Chris Van Hollen: “A simple question: Why is the Speaker of this House denying this House the opportunity to have an ``up-or-down'' vote on…”

“A simple question: Why is the Speaker of this House denying this House the opportunity to have an ``up-or-down'' vote on a clean continuing resolution to keep the Federal Government operating tomorrow and beyond? Why is he not allowing a vote? Why is he not allowing Democrats and Republicans together to have a vote on keeping the government open? Because, Mr. Speaker, if he had that vote, it would pass. It would pass on a bipartisan basis and the government would still be operating. So, apparently, the Speaker is afraid that we would actually pass a bill to keep the government going. So why is he not allowing the people's House to do the people's business? Well, we've been seeing this playing out around the country in the last couple of weeks. You've got a far-right extreme Tea Party element in the Republican Party that is dictating what's happening here on the floor of this House. Senator Cruz is running the show on the floor of this House. Mr. Speaker, why don't you just quicken it up and pass Senator Cruz the gavel and let him run the House? Now why is it that this group of Members wants to shut down the government? Because tomorrow, millions of Americans are going to get access to affordable health care. Millions of Americans are already benefiting from the protections of the Affordable Care Act. But tomorrow, millions more will get access to affordable care.…”