William Tauzin: “to hear the rhetoric in this debate one would think that most of the Government is shut down. That is not true. Most of…”

“to hear the rhetoric in this debate one would think that most of the Government is shut down. That is not true. Most of the Government is up and running. It is about one-fifth of the Government that is not open for business today. And most of that one-fifth could be open for business today if the President had simply signed 3 appropriations bills the House and the Senate, representing a majority of the American people, sent to him in time for him to put his signature on it and to put these people to work. The President chose not to sign those bills and so most of that one-fifth of the work force is out of work today. As to that remaining number, they are tied up in a filibuster on the Senate side led by Members of the President's own party. So if you want to know why part of the Government is shut down today, it is because the President failed to sign the appropriation bills the House and Senate agreed upon, and because his own party has the final remaining appropriation bills tied up in the Senate in a filibuster. We are ready to go to work, pass a balanced budget bill for this country and get us on a course to fiscal sanity again.”