I thank the gentleman for yielding, but also for your tremendous leadership on this issue and on so many other issues. It is a pleasure to serve with you. You have really hit the ground running as a new Member of this great body. I also…

Let me thank the gentleman for yielding and for his determination to eliminate hunger, not only in our own country, but throughout the world. Mr. Speaker, there are 46 million Americans living in poverty, 16 million of whom are children…

Without SNAP, millions of families would fall into poverty while millions more Americans would suffer extreme hunger and our economy would create even fewer jobs. Let me remind you that millions of people on food stamps are working. Their…

It's also important to recognize, again, as an appropriator and as a member of the Budget Committee, I hear and see each and every day, whenever we're in committee, the tactics and the discussion with regard to cuts to Head Start and the…

I thank the gentleman for yielding. Also, let me just associate myself with the gentleman from Massachusetts' comments with regard to Speaker O'Neill. I, too, was a staffer during that period when the great Speaker, Mr. O'Neill, was…

First of all, we all know that we're 8 days into this Tea Party Republican government shutdown with $2.4 billion in lost economic activity. This hostage-taking continues. The Tea Party Republicans continue to want to deny millions of…

Thank you very much. Let me first thank you both for continuing to sound the alarm and to really conduct these Special Orders so the American people can know the truth about what's really going on here in Washington, D.C. So thank you, Mr…

They want us to shut down the shutdown that the Tea Party extremists shamefully created. We can reopen the government today, right now, on a bipartisan basis, if Republicans would allow a vote on the bill that would reopen the government…

First I rise in strong opposition to this bill, but I just have to say what nerve the Republicans have to bring this bill to the floor. As a member of the Appropriations Committee, I have witnessed Republicans vote over and over again to…

Here we are day three of the manufactured Republican government shutdown and Republicans still have no viable proposal to reopen the government. The Republican refusal to back off their extreme, ideological demands has taken our country…

Despite Republicans' conviction to defund, dismantle, and shut the Federal Government down because they want to deny health care to millions of Americans, exchanges have opened across the country with overwhelming response. In fact, in my…

Here we are day two of the hurtful Republican Government Shutdown. We still don't have a viable solution to reopen the government. The Republican refusal to back off their extreme, ideological demands has taken our country down a dangerous…