Sheila Jackson Lee: “I just got off the telephone with one of my chief law enforcement officers in Houston, Texas, in Harris County, who just…”

“I just got off the telephone with one of my chief law enforcement officers in Houston, Texas, in Harris County, who just simply begged us not to shut down the government. As everyone knows, I was on the floor just an hour or so ago saying, breaking news, I am against a government shutdown. We will fight against the government shutdown. My good friend on the other side of the aisle is complaining that the Senate did their work with such an amazing, overwhelming majority. Let me tell you how we can solve that before I get into discussion of why we are standing here today. Put the Senate bill on the floor. That is the rules that are the operational underpinnings of the House and Senate. They send it over, and we put it on the floor. If you don't like it, you change it and send it back. That way, you are engaged in stopping the shutdown. However, if we sit here tonight and do nothing, the government shutdown, in particular, is going to impact the gross domestic product from 2 to 6 percentage points or $2- to $6 billion in lost output. That is people without jobs, resulting in the creation of 120,000 fewer private-sector jobs. In addition, things like Medicare and Medicaid are going to be in jeopardy. Our economic security will be in jeopardy. Education and training will be in jeopardy, infrastructure dollars; and, particularly, my seniors and others in need of Social Security checks are just going to be out in the cold.…”