On the recordDecember 21, 2017
Mr. Speaker, I thank Mrs. Lowey for yielding. Here we are again, Mr. Speaker. Two weeks ago, the Republican majority asked for another 2 weeks to write an appropriations package to fund the government, yet now they are asking to kick the can down the road one more time. We all knew that those 2 weeks were a pretense for getting the votes to pass their tax bill. We didn't make any progress on a bipartisan appropriations bill. Before that, Republicans asked for an additional 12 weeks in September. We all voted to give that 12 weeks. All of us know exactly why the can keeps being kicked farther and farther down the road. It is because the majority cannot muster a majority of their own Members to support bipartisan funding bills. Because the governing party, which controls the House, the Senate, and the White House, has not been able to govern. Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn said on Sunday: ``The can always seems to be kicked down the road.'' Yet here we are again with Republicans doing exactly that. Mr. Speaker, let's call the CR for what it is: a chaotic retreat from rational, regular, and fiscal responsibility. We have alongside it a supplemental funding bill that provides some additional emergency relief to those affected by natural disasters, but it ought to do more, in my opinion, to help those in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.…





