On the recordJanuary 16, 2019
I thank the gentleman from Washington State for his comments. I would urge him to stick with his original instinct to support the legislation. He said that he finds lots of important stuff in it, aiding the victims of hurricanes and earthquakes and floods and so on. All of that is absolutely right. That is why we are voting for it. We urge him to vote for it, too. He says that we are playing politics in a shameful way, that we are engaged in partisan politics, by adding a measure to reopen the Government of the United States that will allow us to get aid to all of these people and to allow all our workers to be paid. What I consider shameful is holding the Government of the United States of America, the Federal workforce, private contractors, and the people hostage over a policy debate. We have never seen anything like this before, and now it is the longest shutdown in history. So let's reopen the government. And we are willing to debate anything you want, but we can't do it in a hostage-taking, ransom-type situation. Since when did opening the Government of the United States become a poison pill? I just don't see that. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Escobar).
