On the recordOctober 7, 2013
I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Veasey) for his very constructive remarks. And as he said, the fact that some on the other side want to close down government and keep it closed and now potentially threaten our ability to meet our obligations on October 17 with the debt ceiling over the Affordable Care Act, something that is now the law of the land that's been passed by this Congress, signed by the President, upheld by the Supreme Court, and that's simply not going to happen, it's time for them to come to the table to negotiate without holding the Affordable Care Act as a precondition. And that is what we are here to say, to ask the Speaker to bring to the floor a clean funding bill that's supported by an overwhelming number of Democrats and Republicans, to reopen government and to allow our American workers to go back to work. I'd like to now yield to the cochair of this Special Order hour, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Jeffries), my good friend.
