Chris Van Hollen: “I thank my friend from Massachusetts. There has been a lot of talk on the floor this morning about the sequester and the…”

“I thank my friend from Massachusetts. There has been a lot of talk on the floor this morning about the sequester and the negative impact it's having on the economy. I would remind my colleagues, as my friend from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) did, that on four occasions the House Democrats have tried to bring to this floor for a vote a bill that would replace the sequester, end the disruption, and end the job loss that the Congressional Budget Office says is coming with the sequester. This morning we're going to ask this House to take a simple vote on another resolution, and I'm going to read it because it's really simple. It says: Resolved, that it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the Speaker should follow regular House procedure and immediately request a conference and appoint conferees to negotiate a fiscal year 2014 budget resolution agreement with the United States Senate. Now, we all stood on this floor and heard our Republican colleagues criticize the United States Senate for 3 years because they did not have a budget. Well, guess what? The United States Senate passed a budget more than 53 days ago. But now what's happened is the Speaker of this House has refused to go to conference to negotiate a final budget. We heard for weeks and weeks the mantra, ``No budget, no pay.'' Apparently, that was a meaningless cry because as of right now there is no Federal budget and Members of the House and the Senate are still getting paid.…”