On the recordOctober 8, 2013
I thank the chairman of the Rules Committee. Mr. Speaker, I rise to support this rule and the underlying legislation. We've heard from our colleagues on the other side of the aisle they only need us to take up one bill. Well, what about all those bills we've sent over to the Senate, including four appropriations bills that the Senate won't take up to vote on? It seems to me that they ought to be doing that if they want to show some good faith effort. Today, as we have every day since October 1, the House of Representatives is taking yet another bipartisan step forward to resolve our differences with the United States Senate and reopen the Federal Government for the American people. Even prior to October 1, House Republicans took numerous reasonable steps toward compromise. We voted four times on separate proposals to fund the entire government. With each vote, we sought to lay the groundwork for bipartisan compromise. Our final two full-funding proposals simply addressed the fundamental unfairness in ObamaCare, the fact that American families won't get the same year to prepare for ObamaCare that the President decided to give to businesses and the fact that Members of Congress will get a subsidy to pay ObamaCare premiums that the rest of America will not. Every vote from the House of Representatives has had at least some Democrat support. Not one Senate vote has been bipartisan. While we've moved to the middle, Senate Democrats still refuse to budge.…
