Mary Gay Scanlon: “I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for yielding the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may…”

“I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for yielding the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, over the past month, House Republicans have plunged this Chamber into chaos. Whether it is the extremists who refuse to honor the bipartisan budget deal negotiated with the White House and voted into law by bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress, and then sought to shut down the government with their outrageous demands, or whether it is House leadership who seem unable to prevent this destructive behavior or perhaps to leave this Chamber at all. As I and my Democratic colleagues push back against the majority's cruel, extreme, and unworkable agenda, Members on the other side of the aisle have been consumed with infighting and trying to distract from the fact that their refusal to work in a collaborative or bipartisan manner either with the Senate, Democrats, or even within their own party, has resulted in their failing to perform Congress' most basic job of funding the Federal Government. Just this past weekend, they brought us within hours of a devastating government shutdown. As the funding deadline approached, my office was fielding calls from terrified constituents; people feeling that come the end of month, their paychecks would no longer arrive and that critical government services which they rely upon would be interrupted.…”