Martha Roby: “I rise this morning to express my frustration and the frustration of my constituents over the stalemate here in…”

“I rise this morning to express my frustration and the frustration of my constituents over the stalemate here in Washington. It didn't have to come to this. The House has put forth four proposals to the Senate, each one offering a compromise to the other side. Time after time Senator Reid stonewalled our efforts to forge a compromise and prevent a shutdown. When House Republicans passed legislation that simply asked Senate Democrats to just simply come to the table to negotiate, Senator Reid said no. Everyone knows that Republicans and Democrats don't see eye to eye on every spending issue. However, there is a lot that we do agree on, like funding critical care for cancer research, the national parks, veterans services, National Guardsmen and Reservists. And when we have drafted stand-alone bills funding these efforts, we saw support from some Senate Democrats. But again, Mr. Reid said no. So first we couldn't get Mr. Reid to negotiate over what we disagree on, and today we can't get him to even consider what we do agree on. Mr. Speaker, I don't know how many more olive branches we have left on the tree, but today we are going to offer more. We have already worked to ensure that young boys and girls who need cancer treatments from the National Institutes of Health receive the lifesaving medicine they deserve.…”