Hoyer: "This House's Most Basic Constitutional Responsibility is to Fund the Government, Not to Appease a Handful of Right-Wing Members"
WASHINGTON, DC — Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) delivered the following remarks on the House Floor today, urging Republican Leadership to stop putting partisan bills on the Floor and fund the government for the American people. Below is a transcript of his remarks and a link to the video:
Click here for a link to the video
"Americans know that it is crazy to do something you know will not have any effect. That's what's crazy. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this bill.
"As majority leader in the last Congress, I put 365 pieces of legislation on the Floor that became law. Under the Republican majority this Congress, our House has only passed 78 pieces of legislation—they have the majority—that have become law, just 78. Fewer than any of the 22 previous Congresses in which I have served. Because the speaker wastes our time on blatantly partisan legislation, including the bill before us today, that has no chance of becoming law and risks shutting down the government. Which Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, says makes no sense. He didn't say it was crazy, but I might add that.
"The Senate, including several Senate Republicans, made it clear that this bill's impact on military readiness, veterans' health care, and disaster response will make it dead on arrival. Crazy to send it as dead on arrival. Furthermore, the president has said that it would not – he would not sign it. Mr. Speaker, this House's most basic constitutional responsibility is to fund the government, not to appease a handful of right-wing members.
"We know how this situation ends. It will end the same way as the fight for supplemental aid for Ukraine and Israel. It will end the same way as the battle to raise the debt ceiling. It will end the same way as the effort to fund the government at the start of this year, and, very frankly, throughout the year. It will end this partisan appeasement failing. A period of finger-pointing will follow. Finally, after much hand-wringing and some strongly-worded tweets, the speaker will ask Democrats for our votes to pass a bipartisan alternative that avoids shutting down the government of the American people. Everyone knows how this ends because this deeply divided and dysfunctional majority hasn't accomplished anything of substance without Democratic support.
"There were compromises, compromises that Democrats agreed to so that our government could function effectively for the American people. Not because we agreed on everything that was in the bill any more than you'll agree on the Republican side [with] everything in the bill. We did it because it was the responsible thing to do. It was the right thing to do…
"Mr. Speaker, we've seen this film before… We've seen this film before. Let's just skip to the ending today. Put a CR on the Floor. I don't like CR's. We should have done our work. We should have passed 13 bills, 12 bills, sent them to the president, had him sign it. But let's skip this playing pretense that we've been involved in. Let's get to the nub of the issue. We haven't done our work, and therefore we’re [in need of] a short-term solution. Let's do it."