Zoe Lofgren: “I am new to Congress, but when I reread the Constitution last night, I reminded myself again that the Constitution…”

“I am new to Congress, but when I reread the Constitution last night, I reminded myself again that the Constitution provides for systems of checks and balances, vetoes and veto overrides. Nowhere is there a provision to shut down the Government when we do not succeed in getting our own way. But as the majority whip, the gentleman from Texas [Mr. DeLay] said: ``We are only going to vote today on what the Republicans want to do.'' I think it is important that the gentleman said that. We are only going to allow those agencies to go back to work that the gentleman from Texas and the Republicans like. One of the questions I have, although I will vote for this because I want the retirees from the railroads to get their money, is what happens to startup industries in Silicon Valley? If a startup industry wants to go public after next week, because the Securities and Exchange Commission is running out of money, this company, even after 18 months of work, will not be able to do so. It may be that we do not think that the Securities and Exchange Commission should be involved in this process at all, but we should not leave these companies hanging out to dry. We should be grown-ups, like Senator Dole.”