On the recordOctober 2, 2023
Mr. Speaker, we are going to pick up where we left off over the weekend, sort of the high school drama about governing the House of Representatives. We have some people who are playing with fire. We have watched them work to the brink. It happened earlier in the spring where we were dealing with the debt ceiling, and we are back at it now, dealing with what we are going to do in terms of funding the government going forward. We know where this ends. There will be an agreement in November or December or January that largely follows the outline of what we all agreed to do in the spring. Democrats, Republicans, and President Biden had an agreement that set the top-line numbers to be able to move forward with the budget. Ultimately, I think the governing wing of the Republican Party will come around and work with a unified Democratic Caucus to be able to fulfill the commitment that we made in the spring. Whether or not Kevin McCarthy is Speaker or not is largely irrelevant in terms of this larger issue. The governing wing of both parties will come together and, I think, will do what is right for the American people based on what we agreed to do months ago. In the meantime, we actually have work to do. There are issues that need our attention. In The New York Times 2 days ago: ``It's Only a Matter of Time Before More Dams Fail.'' We watched two dams in Libya collapse, killing more than 11,000 people. This should be a wake-up call for those of us in the United States.…





