Mike Quigley: “I thank Madam Chairwoman for yielding me time. During these heated times, we are accused of sometimes not listening to…”

“I thank Madam Chairwoman for yielding me time. During these heated times, we are accused of sometimes not listening to each other. Well, we listened to them. They all wanted the conference bills, and they have them. And I have heard today that what we need is a compromise on border security, which is interesting, because we are here on day 33 of the shutdown because of the President's singular focus, almost an obsession, on a symbolic but ineffective wall, not border security. He is holding the government, its workers, and the services they provide hostage because he has convinced himself, and surely his base, that the wall will protect us from violent crime and end the flow of illegal drugs. If the President actually believes that border security is the end goal of the wall, then fine, let's reopen the government and have that debate, because our plans for border security actually work. Enacting the bills before us today does nothing to preclude the President from continuing to make his case on the wall. He and the Republicans have simply concluded that by continuing to impose suffering on Federal workers and the public that relies on them, it strengthens their hand in negotiations in only one element of that, an ineffective element, the wall. That is not the way our government is designed to work, nor should it work. This is governing by extortion, and we should all stand together to reject such tactics.…”