Jeff Fortenberry: “There is a twofold goal being sought by many of us right now, and it is this: to keep the government fully open and to…”

“There is a twofold goal being sought by many of us right now, and it is this: to keep the government fully open and to secure our border. No one wins in a government shutdown. No one wins if the border is not safe. We ought to be able to rise above the momentary difficulty, whether it is a negotiation between the Senate and the House, the President and the House, the President and the Senate, and get to those mutually compatible goals of fully funding an operational government, as well as ensuring that Americans are safe and that we have the right type of assistance to our border personnel, the right type of barriers, the right type of technology, the right type of preventative measures to protect us all, and create the conditions in which America can have a truly just and humanitarian response to those in need. That is what is at issue this moment. With that said, Madam Speaker, though, I think it is important that, as we are at the beginning of a new Congress, as we were all sworn in last week, as this Chamber was filled with Members' children and Members' families coming from such extraordinarily diverse backgrounds, it was a celebratory atmosphere. It always tends to be that way, and then we get into the hard, hard work of governing. As President Kennedy once said, to govern is to choose wisely, and in a society divided by deep cultural and philosophical difficulties, that actually manifests itself here in the people's House.…”