Chris Van Hollen: “If the majority were genuinely interested in avoiding a government shutdown, they would bring a clean, one week CR to…”

“If the majority were genuinely interested in avoiding a government shutdown, they would bring a clean, one week CR to the floor to give the current negotiations time to reach a successful conclusion. But that's not what we're being asked to vote on today. Instead, in the most cynical demonstration of bad faith, today's legislation combines funding for our troops--which every Member of this House supports, and which a clean CR would provide--with controversial cuts and ideologically extreme poison pills that the majority knows the nation doesn't want and the Senate and the President will not support. As a result, in this moment of truth, the majority is deliberately choosing to dive headlong into a government shutdown in order to pander to its Tea Party base while the rest of America yearns for honorable compromise and adult leadership. As Ranking Member of the Budget Committee, and someone who actually supported the last two CRs, I am willing to work in good faith with Members on both sides of the aisle to break the current impasse. But I will not participate in this kind of eleventh hour partisan gamesmanship when our federal government's operations are at stake. The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired. Pursuant to House Resolution 206, the previous question is ordered on the bill. The question is on the engrossment and third reading of the bill. The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time, and was read the third time.…”