mr. denham: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise in support of the mcclintock-lamalfa- mccarthy-denham amendment. this will speed up the timber salvage project. i'm never surprised by some of the arguments that are made down here. you'll hear that we just don't have enough people to go out there and survey. but yet by harvesting this very timber that will be rotted or infested in several months would actually pay not only for the forest service to go out there and survive and help to pay for the forest service salaries, but actually in a community like ours, helps to pay for our schooling and some of our local costs as well. the timber salvage can go a long way to benefit local economies throughout the state. this timely amendment limits the amount of lawsuits that could be used to slow down and hold up the salvage process. under the proposed amendment, wood salvaged could be quickly sent to mills across california, fueling construction projects and benefiting local economies receiving timber and providing much-needed local jo

mr. denham: mr. speaker, it's kind of interesting to hear all the chatter about government shutdown here that seems to be coming from the other side. i think they may be protesting too loudly. republicans have acted to give the senate and the president the tools, the means, to avoid a government shutdown. we've acted on two occasions to pass the language of the full faith and credit act, to ensure the government continues paying its bills in the event of an impasse in budget negotiations. however, the senate has failed to tack on -- act on a commonsense proposal which would preserve our nation's credit rating, continue paying the military, protect social security and other essential services. where is the senate's actions on this mission? what is the president doing to help? he's instead more willing to foreign leaders and unwilling to talk to us in the house here. mr. speaker, is this what the american people asked for? that we have an impasse amongst the three legs of the legislative process in thi