Jackie Speier: “The word of the day is squander, defined broadly as the majority party having the votes to pass solutions that fit what…”

“The word of the day is squander, defined broadly as the majority party having the votes to pass solutions that fit what America needs and wants, but instead moves forward with an approach to appease an angry faction of their party, and in doing so advances nothing but its own political shortsightedness while making a mockery out of public policy. Squander. In the House, we have had political theater of a piecemeal approach, where parks and cures for life-threatening diseases are used as rhetorical props. But this approach has done nothing to address the real danger to our national security and how this shutdown hinders our ability to keep Americans safe from terrorists. The government shutdown has furloughed 70 percent of the intelligence community, 70 percent of the civilians in the intelligence community. The Director of National Intelligence called the government shutdown a, quote, ``dreamland,'' unquote, for enemies that want to steal our Nation's secrets, and said it ``seriously damages our ability to protect the security and safety of this Nation and its citizens.'' And with each passing day, he thinks the damage becomes more insidious. Well, here we are talking about parks, talking about our venerable veterans. We haven't said a word, really, about our intelligence community.…”