Nita Lowey: “yesterday I visited with some high school students in Ryenek high school and we were talking about the Endangered…”

“yesterday I visited with some high school students in Ryenek high school and we were talking about the Endangered Species Act. They wanted to know what the Congress was doing. They wanted to know how the debate was proceeding. I also visited with students in another school to talk about education and what the Federal Government was doing or could do. It is hard for me to believe, Mr. Speaker, that it is almost 5 minutes to 1 in the afternoon. We are not working on the Clean Water Act or education, the Endangered Species Act or Head Start. We are here on the House floor because the Republican leadership cannot get their act together, and we are debating whether we should shut the Government down or not, whether we should allow a default of the Federal Government. Mr. Speaker, a default of the Federal Government should be unheard of. It should not even be discussed, to even put in question the credit of the United States, to even think that we would talk about adjourning to just before the brink of March 1 when the Government could default. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the effort to be bipartisan, and I do so hope we could. Look, I think it is a fair debate to talk about the programs, to talk about what is efficient, what is not. That is what Al Gore's reinventing government was all about. In fact, the Government is 200,000 positions smaller because of President Clinton and Al Gore's reinventing government program.”