mr. huelskamp. >> thank you, mr. chairman. appreciate the opportunity and i really -- this is a difficult question to ask you, mr. shinseki, given the discussion we've had, but do you think senator reid doesn't like our veterans or the v.a. in particular? and it is a tough question. the reason i ask that, mr. secretary, is that as the chairman has indicated, 127 days ago, the 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 senate? >> mr. huelskamp i'm happy to answer the question about senator reid, personally, i think he very highly values veterans. as to why we are unable, congress is unable to do its business, i will leave to the embers to discuss. >> and i appreciate that. it is an issue in the u.s. senate. have you visited with the senator and

mr. huelskamp? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i do want to take a note, a little bit of time. i'd like to apologize to anybody in this committee that might have been offended by my trying to find out exactly why the u.s. senate has voted on these appropriations. i do appreciate the bipartisan nature of this committee, but i think we all agree here that our veterans should not be as pawns in this particular debate, and i appreciate the work in terms of the secretary. but the language that i've seen in particular reference to the individual in the senate that i asked a question about has used some language that i don't think anybody in this committee has used, has not called anybody an anarchist or a fanatic or insane, that's the language we hear coming out of here, and it does no service to our veterans. so i apologize to anyone who took offense. i would appreciate the secretary trying to work with the senate, trying to encourage them to bring it to a vote and keep your doors open -- or to the president and keep your doors open. thank you very much, mr. chairman. >> thank you v

mr. huelskamp? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i would like to apologize to anybody who might have been offended by my trying to find out exactly why the u.s. senate has not voted on these appropriations. i appreciate the bipartisan nature of this committee but i think we all agree that our veterans should not be used as pawns in this particular debate. i appreciate the work in terms of the secretary. the language that i have seen in reference to the individual and the senate that asked a question about -- language was used that i don't think anybody in this committee has used. -- that is thene language we hear and it does no service to our veterans. i apologize if you took offense. i appreciate secretary trying to work with the senate encouraging them to bring that to a vote. i am confident that that can go right to the senate. keep those doors open. i yield back. >> thank you very much, mr. huelskamp. we have asked -- do you have a question? >> sorry, mr. secretary. >> your recognize. >> thank you very much. mr. chairman, secret

mr. huelskamp, fellow farmer, and look forward to hearing your thoughts on this very important time. representative, i yield four minutes. mr. huelskamp: i'd like to thank my colleague from the east and also my colleague from the south for their comments. i'd like to follow up first on congressman bridenstine's laying out the record of what has occurred understand and here you see aly the of the -- occurred and here you see a list of the votes the house has taken. since the government shutdown began. or first as was mentioned, the senate refused to negotiate, sit down, actually talk. that happened at 1:00 a.m. on october 1. senator harry reid says, we're not going to talk, we're not going to negotiate. since then we've gone to work. u.s. house, house republicans, said we're going to try to take care of the veterans. let's try to take care of funding our national parks. let's take care of funding the n.i.h. cancer research for our children. let's take care of making certain that folks that serve at fema are taken care of. a list of vote after vote after vote for the last four days. an

mr. huelskamp. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from kansas is recognized for three minutes. mr. huelskamp: i appreciate the efforts of my colleague from indiana bringing this before the house for discussion. the reality is the staggering fact is since the president's re-election through to the next debt limit vote, washington will have added about $1 trillion to our national debt in exchange for what? for no spending reductions, in exchange for maintaining the status quo. this is not as democrats would argue about paying our bills. it is about mortgaging our nation's future. not only must we vote yes on this resolution to disapprove of is culture of debt, but it's time to bring long overdue transparency to the process. as we approach the so-called default deadline, the white house press secretary told reporters that secretary lew did not say we risked default on midnight on october 17 but likely to exhaust our borrowing authority that day. the press corps responded in disbelief that their doomsday default clocks may actually be wrong. but let's be clear. we were not going to defa

mr. tim huelskamp. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from kansas is recognized for two minutes. . speaker, is it really the policy of this administration to make church services illegal, to threaten catholic priests with jail if they celebrate mass this weekend? unfortunately, this policy seems to be another tragic reflection of the complete disregard this administration has for americans of faith. what's worse, it's an unprecedented denial of a fundamental constitutional right of our men and women in uniform. like denying access to the world war ii or lincoln memorials for the first time. this is the first time in 17 previous funding lapses covering 16 sundays that our brave chaplains have been threatened with arest ifs they perform their godly -- if they perform their godly duties. secretary hagel must issue a directive that chaplains perform their duties that ..o.d. normally use for this is not empty words on a dusty archaic document to be viewed in a museum. no, for men like my uncle, father leonard, who is an active duty chaplain for the last 30 years, the first amendment is

mr. huelskamp: it is clear, obamacare is failing. an embarrassment, particularly for the former kansas governor, who is now in charge of obamacare, but of course refuses to live under it herself. my office recently spoke with one of the insurers in kansas who told us that not one, not one of the 365,000 uninsured kansans successfully signed up for insurance on the obamacare exchanges the first day. although senator harry reid and all the senate democrats, and the president himself refuse to live under obamacare, the rest of america doesn't have that privilege. this is jet another example of why we need -- this is yet another example of why we need to get rid of obamacare, it's unpopular, unaffordable. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from new york seek recognition? >> unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recogni