Jeff Bingaman: “let me speak about one other issue that I am quite concerned about, and that is the implication of what is going on now…”

“let me speak about one other issue that I am quite concerned about, and that is the implication of what is going on now for the work of this Congress in the second session and in future sessions. There has been a lot of talk about hostage-taking. There was a very good editorial that has been referred to in the Washington Post yesterday about how the current shutdown is an example of hostage-taking. Yet, the editorial stated, I thought, very eloquently: Hostage-taking is an ugly business. It doesn't matter what the cause. Innocent people are seized and used as pawns; they become political trading stamps whose welfare is exchanged for things the hostage-taker could not win by normal means. Obviously, the most dramatic example of hostage-taking in recent history in this country was the hostage-taking in Iran in November 1979. It could be debated whether the current Government shutdown rises to the level of a hostage-taking. Perhaps this is just a using of public servants, Federal employees, as pawns in a larger political game, and I will leave to others the debate about whether this is, in fact, a hostage-taking. But, Mr. President, in my view, when each of us took our oath of office, and that oath included the duty to protect and defend the Constitution, implied in that was the responsibility to maintain a functioning Government.…”