On the recordOctober 2, 2013
I thank the gentleman for yielding. I'm new to Congress, and I knew when I was elected last year that I was coming to a place where I would be in the minority and where it was a highly partisan environment. I was elected to replace a gentleman--my uncle--who served in this body for 36 years. He sat alongside Mr. Dingell, whom we heard from earlier. I did not believe, though, that I was elected to a body where the majority would impose its will and use the rules to prevent a vote on the floor of the House for action that would open government--that the President supports, that the Senate has already adopted, and that Democrats and Republicans in this body have both acknowledged would pass if it were brought to a vote here on the floor of the House. We know how we can get D.C. and the whole rest of the government open again. It's simply to do what the will of this body would have us do if we were only allowed a vote. And that is to bring the Senate CR to the floor of the House. We will pass it; we will get government open again; and then we can go to conference on the rest of the budget.
