an economy that's about fishing but also because of the national wildlife refuge and the national seashore, the main industry in the area is tourism. hotels, restaurants, diners, grocery stores. it's about tourism. that's what the economy of chiconteague is about. the closure of the seashore and the closure of the wildlife refuge has hammered the economy of chiconteague. i've been getting called -- calls from business owners talking about the devastation it's wrought. they have a big fall festival.

for six years they've worked to reopen the historic lighthouse, going to bring in visitors, going to increase tourism, they had to close it. this weekend, they do this twice year, they do a pony roundup. some of you have read "misty of chiconteague" the book. it's a fundraise fer they are volunteer fire department. here's what they said on their webpage, they are canceling the roundup due to the childish, idiotic actions of our government. that's a quote. that's what's happening. the area is hit in another way, as the senators from maryland know the second which i of the office.a nasa

let me now talk about a person. mark wright. mark wright is an army veteran who just retired as a lieutenant colonel after 23 years in the united states army. mark wright served two tours in iraq. he was hired as a d.o.d. civilian nine months ago and lives with his wife and two elementary schoolchildren in an apartment in stafford county. mark wright was already furloughed once this year because of the sequester. hurting his pocketbook, hurting his family and his kids. and now he's furloughed a second time at the d.o.d. he was in the market to try to buy a home so he could move out of an apartment and be a home onefer they are first time in stafford county. but he's putting those plans on hold because he doesn't know, he doesn't know if he can afford the house payment. there are many mark wrights in virginia. 70,000 d.o.d. civilians have

already been furloughed in virginia because of the sequester. 37% of all federal employees in virginia are veterans. so when you do a shutdown of government, you are hurting veterans. why are pro-shutdown congresspeople punishing mark wright and thousands like him? what needs to be done? you've heard it already. let me state this very clearly. if another nation attacked the united states to shut our government down. if another nation attacked the united states to tank our financial system, i know exactly what we would do. congress and the american people, out of patriotic love for this country, would rally with every ounce of energy they had to keep government open, to pay our bills, to and protect the full faith and credit of the united states. and you know who would be first in line if we did that? mark wright and thousands like him who just want to serve this country would be first in line to help us do that.

that's the challenge before us today. there has been a carefully planned effort to shut down our government. there are efforts to destabilize our financial system, even if ese efforts hurt the chiconteagues of the world and the mark wrights of the world. we need to rally out of love for this nation to reopen government, protect our fiscal system and use the regular processes of legislation to talk about any other issue that the american public wants. it's now my pleasure to introduce my senior senator and my friend of 32 years, mark arner. >> thank you, tim. most everything has been said but i've spent long for the business than i have in politics. i could never imagine in a business negotiation one side saying, let's shut down the business, let's jeopardize its

and not continue -- do that as an action. yet that is what we're looking at. we are more than prepared to negotiate. but what you've heard of some of these stories right now, federal workers, communities being hurt, and the cynicism of some who when we see a tragedy, whether it's with our troops, our parks, our veterans, this piecemeal sending over legislation makes no sense. we hear appropriating aner from residents in d.c. o we have to wait, senator mikulski said, wait until somebody gets sick before we reopen the health department? do we have to wait for somebody being sick because of drugs to reopen the f.d.a.

this is not the way the greatest government in the world should operate. the whole government needs to be open. we are doing enormous damage to our economy. we've talked about the federal work force. tim talked about chiconteague. hampton roads, virginia, norfolk, nasa langley there has 3,500 employees, it's where we do most of our err nautical esearch. there were seven people working there last week. no one in the private sector is hiring with this government shutdown. last week, there were -- over the last few days there were great announcements, three american noble prize winners. but those scientists said they're not sure there will be a next generation of noble prize

winners with n.i.h. and other research facilities shut down. and there are some who say we're not only going to shut down the government but we'll jeopardize the full faith and credit of the united states. no industrial nation has ever defaulted. the closest we've seen in recent times was argentina in december of 2001 when it defaulted. their currency was devalued. by 75%. inflation went up over 100% a year. and every argentine family lost 50% of their assets overnight. now we're not argentina. but we are playing with stuff in uncharted territory that no industrial nation has ever played with. there are some on the other side who say, we can just prioritize payments. we'll take care of whatever

happens to be the hot button. there's no rational economist who says that would work. but i think about virginia. where we're proud of the fact that we've kept a triple-a bond rating. every state, every locality, has their own bond rating. in virginia, close to 40% to 50% of our budget are federal pass-through dollars. if those dollars don't come, you will have defaults of states and communities across the nation. a lot of folks on the other side and others say, we've got to get government spending under control. i agree. $17 trillion in debt goes up to $1 billion a day. we've got to get our balance sheet in order. but when we play with the full faith and credit of america and yesterday this was the bond market on short-term interest rates in one day, and this is going to keep going up, a 1% increase in interest rates adds $100 billion of additional

government spending per year. a 1% increase. you could see a 2% or 3% increase. a 1% increase for those that don't like government spending would be the equivalent of creating two total new state departments with all the foreign aid. total state department and foreign aid in aggregate is $50 billion. you create two new government programs of that size with a 1% increase in interest rates and that would take priority over any other payment. america is the greatest country in the world. we are in times of enormous fiscal challenge. but this is a threat, to not only our economy but to our well being. so i would urge all of us who want to negotiate, open the government. get our economy going. get rid of this threat of america defaulting. and then let's get our fiscal house in order. thank you very much.

>> we're going to take a few questions. and then we're going to go, i'm going to have a vote on the floor, senator murray has some activities there he's going to take and we have a number of other people who wanted to talk. don't talk to us, talk to the republicans, they're the ones objecting to it. >> what about a short-term deal, is that something you're considering? >> open the government, pay our ills, we'll negotiate. >> the vote to restore military death benefits what's your plan for that issue? >> right now we have two avenues, we'll see what the house does and the white house and pentagon are working to see if they can do something about it without these -- >> will they be restored in the next short period? >> they'll be restored without any question. as the retired admiral, our

chaplain said today, enough is nough. inaudible] >> it doesn't -- i can't dignify it with a response. >> senator reid. the president is inviting the respective party caucuses to the white house for a sit-down. should that in your mind constitute a conversation that speaker boehner insists he wants before reopening the government? >> we're going to -- i'm going to say it once again, then we'll go on to the senate floor. open the government, pay our bills. we are happy to negotiate on anything, we have given boehner what he wanted. number one, his number.

we did that, it was hard to do, you've all heard me say that number two, he said he wanted a conference. we said we'll go to conference with you on anything you want, all you need to do is open the government and allow us to pay our bills. thank you, everybody. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> senate democrats earlier today. throughout the day republicans have been making motions, trying to bring up short-term spending measures, some of them that have passed the house, but those efforts have been blocked in the senate. the house today did pass a couple of measures including partial funding of the f.a.a. and a bill that would restore the $100,000 military death benefit to families of soldiers

and military personnel killed in action that passed in the house. the house is back tomorrow, 10:00 eastern for their morning hour speeches. noon eastern for legislative bids. they're taking up a -- another of the so-called mini c.r.'s this one dealing with border security. we'll have live coverage here on c-span. also this afternoon, keeping an eye on the white house, democrats from the house are meeting with president obama, just about at this hour, scheduled for 4:45 eastern. we have cameras at the white house if there are any comments from members of the democratic caucus, we'll bring those to you live if we are able. from t this afternoon "foreign policy" about military policy, actually foreign policy. >> as we get more news on that we'll bring that to you. we mentioned earlier at the

white house, the president nominating janet yellen to replace ben bernanke as president of the federal reserve. here's a tweet about that. >> an announcement earlier today covered by c-span, it's in our video library. we're going to open up our phones one again to hear from you, your thoughts on where you stand. if you're a republican, 202-5 5-3885. democrats use 202-585-3886. or independents, all others, 202-585-3887. we'll get to your calls shortly. we're looking at tweeter with #cspanchat. democrats meeting at the white house with president obama, that meeting set to get under way

shortly. but far recap on where things stand on capitol hill we spoke earlier to a capitol hill eporter. i don't have that video for you just yet. we'll wait for that and get to your phone calls in just a moment. check out a couple of tweet the hash tag is #cspanchat. a couple here this one pr mick. he said in the reagan era we had bob hope and johnny cash. no with obama and the dems we have no hope and no cash. >> here are comments in earlier, we talked to a capitol hill reporter for an update on where things stand on this ninth day of the government shutdown. >> joining us is ginger, a political reporter for politico. thank you for being with us.

>> thank you for having me. >> we know speaker of the house john boehner and nancy pelosi are meeting this afternoon. we know congressional democrats will be at the white house meeting with the president. and we also know the house will be in session saturday, beginning at 9:00. so what does that all tell you? >> this is more signs of a slow slog. maybe to eventually finding some resolution. speaker boehner and leader pelosi have been in contact. we know that on monday the 30th of september, before the shutdown, poe pelosi offered john boehner the vote he is needed to pass a clean c.r. meeting again today. they've been discussing votes, tactics, for weeks now. the potential ability to have someone to negotiate something with speaker bayner to find some resolution. the white house has been trying to keep house democrats happy. we're not hearing a lot of criticism from the rank and file in the house about what's going on. and part of that is outreach. we see president obama will be meeting first with those members and as for saturday, other than

making reporters work a longer week than normal, they need to feel like the public sees them doing something, even if the bills they're voting on aren't likely to go anywhere and aren't solving the bigger problem, the house has made an effort to make it appear they're working nearly every day. >> we've seen senator john mccain on the senate floor. the house and later we can assume the senate taking up the issue of death benefits today. >> it's going to come before the house, one of the smaller spending bills that the house has been moving through. they've got two today, the first will allow for benefits to be paid to family members of those killed in the line of duty overseas, and the other would flight d to do more crash investigations, something that's not happening right now. >> let me ask your about your piece, online at politico.com.

as conservatives try to keep the focus on obamacare. the editorial that paul ryan wrote for today's "wall street journal," he talked about entitlements but not specifically about health care. what's going on there? >> as the conversation gets bigger, it becomes more protracted, there's more discussions of a big bargain a grand bargain as it's been called, including entitlement reform. other big ticket items that republicans have been asked about for years. and we hear more about those things and less about obamacare which is how all this started. if we think back to the original fight that shut down the government. but a solution might involve one of those other things. there's mixed feelings among supporters. some conservatives, especially those who are strongly behind the push, say it's realy important to attach the defund effort to the c.r., and they think their efforts could be left behind but other republicans think that

entitlement reform is bigger than defunding obamacare. >> so now that we're in the midst of the shutdown, how long do you think it could last? could we be talking about this early next week as we talk about the nation's debt? >> there's no way to know how much longer it's going to last, no one knows at this point what it will take to bring it to an end. we know speaker boehner could walk on the floor at any point and call far vote on a clean c.r. and that likely has the votes to pass and would reopen government very quickly. that's highly unlikely to happen. what's more likely to happen is we look at october 17 deadline for the debt ceiling and we see some discussions going on across the aisle. but in the next few days, or in the next week they come forward with a big deal a deal that would maybe temporarily extend spending, open government and provide a temporary lift on the debt ceiling to have more discussion. if i was a betting woman, that would be the more likely option. >> on the issue of the debt ceiling, there's disagreement

between senator reid who wants to see the debt limit go until december 2014 and we heard from the president yesterday at the white house that he would take anything, including a short-term extension of the debt limit, certainly nothing that some senate democrats are proposing. >> some democrats say they prefer a full, more than a year, get past the next election, not get this embroiled in politics again and raise the debt crooling. president obama showed a little daylight between himself and senate democrats saying if house republicans feel they need to talk and that's what's important, he's hp by to talk with them but first they have to lift the debt ceiling and if it's only for a month or two months to allow them some room, he's ok with that. >> politico reporting that joe biden didn't have a seat at the table, is he involved in any way with his long-term relations with senator democrats? >> he has not been involved with the discussions. there was some anger among

congressional democrats at his previous discussions. vice president biden gave away too much, he was too helpful to republicans in gos. they didn't want to see that happen again system of they don't want him involved in those discussions. interestingly enough, his regular negotiating partner, ader mcconnel in the senate, also hasn't been involved. the only two that have been the two to find a solution are not being involved in these discussions. >> and final question as you talk to members on both sides of the aisle, reporters and others, staffers, what's the mood today? >> people are becoming tired. they've been tiered, it's been a long nine days for those who are working on the hill, for members, some of them a day home but many of them not a chance to go home at all. but there's also a sense of new normal. people aren't complaining that there isn't a place to get lunch anymore because it's been that way for nine days.

people are talking about immigration and other issues, the senate voted on confirmations. it's like the hill has found a new sense of normalcy. >> ginger gibson who is following all of this for politico, thank you for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> since our conversation earlier with ginger gibson, the house passed a bill partially funding the f.a.a. and passed a bill to restore the $100,000 death bep fit for families of those killed in the military in action. those killed in action. on that, secretary hagel, defense secretary hagel, released a state 789 earlier today, say, i'm offended, outraged and embarrassed that the government shutdown prevented the department of defense from fulfilling its most sacred ability in a timely manner. we warned that d.o.d. would not have the legal authority to make

these payments in a lapse in appropriations. in the days after the shutdown, departmental lawyers and officials pursued every tool and option at our disposal to proside these benefits. even under the pay our military act, we found we lacked authority to make payments to the family. in the last 24 hours, the department of defense has approached by the fisher foundation that will make payments to families from its own fund. that's part of the statement by defense secretary hagel. the bill restoring that $100,000 benefit passed the house. both houses did pass and the president signed the military back pay issue earlier this week or last weekend. we are taking your phone calls, your thoughts on this ninth day of the government shutdown. let's go to pennsylvania. first up, terry on the republican line.

>> yeah, it's amazing, it seems like harry reid has never seen a camera rehe don't love. it seems like he and the other democrats want to stand in frovent the camera all day and talk while the house of representatives is in session trying to pass these bills. and it seems very obvious yesterday when the anti-immigration rally, when the go across the you street in the open area where the veterans memorial is they are still putting up barriers to keep veterans out. this is disgusting. i believe the democratic party will suffer as a result in the next election. and i just hope we get settled but you know, stand firm republicans. this is one time we've got to stand united and we're in bad shape when it comes to finances. hopefully, hopefully it will get resolved but to deal with a political hack like senator reid is very hard and i want the republicans, again, mr. boehner, representative boehner, stand if you have. thank you for your time. >> also in pennsylvania,

midland, pennsylvania, this is mike on our democrats' line. >> thanks for taking my call. >> sure, mike. >> i'm going to kind of speak about what the last caller just said, i hope that the democrats, that they hold their ground. the republicans are doing this piecemeal approach, a little bit of legislation at a time a little here a little there. if the government was open in the first place, they wouldn't need to be introducing these bills into the house and the senate in a piecemeal fashion. instead, everything would be open and i just think it's a political ploy to try to make the democratic party look bad. and just as the last caller said that he thinks the democrats are going to be held responsible in the next election, i think that if people pay attention to c-span and less attention to fox news and msnbc, that they will see that the tea party is holding the government hostage right now. boehner has a bill that could go

before the floor right now, and if the house votes on it, what does he have to lose? i don't understand. why can be the they just put it before the floor and the democrats seem like they're willing to gamble and the republicans don't want to. they have a chance for the c.r. bill to pass. >> again the house republican approach has been to move forward with these short-term, so-called mini c.r.'s, piecemeal funding bills today, passing the f.a.a. bill tomorrow,tail take up border security. today in the senate, we saw a republican senator making motions to try to get the senate to take up these bills that have passed the house but no deal in the senate. those motions were blocked in the senate by senate democrats. ron is in ava, missouri, on our independent line. go ahead. >> thank you for taking my call. the government is -- i don't understand the government shutdown phrase, the government

is not shut down. they're getting paid, they're having meetings. they shouldn't be getting paid. us veterans and the parks are shut down, they're not getting paid. so why is the government getting paid for not doing anything? for not doing their job? i just wonder. >> thanks for your call. keeping our eye on the white house waiting to hear possibly from house democrats who are set to meet with president obama, reportedly meeting at this hour. also there's news this hour about the u.s. aid to egypt a tweet from bbc breaking news, the u.s. confirm it's holding back financial and military aid to egypt over the crackdown of supporters of ex-president morrissey. here's -- ex-president morsi. here's linda. >> hello. i noticed i was watching as they were on the steps of the

whatever in washington -- >> the capitol, yes. >> yeah, the capitol. and i was so apalled that i was watching john mccain, he just had the biggest smile on his face. he loves this. and you know what, i'm a republican. and he loves this. he loves -- he loves this. >> when you say he love this is, what are you referring to specifically? the shutdown or the role he's playing between democrats and republicans? >> he loves that it's shut down, he loves -- he is -- if you ask e, i think the man is bonkers. he's out of his mind. >> all right, let's hear from lufkin, texas. robert. democrat line. hi, robert, go ahead. >> hello. thank you for having me. >> sure.

>> i think that if republicans were so sincere about getting these bills passed as the other gentleman said from the democrat line, they would cut their pay. they wouldn't get paid. but we're not dealing with storage wars here, we're not bidding over furniture. this is people's financial well being. we have veterans who have passed, their families need financial payments to pay for their burial and people here are -- don't know what to expect. the economy is falling. the dow. the economy is going through an uproar. we're sitting here in a bidding war over these bills instead of going to the table, let's sit down, let's talk like adults should and let's settle this thing. trying to prove a point to democrats by having a shutdown isn't getting things done.

get to the round table and let's have a conversation like adults should. if we can't settle it then, let's take it out of your pocket and see what happens. >> there are some discussions going on on capitol hill and the white house, president obama meeting with house democrats today, reportedly will meet on thursday with some house republicans, there's a story in politico in their political 44 section. >> democrats are there now. and we may hear some comments in just a bit. let's go to virginia and this is steven. >> i'm concerned about this

government shutdown stuff and us take t take resolutions to pay our military people that have been killed in service where all the time the congress and senators are collecting their paychecks and ym and pool is open. nd as a veteran of the military, rumors that v.a. benefits are going to be cut and medical coverage going to be cut off. all those yahoos in d.c. are not losing their medical and don't care if the government goes bankrupt. they will get their benefits and i think it's time we run them

all of town and run them out of town. >> one of the things we heard at a hearing, they look at it and if the government shutdown continues through november, secretary shin secretaryy said veterans wouldn't get their benefits. >> last time a shutdown occurred in 1996, our nation was enjoying relative peace. that is not true. we are in the 13th year of a war. and the war in iraq as well. members of this latest generation of veterans are enrolling in v.a. at a higher rate than ever before. they along with veterans of every preceding generation will be harmed if the shutdown continues. in the last six months through 30 september, the veterans

benefits administration reduced the backlog of compensation claims, something we have all been working on and prodding them, they have begun that delivery, 193,000 claims in the backlog reduced in 190 days. and 130% increase. since the shutdown began on 1 october, the backlog has stalled and increased by 2,000 claims. they have furloughed more than 7,800 of its employees, half of whom are veterans. the shutdown threatens' v.a.'s ability to eliminate the backlog. we lost ground. roughly 1,400 veterans a day are not receiving decisions on their disability compensation claims. if the shutdown does not in the

end in the coming weeks, v.a. will not ensure 1 november checks to 5.18 million eneficiaries, $6.25 billion in payments and compensation and pensions and depend events and indepartment ti compensation, fiduciary, educational and rehabilitation and unemployment benefits including veterans that . e 100% disaked television and stipends for over 500,000 service members and eligible family members and education programs will also stop. >> tim huelskamp of kansas asked the secretary about senator reid

and whether senator reid likes veterans and criticized him for not passing the bill. >> thank you very much. opportunity. he i ask you, given the discussion we have had, do you think senator reid doesn't like our veterans or the v.a. in articular? the reason i ask that, mr. secretary, as the chairman has indicated, 127 days ago, u.s. house passed the appropriations. 105 days ago, the appropriations committee actually sent to the floor of the u.s. senate and for 105 days now, senator harry reid has refused to bring the appropriations to a vote in the u.s. senate. have you visited with the

senator and asked him could you please bring that to a vote in the u.s. senate? >> i'm happy to answer the question about senator reid personally. values e highly veterans. as to why we are unable -- congress is unable to do its business, i will leave to the embers to discuss. >> i appreciate that and you mentioned congress, but it is an issue in the u.s. senate. and have you visited with the senator? i have been disappointed in the house that 4-12 appropriations bills have passed through the u.s. house and includes your budget, 8-12 have not passed here. but 12-12 have not passed in the u.s. senate and that has been

the case since 2009. any indication in your visits with the senator that they would consider at least passing your appropriations? and i appreciate the work you have done to continue to meet the needs of our veterans in this shutdown period. >> to your specific question, have i visited senator reid over this, i would answer, i have not. that is not something that i would ordinarily do. i deal with this committee and with the appropriate committee in the senate when it comes to my budget and that's where the work is done. >> i haven't compared the budget that has come out of the senate appropriations committee by what came through the house by a wide margin. i would encourage perhaps that conversation to take place. >> i would like to give the gentleman to apologize to enator reid, that is beneath

this. we may have differences on policy and ideology and don't -- >> i was asking the question, given it's very clear as the chairman has indicated that senator reid controls the calendar and has the opportunity to move that bill to the floor and since this shutdown has occurred, unless there were some recorded votes -- >> i reclaim my time. disappointed to say the least. i hope that goes on record. >> the veterans hearing from earlier today will show that later in our schedule in our video library and covered a couple of hearings looking at the impact of the affordable care act. here on c-span, taking your comments and calls on this ninth day of the government shutdown hoping to hear from house

democrats who are meeting with president obama at the white house. let's get back to calls to kentucky. crystal, hello. >> hello. thanks for taking my call. i have several problems with the shutdown first of all. i'm seeing grown men on tv who can't come to a solution on anything. not major things any way, but obama has gone on tv several times and said someone who can't pay their mortgage -- and he used the word dead beat. at if people can't afford to pay for obamacare, are they still a deadbeat? it's not affordable. take that money and expand medicare and medicaid, which we already have instead of spending

trillions of dollars on a new health care which isn't helping anybody because they captain afford it. i work in the medical field. people can't afford health care. and this affordable care, i have looked at it and it's not affordable. but obama won't negotiate on that. that's what is holding the shutdown. >> we appreciate you calling this evening. ralph on the democrats' line. >> first off, i'm retired military and i'm one of those guys that has a claim in and hasn't been approved yet. i don't think obama should give in. i think he should stick to his guns. i know if it goes for a long time, i could lose my house.

america should not be blackmailed and basically that's what the republicans are doing. they are not tending the business the way it's supposed to be and should be done in order and i think they should have a vote. i think all republicans should stand up one by one and let the country know where they stand. >> tell us about your situation. you said you had a claim in. what's that claim for and i think the secretary noted that there would be an additional -- there's an additional 2,000 backlog. hat are you waiting for? >> i have diabetes. i have a number of things. but i never wanted anything from anybody. i never sued anybody. i never claimed unemployment. i never done anything like that, because i always had good health, but now my health is down and told me when i

enlisted, i would have free medical and departmental for the rest of my life and it's not that way anymore. when i enlisted, that's what they told me, but they went back on their word, the government wept back on their word. but that's ok, it's my country. i was in good health, except the last four years, heart operation, heart valve, but i don't think obama should give in. i live month to month. at the end of the month i'm broke and it's been that way for a long time. >> when did you serve? >> two tours in vietnam. 1958 and 1959 i joined. >> chad born, north carolina is next up. edwin is on our others line. councilman in a town of

less about 20,000 people and i'm trying to cut our government. and we have five council members and i don't believe we need five because we can pass the mayor's voting sheet and this is one way of cutting back so government can be slower. part of the issue here is that government has been big and i have been watching now, last week and this week what's going on on the house floor and it's like dogs chasing their tails back and forth with each other. it's really sad what the country has come to. i would like to see this get over with.

i don't know what else to say. >> thanks for calling. cspan eck twitter, #is chat. our bills are not on furlough but our income is. jeffrey says i did what obama suggested, kept paying our cobra. >> jerry on our republican line frrp alabama. jerry, hello. go ahead. you're on the air. > obama is in the wrong. it's him, not the republicans. >> jerry, do us a favor and mute

your television. we are getting feedback. >> ok. obama is the one who is holding this country hostage and the democrats are. we cannot afford this obamacare. it's going to raise the debt ceiling. who is going to pay for this? who is going to pay for this debt? my grandkids, your grandkids? they aren't going to have the same insurance that we have. that's what i have to say about it. i want the republicans to hang in there and do what they got to do. >> we are showing you looks of the white house because we are anticipating comments from the democrats at the white house who have been meeting in the last half hour. a foreign policy story.

bloomberg writing about the pentagon's announcement this afternoon, state department announcement about holding funds back, foreign aid to egypt. here's tony's tweet. he said the tweet. >> democrats' line. make sure you mute your television and go ahead with your comment. >> can you hear me? >> i can, go ahead. >> what i think about boehner and his group. they are a bunch -- rich bunch of archie bunkers. they lie on a stack of bibles. they were the ones that shut it down. the president was telling them since monday, come let's sit down and negotiate.

he gave them medal of honors. if he can remember, he had them on tv presenting them with the medal honors. he didn't shut the veterans down. those liars. they told those lies. i am veteran and i'm proud to be a united states veteran. but they are lying. they are a bunch of rich liars, hypocrites. >> from michigan, and will on the independent line. >> thanks for c-span allowing this forum. i'm a veteran also and awaiting a claim. i'm a college student and going under this program they started, congress, and there are issues with that. but what i found amazing driving home from school and i was listening to the radio that apparently the world war ii

memorial is less important than the congressmen themselves. apparently the congressional gym and swimming pool was deemed essential. it shows you who is more important. they are and the veterans aren't. and as far as one of the last callers was saying, they're all politician answer going to lie. i would like president obama to justify when he said you can keep your plan, that you are going to. that is getting washed under the bridge and harry reid is not addressing that. we heard him say that. and that is definitely not the case. i'm under the v.a. clinic getting treatment, but i did go on the web site and $413 a month is what i would have to pay for a plan and that was the lowest plan they had. >> for an individual? >> yeah. >> how much slower is it because

of the shutdown? >> well, it's been very slow. i filed when i first got out in 1982 and they never once got back to me then and just ecently that i was having more flare-ups and almost two years for this claim. >> you mentioned the issue of the house gym and it did come up on the floor, earl blumenauer of oregon mentioned, part of the issue is that the gym was kept open and some of the house members keep their personal belongings in the gym so it has been kept open but it made into a speech on the house floor. >> one glaring simple of the disconnect can be found in the subbasement of the rayburn office building, the house gym. now make no mistake, everywhere

i've worked i have started fitness employees for our employees. they save money and improve productivity and can even save lives. i helped start up a fitness program for our employees here on capitol hill. if anything, it may be more important for people in congress who are leading a crazy unhealthy lifestyle and can seldom get foge and interact with human beings. this is where i tried to start every single day, to exercise and enjoy bipartisan friendship, an island in the storm of capitol hill. it's convenient to be able to shower there instead of at home. it's important, it's very important. but it's not essential. you know, i have somebody argue with me that it doesn't cost that much because we pay dues.

we have an access key. well, that's true, doesn't cost very much, but it costs. the electricity, the hot water, the towels, they are not provided by gym fairies, but provided by taxpayers. and the same is true for countless facilities across america, closed by the senseless republican shutdown. since we decided that we are going to pay all the employees when it's over, we are paying them not to work and costly not to collect fees, you can make a better argument for restoring those services than you can for the house gym. some of the most fanatic about inflicting unnecessary pain on the american public are regulars, enjoying our house gym while the staff gym is closed. mr. speaker, if you and the house republicans are serious and not cynical about the

shutdown, then shut down the house gym until this madness ends. >> earl blumenauer on the house floor earlier today. the house did pass a partial funding bill for the f.a.a. and bill that restores the $100,000 death benefit for family members of those in the military killed in action. the house is back tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. for morning speeches and legislative work at noon eastern. we will continue to take your calls and comments for the next 10 or 15 minutes or so on this ninth day of the government shutdown. republican line. naperville, good evening. >> thank you for taking my call. i wanted to address the debt ceiling issue that's currently also being negotiated and voting in 2006, obama stated we are voting on the budget today. it's a sad state of affairs.

we just voted to increase the debt limit. so we have to get our fiscal house in order in washington. i'm not sure it's going to happen under the current leadership in congress when the debt exceeded $8 trillion as opposed to the $16 trillion it is today. the debt that our government is incurring is just out of control. the health care bill is not sustainable when they originally wrote the bill. nancy pelosi said we have to find out what's in it. we don't like what's in it and costing the american people more money than they originally told us it was going to cost us. it will cost us billions of dollars as opposed to when they first passed it saying it wouldn't add any more money to our current situation. so i think that the congress is doing their job as far as trying to control the amount of spending that our country is

doing. this is something that happened under the democrats when reagan was president where they shut down the government, but only shut down for a day or two because reagan negotiated to get the government working and get things so everybody was in agreement. one of the major things that this health care law is none of the republicans were allowed in any of the negotiations with the health care law. so none of the republican voices in our country were heard when that bill was even put into place. and this is the result. when you have something railroaded through and somebody taking a stand instead of listening to what the people want and negotiating so everybody is in geement, which is the way it's supposed to be done in committees. so that bill was never negotiated. so thank you for listening. julie from maryland on the

democrats' line. , for manyordable care years i worked. i paid private insurance. and recently, i became unemployed and could not afford the cobra health insurance. one thing when i was employed that the insurance kept going up d up to the point that could not afford it and each member of the family. with the obamacare, i am hoping it is going to bring the insurance costs down and those hat could not afford cobra and yeah, yeah, my health insurance

for 30 years. now i'm without insurance. and obamacare is going to help me and start getting health care. >> is it a big difference between what you were paying in cobra and what you are seeing is pricing on the exchange? >> there is a big difference. .he employer paid partial and cobra, you have to pay both. the employer was paying part of the expense. $600 a month, individual. >> that figure is an individual per month? >> yes. >> appreciate calling in. couple of comments on twitter.

>> story in "roll call" and possible negotiations. the headline is cracks in the budget impasse, both sides searching for daylight.

>> that is the piece today. back to our calls. alabama, darrel on the independent line. >> thank you for taking my call. we, the people, we need to look at that. when i sit here and watch tv, i realize that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing and it angers me to think all these people that are making decisions for a whole entire country think we're stupid and don't know what's going on. it's mind blowing to me when i watch the republicans blaming the democrats, i watch the democrats blaming the republicans. we are sending money to different countries and trying to fund this and that.

it all goes back to the old days when we had kids, what is put in our plate, we have to eat it or go hungry. we have to realize what happens is going to happen and we have to work around our differences. instead of pointing an accusing finger at each other and condemn each other for mistakes that were made before, we need to move ahead and look past our indifferences as a way to come up for the common good instead of, well, i'm not doing this because they're not doing this. it's frustrating. i work on a military base. i see a lot of my friends that are basically going to have to figure out where their monthly mortgage is going to come from if this isn't solved. i have friends that work for nasa, they are getting a paid

vacation. and i'm happy for them. but if we don't pull together as a country because we, the people don't have a voice, we're not given a voice. our voice is being argued for us in our capitol. >> another voice here from bellingham, washington, david on the republican line. i have been a republican any whole life, family tradition since migrate-great-grandfather joined the union army. we voted straight republican all the time. i am so ashamed of the g.o.p. representatives that i have supported and voted for. and only thing i can remember even when i got out of the military in 1968 with a service-connected disability is that everything that had to do with supporting the people with their health care, social security, medicare, all of those

things, all i can remember is that republicans, my party, the and ole party that my family supported is against us being alive. in the last 15 years, twice i have been told by doctors i was going to die. v.a. pulled me out of that. and then two years ago, i was pronounced dead and believe it or not, the doctors pulled me out of that. >> i appreciate your comments. we are probably going to see some comments from the white house. the house democrats have been meeting with president obama. some house republicans are set to meet the president tomorrow. looks like they are setting up for it. go to our independent line. next, gary on our independent line. >> i want to address the government shutdown as a whole. the keyword is compromise. and when you compromise, you

have to give a little in order to give a little. and if they would just raise the and aeiling for one month spending cut and every month that the debt ceiling is reached have a federal spending cut, then everything would work out. but being stubborn on both sides ain't going to do nothing to cause us to go into default. miami, florida and democrats' line. >> why. i'm trying to figure out what's going on. it was the republicans that brought that up. the president is the law, we have obamacare. the republicans put that into

what's going on as far as the shutdown. the key is, if you see two people arguing, you don't know who's the fool. so what i'm saying is, that's a ploy where they want to get something started so the president's approval rate will go down. they're trying to stop affordable health care for most americans. the e key with that is president clearly said if you have something, you do it. the republicans never had anything to come up with as far as affordable health care in this country. what i'm trying to figure out is, why shut the government down it'sit's already law, when going to the forefront on affordable health care. >> let's go to our republican line and j.j. who is in florida.

j.j., you with us? >> i'm here. what i want to comment about, i'm not a republican or a democrat, but i'm a united states citizen. and if the united states of america will pull together and everybody go to washington and hold their flag up and stand their ground, maybe we can get something done. but i'm a disabled person and i called social security today and i probably won't even get a check next month. >> did they tell you that or just concerned about that? >> the lady said if we got a check in november, it would be late. and over 50 million people on disbuilt, why is the united states -- yes, we need to pull together. i mean there are millions of us. if congress ain't going to do

their job? why don't which get rid of the congress. if the president ain't going to budge. let's impeach him. we have to get together. >> business leaders have weighed in on the looming debt ceiling. this is a look at the headline in politico. it says c.e.o.'s seek a big deal to end shutdown and debt ceiling. >> tomorrow morning on c-span 3 we will be covering live the hearing of jack lew who will testify before the senate finance committee. live coverage for you. and talk about the impact of the looming debt ceiling and our

coverage gets under way on the c-span networks at 8:00 a.m. eastern. among the hearings we covered too is veterans secretary testifying on the impact of the government shutdown on veterans. this is the hearing from earlier today.

>> hearing will come to order. before we begin i would like to ask unanimous consent, the gentleman from california and former member of this committee, mr. mcnerney, be allowed to join us and participate in today's proceedings. hearing no objection, so ordered. mr. secretary, welcome to the committee. i appreciate sincerely appreciate you being here on relatively short notice and we are here to understand how veterans are being impacted by the lapse in appropriations that

has the government currently in a shutdown mode. there's plenty of blame that can be shared as to why we're in this position, but that's not why i called the hearing. i really called the hearing so we can get the best possible information available out to the veteran community. veterans want to know whether their disability checks and g.i. bill benefits will be paid in november and thereafter. they want to know if their disability claims will be decided or further delayed. families want to know if their loved ones will receive a timely burial at v.a. national cemeteries. and many of v.a.'s employees themselves want to know if they will be serving veterans on the job or going to be furloughed. i understand that answers to some of these questions are entirely dependent on how long this shutdown lasts.

and although i want to be sure that most of us agree that we want the shutdown over quickly, it's our responsibility to ensure that the public, especially veterans, understand what the current state of play is. first of all, mr. secretary, i want to say in the last couple of weeks, getting good information about your contingency plans and the effect of lapse in appropriations and its effect on veterans has been very difficult for us to get the information out of your office. for example, the original field guide that v.a. put out regarding the shutdown impact at first spoke of no effect, no effect, on payments to veterans or processing of their benefits. but in a later version, v.a. stated that a prolonged shutdown would impact both, but didn't provide any details as to how it

would be impacted. secondly, the veterans health administration is not shut down at all because it has received a full year's appropriation for 2014, back in march. so hospitals, clinics and vet centers should all be open for business. yet the president made a statement the day before the shutdown saying that that veterans will find their support centers unstaffed and implied that counseling services for veterans with p.t.s. would be affected. third, this committee has consistently been told by the mandatory overtime effort towards the backlog would actually end on september 30. yet days into the shutdown, we are now informed that the shutdown prevented v.a.'s planned continued payment of

overtime. fourth, although a shutdown should have a relatively uniform effect across all regional offices as suggested by your own field guide, my staff met with several representatives from v.s.o.'s last week who relayed their members are hearing mixed messages out of different regional offices. and i think it goes without saying none of this is ideal. some degree of confusion is to be expected, and we understand that. the v.a. employees should be worrying about v.a.'s mission of service to veterans, not planning for furloughs or managing an agency on spare change remaining from last year. however, what can never be expected is anything less than the full truth as best as it is known at the time. this grave situation does not need to be assisted by misleading statements from

anybody. statements designed to aid a political argument by any political party, regardless of which one we may be long to. it's my hope we can uphold the best traditions of this committee and rise above all of that today. mr. secretary, i appreciate your willingness to join us in this effort. since this hearing was called last friday, we have had a little bit more clarity on some of the issues we have been asking your staff about for the last 10 days. but i thought the public should hear some of the same information. now, one last point before i conclude. last july, we held a hearing on a bill that the ranking member and i introduced that proposed to advance funds the entire v.a. discretionary budget. the administration declined to take a position on the bill,

saying instead, it needed to conduct a review first. it's obvious that no review is necessary given where we are today. mr. secretary, i sincerely hope that you are making that case with the administration. and i'll follow up with you on that point during questioning. and i now recognize the ranking member, mr. michaud, for his opening statement. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman, for having this hearing and i want to thank you, mr. secretary for coming. before we begin exploring how the government shutdown is affecting veterans and the v.a., i want to acknowledge the very real consequences and the lapse that the shutdown has had on v.a. employees. i know they do not work solely for a paycheck but work in helping veterans. a lot of them are veterans. and they have done a phenomenal job and now it's time for

congress to do its job. we can do this in two ways. number one, either the senate take up the milcon-v.a. appropriation bill that was passed by the house four months ago or the house can take up a clean c.r. passed by the senate. i don't care which ones that we choose, as long as we get on with the reopening of government and that we fully fund v.a. the v.a. contingency plan and field guide provide us with a rough idea of the consequences of a government shutdown. last week, we saw the immediate shutdown and what it had on v.a. offices, such as the inspector general. yesterday, we saw from v.b.a., i.t. accounts run dry and thousands of v.a. employees furloughed. we know the mandatory funds to pay compensation and pension benefits are scheduled to run

out in little over two weeks. we also know that furloughs and suspensions of programs and other agencies also affect veterans. roughly 2.1 million federal employees, more than 600,000 are veterans. many of them are already or expect to be furloughed. also as programs and services and other agencies are disrupted, it affects v.a.'s ability to receive the necessary information and support to deliver those services for our veterans. we know we'll hear bad news today from you, mr. secretary. important v.a. operations have or will be suspended. some veterans will not get what they are expecting. what they deserve and most importantly what they have earned. this may be a difficult conversation, but one that we must have. openly, frankly and honestly.

but amidst the bad news there are good news. with v.a.'s medical accounts under advanced appropriations, the veterans health administration is largely unaffected by lapse in the fiscal year 2014 appropriations. all medical facilities are open as you heard from the chairman, and operation under normal status. this will continue regardless how long the current government is shut down. it is clear now that in the midst of the shutdown that getting a vote on h.r. 813 as amended, the putting veterans funding first act is necessary and the critical step in ensuring veterans' benefits and services are not put at risk when there is a lapse in appropriations. mr. chairman, i thank you for signing on the letter with me to the speaker asking that h.r. 813 as amended be scheduled for floor action. i encourage all members of the committee to sign on to that

letter and send a message that veterans should not and cannot and will not be disadvantaged by which party who is in control. mr. secretary, i look forward to your testimony and the questions to follow. mr. chairman, once again, i thank you very much for having this very important and timely hearing today. with that, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: -- thank you, mr. michaud. as you might imagine, this is a critical time for our government and certainly for our veterans out there and that's why i asked the secretary and so pleased on very short notice, he was able to come in and give us some indication of where we are now within the v.a. and where we are going in the future depending on how long this shutdown does, in fact, continue. i welcome the only witness of his morning, the honorable

secretary shinseki. your complete statement will be entered into the record and you are recognized for five minutes. >> members of the committee, thank you for entering my written staple. let me, mr. chairman, just recognize in the room here, we have partners for all of us from our veteran service organizations. i would tell you and quite helpful to me over the past 4 1/2 years in trying to help us be better in our responsibilities in caring for veterans, but also service members and families and survivors that we are responsible for. mr. chairman, you called this hearing to examine the effect of government shutdown on v.a. benefits and services to eterans.

and ongoing lapse in benefits, let me say that all the effects that i'm going to describe of the shutdown are negative. it is an impediment to v.a. to deliver services and benefits that veterans have earned through their service. v.a. continues to invest significant resources and time for this infrequent and avoidable situation. the ongoing shutdown presents myriad challenges. last time a shutdown occurred in 1996 as i'm told, our nation was enjoying a sustained period of relative peace. today we are in the 13th year in the war in afghanistan, providing care and benefits to veterans of that war and the war in iraq as well. members of this latest generation of veterans are enrolling for benefits in v.a.

they along with the veterans of every preceding generation will be harmed if the shutdown continues. in brief, in the last six months through 30 september, the veterans benefits administration reduced the backlog of compensation claims, something we have all been working on and prodding and encouraging them to do better, while they have begun that delivery, 193,000 claims reduced in the last 190 days. 31 1/2 percent increase in a little over six months. since the shutdown began on 1 october, the backlog has stalled and increased by 2,000 claims. v.b.a. has furloughed more than 7,800 of its employees, half of whom are veterans. a shutdown directly threatens us o eliminate the backlog.

1,400 veterans a day are not receiving decisions on their disability compensation claims due to the end of overtime. if the shutdown does not end in the coming weeks, v.a. will not be able to assure of 1 november checks to more than 5.18 million beneficiaries and that accounts for 6.25 billion in payments that people are expecting and compensation and pensions and depend events and indem any ti and fiduciary, vocational rehabilitation and employment benefits. including veterans who are 100% disaked, surviving spouses, eligible children, orphanned by the death of their military or veteran parent. television and stipend dollarses for over 500,000 service members and eligible family members and education programs will also stop.

these are some of the major issues veterans face if the shutdown continues. my written testimony includes details of other negative impacts through our i.t. initiatives, to our national cemetery that our employees lay to rest. v.a. staff offices and v.a. employees themselves, especially those who are veterans. mini some have suggested a c.r. as an approach to meeting our f.y. 2014 budgetary responsibilities for funding the government, that's not a solution for veterans or for our nation. the budget request submitted by president obama nearly six months ago as a result of an extensive and cooperative effort across all the departments and agencies to produce a budget request that balanced priorities and risks. picking and choosing parts of government to fund would ignore

two key drumbeats that i tried to deliver over the past 4 1/2 years and the first is very little of what we work on in v.a. originates in v.a. much of that originates in another department. and second, v.a.'s care for veterans and i mean health care, education, employment, insurance, housing for both the homeowner and the homeless does not occur without significant coordination with d.o.d., with housing and urban development, h.h.s., social security, treasury, education, labor, the i.r.s., small business administration. and frankly, it is this collaboration amongst and across the government that allows us to be effective. and i would add to that, we have a fourth mission, as the chairman recalls besides our three administration, we have a fourth mission in the ept of an emergencies, humanitarian requirements that i must make

available our capabilities where it is needed. our work with fema and homeland security is also part of our day-to-day responsibilities. these are not insignificant connections with this department. without them, we are less effective in serving veterans, their families and survivors. these are the facts that i present, mr. chairman at a critical time for veterans, everyone at v.a. should be focusing on how best to accomplish their missions. and i ask the committee and the rest of congress to help us by resolving this fiscal impasse now so v.a. and our federal partners on whom we have to rely to do our work can get back to work full-time fulfilling president lincoln's call to care for those who have gone to battle. >> thank you very much, mr. secretary. you and i both know that regular

weer is not in the mode that are in today, but regular order requires a piecemeal approach of 12 appropriation bills. 126-plus days ago, this house on a bipartisan basis passed a v.a. military construction bill that fully funded, not just partially funded on a short-term basis, which is what folks are asking for now, a partial c.r., fully funded. yet that bill languishes in the senate. to my colleagues because it has been so long since we sent that bill over to the senate, there's very little difference, maybe a quarter of a percent difference between the two bills. it could very easily be brought forward and this would be off the table. and so my question is, and

atement is, in years past, house and senate, regardless of parties and the white house have always come together and tried to find a way to prioritize how money would be spent, who would be at the top of the list as we started to shut the government down and run out of money and today, we don't have that. even back in the shutdown of 1995, there was a priorityization and d.o.d. and veterans were taken off the table, of which they're not right now. my question is, don't you think v.a. benefits certainly should get the same priority or priority isation today as it has in other shutdown situations? >> i missed the last piece of your question, mr. chairman. >> just basically in years past,

we have in fact prioritized spending needs. d.o.d. and v.a. has been taken off the table and my question is what's different this time and don't you think veterans' benefits should be prioritized at a higher level than others within our federal government? >> mr. chairman, i would just tell you this. the department has benefited from leadership of the president and leadership and support of the congress. if you look at what has transpired over the last four years through our budgets, we can all be proud of what we have done to take care of veterans. and i will always tell you that that's a top priority with me. but i do understand that there is a budget request presented to the congress. there is a process that you referred to that requires passage of a budget. within that, the individual departments are then provided

guidance on what their budgets will be. i'm not sure where the congress is in that process. but i would ask the congress to provide us a budget so that not only this department, but our partners in government on whom we rely to do our mission well can get on with business. >> i think it's important to discuss the differences between a budget and an appropriation, because it has been inflated in the national media that because a budget has president been passed, we can't appropriate money. in fact, we have done it for a number of years now because we haven't been able to come to agreement on a budget. we did pass in this house over 126 days ago now, by a large bipartisan measure -- and i would hope know or have some type of an idea of why the senate is holding that so tight, has chosen not to move that legislation forward. we passed four different, full

appropriation bills. and i'm hoping that maybe you can help me understand why the senate continues not to act on the full, not a piecemeal partial bill, but a whole funding bill. >> mr. chairman, i appreciate your confidence in my ability to sort through this. for the congress, i would just claim to be just an average guy trying to do an average job here. i didn't know there was going to be a shutdown. i had no idea that this was intended to happen. and so, the month of september for me is the end of the fiscal year. what usually happens is i'm rying to get people to tell me what the funds congress has provided and then anticipate that i will have a budget on 1

october and how to understand how to make that transition. because these transitions in the past have been difficult, congress authorizes a carryover opportunity, but it limits what i can carry over. and one in one department it may be 4% new york another it may go as high as 10%, but these are limitations. i need to understand what we are doing to close out properly so i can determine what our carryover will be, so i can meet congress' intent, and it usually takes me about 10 days at the end of a fiscal year to be able to bring this to order. about today is when i would have these factors coming together and in fact this week would have en