Terri Sewell: “I take to the floor with a heavy heart, a heavy heart that is disappointed, frustrated and, frankly, outraged by our…”

“I take to the floor with a heavy heart, a heavy heart that is disappointed, frustrated and, frankly, outraged by our government shutdown. Once again, we have put partisan politics ahead of the needs of the American people; and as I stand before you this morning, millions of Americans are already suffering the consequences at the hands of a dysfunctional Congress. The legislative process that has resulted in this shutdown reflects a neglect of the responsibilities that we were sent here to meet. The House majority had a chance to avert the government shutdown, but chose political brinkmanship over responsible compromise. In order to avoid the shutdown earlier this week, the Senate sent the House a bill, a compromise spending bill, which accepted the Republicans' lower funding levels. Instead of allowing a clean funding bill to come to this floor, the House majority, once again, attached unreasonable amendments which had no hope of gaining bipartisan support. Now House Republicans want to partially open the Federal Government, cherry-picking winners and losers. This is no way to run a government. Think about it: if we and all of the small businesses and big businesses out there would run their institutions the way we run this Congress, our economy would be in shambles. {time} 1130 I hate to play the blame game, Mr. Speaker, but this government shutdown is solely the responsibility and the creation of House Republicans.…”