Jon Tester: “I thank my colleague from Oregon and the Senator from Alaska. For many years my Republican colleagues have railed…”

“I thank my colleague from Oregon and the Senator from Alaska. For many years my Republican colleagues have railed against government. We find ourselves in an interesting time right now where government is shut down. We are on the verge of not expanding our debt limit, putting the full faith and credit of this country at risk. Some of the folks on the other side of the aisle ran their campaign last year about shutting down the government. They got their wish. They have steered us into an unnecessary, very costly shutdown. Yet during the shutdown we found and we have learned every day, often, underappreciated functions of the government. Beyond the headlines there are countless stories of the functioning of government which is not doing its job because of the shutdown that is hurting American families. There are a number of them in Montana. We read in the news about children with cancer. We have an NIH laboratory, Rocky Mountain Lab, in Hamilton. It is closed. It is one of eight Biosafety 4 labs in the United States. They do critical research on SARS, ebola virus, staph infections. It is not happening. Mr. President, 98 percent of the National Science Foundation is shuttered--no new scientific research grants. Four of the five Nobel- prize winning scientists are furloughed. National parks are closed, disappointing tourists and impacting struggling communities around those parks.…”