Government Shutdown: Why a Short-Term Solution Doesn’t Suffice

Washington -- U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05) urged his colleagues on the House floor to see the looming government shutdown as a wake-up call to stop "barely governing" and start working towards long-term "responsible governing."

Below is a video and transcript of the speech.

Mr. Speaker,

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has described the Republican House and Senate as a "responsible, right-of-center, governing majority."

But how responsible is it that we're about to start a new fiscal year with no plan for how to fund our government?

We are hours away from a shutdown, and Congress hasn't even started budget negotiations.

Instead of doing the job the American people sent us here to do, we're celebrating that maybe, we've found a way to keep the government open for two months.

Two months? That's what we consider a bipartisan victory these days?

We may prevent a shutdown today, but let's be clear: doing the bare minimum to keep the government from closing is not responsible governing.

It's hardly governing at all.

The American people sent us here to take on the big issues and get things done.

They want us to fight for infrastructure, for education, for jobs, not just to keep the lights on!

We're letting partisan games get in the way of governing and it's not only hurting our government, it's hurting our constituents.

Unreliable, unpredictable short-term funding prevents the government from operating effectively and efficiently.

And its costs taxpayers money.

With short term funding, we're ignoring changes in our policy priorities and restricting agencies from shifting dollars around to meet emerging challenges.

Defense officials recently warned that forcing the Pentagon to operate on a short-term CR would hurt our national security by restricting our ability to respond to new threats.

Moreover, a CR severely limits the government's ability to plan ahead or start new projects.

That's because there is no guarantee the money will be there in two months.

And how do agencies manage this uncertainty?

By freezing hiring and training, shortening terms for grants and contracts, forgoing maintenance, and delaying scheduled pay raises.

In addition, agencies have to waste countless resources preparing for contingency plans for shutdowns that may or may not happen.

Republicans like to talk about running government more like a business.

Is this how they would run a business?

What successful business budgets two months at a time?

What we need, and what Democrats have been demanding, is for Republicans to sit down with us and craft a long-term bipartisan budget.

So we can finally get rid of the harmful, across the board spending cuts of sequestration.

So we can reprioritize and restore funding in areas like education, R&D, infrastructure and national security in a fiscally responsible way.

So we can plan for the future.

And the best way to do that is to return to regular order.

That means offering pro-growth budget resolutions that address our long-term fiscal challenges in a responsible way.

No partisan austerity plans that keep the indiscriminate and harmful sequester in place.

It also means bringing appropriations bills to the floor free of ideological policy riders.

There is a time and place to debate controversial issues, but that's why we have authorizing committees.

I'm confident that as long as we can put partisan politics aside and ignore obstructionist demands, we can get back to passing budgets under regular order.

Not a partisan budget that fails to address the sequester.

Not a CR that keeps agencies from planning more than two months out.

And definitely not the threat of another shutdown.

My hope is that with new Republican leadership will come a renewed effort to bring back long-term budgeting under regular order.

That is the kind of responsible governing that the American people expect of us.

That is the kind of responsible governing that the American people deserve.

Thank you, and I yield back.