Press Release

I hope the Speaker can come forward and say, we're ready to move forward and keep the government open and we can move on. The fact of the matter is it's been self-evident for some period of time now that this issue was not over dollars. We made substantial cuts in spending. We know we need to make cuts. We need to effect efficiencies and bring this deficit under control. The fact is this has not been about dollars. It's about social policy. It's been about, in particular, as you pointed out, women's health issues.

We have a history, a pattern of the Republicans taking control and shutting down the government as they did in 1995. It hasn't happened since then, even when we had disagreements when George Bush and the Democratic Congress. It’s not an alternative we ought to be taking. I think we're very close. [Democrats] have come 70% of the way in terms of dollars. That’s a long way to go in terms of trying to reach compromise. Now as the President and Harry Reid pointed out, there are social issues which the Republicans are holding hostage the government.

 We tried to have a unanimous consent for resolution that would in fact have kept the government open without question. The President would have signed it and the Senate would have passed it. It was what we usually do. That is a bridge to allow you to cross over and not fall into the river until you get an agreement. Unfortunately, it was not passed. And what we did pass is a resolution that the President said he would veto. Not on numbers, not on cutting spending, not on keeping troops in place, but social policy being adopted unrelated to numbers, which the President clearly indicated he was not for. I frankly think what we’re doing is playing chicken. We're driving down the road. We agreed to 70% of the cuts proposed. 70% of the cuts they proposed. And the other side says--the founder of the [Tea Party Patriots] said today that if John Boehner brought in $99 billion, he said that wouldn't be enough.

 …there is not a group that I’ve talked to, no matter how liberal, how conservative, whether it's a Democratic group, a non-partisan group, anywhere in this country and I’ve talked to a number of the heads of major corporations and I’ve talked to a lot of heads of small corporations… and all of them are appreciative of the fact that we have focused the Congress of the United States, the Administration and America on the importance of making things in America.

Republicans have announced that they are bringing to the House Floor a divisive and partisan spending bill, which will not pass the Senate. Their refusal to make tough choices moves us closer to a government shutdown, which will severely threaten our economic recovery. Instead of partisan maneuvering, we should be working to quickly find a compromise on a long-term spending bill that tackles our deficit. If that work needs a few more days, then we should pass a simple, bipartisan bill to keep the government open for the American people. Democrats are presenting such a bill as our alternative to the Republicans’ partisan patch. It is time for members of both parties who understand that ‘my way or the highway’ doesn’t work in a democracy to compromise and prevent a government shutdown.

Today’s development on issues of worker rights and violence against workers is a positive and important step towards passage of the Colombia FTA. These issues needed to be addressed, and I am pleased the Administration and Colombian government have agreed to a concrete action plan. Colombia is a key ally in South America, and it is in our economic and national security interests to further strengthen that relationship. I look forward to working with the Administration to advance the Colombia FTA, which I continue to support. As we work to enact the three pending trade agreements, we must also extend expired provisions of the Trade Adjustment Assistance program that help American workers who have lost their jobs as a result of trade.

There's so many Republicans taking the position that you either take what we passed, we'll not compromise, or we're going to shut down the government. That won't work. I think we're close and I think frankly if Mr. Boehner would put on the Floor a bill, which goes almost three quarters of the way toward where he wanted to go, three quarters of the way to where they wanted to go between their zero and 100, I think we could pass it.