mr. perlmutter. mr. perlmutter: well, i thank my friend from maine. this subject is so serious and so infuriating because it's absurd. we have shut down our government. we're like the only country in the world that does something like this and inflict harm on our employees, on americans, and on america. we've had the gentlelady, i see here, from virginia in the chamber. she talked about national security being placed at risk. the fact that we've done this to ourselves is really difficult, and i would just say to the president, madam speaker, that it's time to reopen this government. we've offered 11 versions of how to reopen the government, but i want to talk about some stories because the psychological effect that the gentlelady from maine talked about really has an impact on these employees. and i want to talk about a the man who works for national park service. he's in the natural resource technical division so what he does is he goes to the national parks and deals with faults and different kinds of geological problems that may exist, and they wor

mr. perlmutter. the speaker pro tempore: without objection the resolution is agreed to and the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. pu

mr. perlmutter: thank you, mr. speaker. and thank you, mr. mcgovern, for yielding time to me. i rise today to support the rule and the four underlying bills to help fully reopen the united states of america. here we are 19 days into the trump shutdown and all we see is political posturing from the white house and the republican-controlled senate, which has failed to take any steps, any steps to reopen the government. the president has made federal employees political pawns to try and get his way. he's put america and the hardworking men and women who work for her in jeopardy. last week i joined a bipartisan majority of the house in supporting two bills to fully reopen the government. unfortunately the senate has failed to take up those bills. they would immediately reopen the government and put 800,000 people back to work. i know that the gentleman from oklahoma said we have plenty of time. those were his words just now. we don't have plenty of time. we need to get people back to work. and i want to share some stories from my district. denver federal center is in the middle of

mr. perlmutter. the speaker pro tempore: without objection the resolution is agreed to and the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. pursuant to clause of rule 20, the chair will postpone further proceedings today on motions to suspend the rules on which a recorded vote or the yeas and nays are ordered or a vote is objected to under clause 6 of rule 20678 the house will resume proceedings on postponed questions at a later time. for what purpose does the distinguished gentleman from new jersey seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i move to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 259 as amended a bill to extend the medicaid money follows the person rebalancing demonstration to extend protection for medicaid recipients of home and community-based services against spousal impoverishment and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 259, a bill to extend the medicaid money follows the person demonstration for recipients of home and community-based