David Jolly: “Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Madam Speaker, I am a new member of the Appropriations Committee. I fully understand and…”

“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Madam Speaker, I am a new member of the Appropriations Committee. I fully understand and respect the significant place that this committee sits in, Republicans and Democrats, to keep the government funded. I know that. I think the first responsibility of Congress is to keep the government open. But I take great reservation to my colleague's suggestion that somehow this is an abdication of our constitutional responsibility. Nothing could be further from the truth. Madam Speaker, I want to make something clear to the American people today. All week I have seen signs on the House floor saying that Republicans are shutting down the Department of Homeland Security, and I have seen press conferences saying Republicans are shutting down the Department of Homeland Security, scaring the American people about something that has not happened. Here is what we have not heard: Where are the solutions and where is the compromise? Because I will tell the American people this today: what my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have said is: It is all or nothing. I understand the interest in a clean DHS bill. I am very sympathetic to that. But to take that position when we know that there are Members of this body who take grave, grave reservation to the constitutional overreach of the President, that is an abdication of the constitutional responsibility of this body. All or nothing is not legislating. Signs are not legislating.…”