On the recordJanuary 17, 2019
I thank the chairwoman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, we are opening the government. Democrats have voted every day for the last 2 weeks to 3 weeks on opening the government. I ask a simple question: To those who are out working today, what would they think of working a full day's work with no pay? My good friend and colleague wants to put this in percentages, just a small amount of folks who are out and are being devastated. But if you ask any American as they get up and go to work and they work that full, hard day and they get no pay, I think they understand this is an enormous crisis--the longest shutdown on policy, ever. Senator McConnell has not put one single bill on the floor of the House to open the government. So it is not partisanship; it is not rancor. It is not tension; it is people who understand what it means to not get a paycheck if you are in the Coast Guard in a faraway place, if you are an air traffic controller, if you are Secret Service. And thank you to the Speaker, who realized the enormity of security for the State of the Union or any other large event, which many people know might be coming in February. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Appropriations Committee and the chairwoman from New York for being able to recognize that our job is to open the government, but we have no partners, and we didn't shut it down. Now, my friend talks about border security. I am on Homeland Security. I have been to the border more times than I can imagine.…
