Mr. President, I rise today to add my voice to those who’ve spoken on this chamber floor this afternoon, to express frustration and concern about where we are as our federal government seems to be moving inexorably towards a shutdown this evening. As I have worked hard with my staff here in Washington and at home to help them prepare for and explain to the people who I represent what’s going on here and why, I have struggled. I have genuinely struggled to understand why this impasse is leading, I think now inevitably, towards a government shutdown.
I still remain hopeful that we will be able to find some resolution in these last few hours, but I think it’s critical that the people of the United States understand the consequences of a government shutdown, that this isn’t just about sending home federal employees. This is going to have a significant impact on our economy, on our recovery, on working families all over this country, and I think on our reputation around the world. At a time when many of us are standing up and saying the United States, our system of Democratic capitalism, is a model that other nations should follow, our inability as a body, the House and Senate working together to reach a responsible consensus on what we all agree is one of our top priorities, is profoundly frustrating to me.
I was elected by the people of Delaware and sent here to deal with three things: to try and get our private sector going again creating high quality good jobs for the people of Delaware and our country, to deal with our significant deficit and our dramatic national debt and the very real challenge to our future posed by that, and to try and do it in a responsible and balanced and bipartisan way. And in my view, at this point, in this budget fight, from everything I have been able to hear from the press and from the leadership of my party here in this body, it has stopped being about cutting the deficit and has instead turned into a fight about ideology. If I understand correctly, as of last night at the end of the negotiations, they moved from having sixty riders, so called, on the bill that would fund the federal government for the rest of the year, being down to just one or two.
Now I thought one of the good things that came out of the 2010 election was a broad based focus, particularly by some in the Tea Party, but lots of folks in our country who were upset by with Washington works, a broad based focus to stop having bills that were loaded up with lots of riders and lots of extraneous things, and to try and have common sense legislation that is easy to understand and that does what it is meant to do. Well this as I understand it is no longer about the deficit and about the budget. We are not being asked to consider whether or not we should cut 70 billion or 72 billion or 78 billion.
We are instead being asked to agree to defunding Title X. Title X, a program that goes back to 1970, Mr. President, was enacted into law and signed into law by President Nixon and provides a remarkable range of health services to women all across this country. I
n my state of Delaware, there are 26 community health centers that are funded by Title X. Just five of them are affiliated in some way with Planned Parenthood, and I just wanted to come to the floor and take a moment and focus on what Title X funds: preventative health services, contraceptive services, pregnancy testing, but also screening for cervical and breast cancer, screening for blood pressure, anemia, diabetes, basic infertility services, health education and referrals out to social services. I know and have visited several of these community health centers in my state. They provide tremendous services to folks who otherwise have no access to high quality, modern health care. And if I really understand correctly that what’s happened in this body is that we have come down to being willing to shut down the entire federal government over this one issue of ideology, I am embarrassed and ashamed on some level that we can’t get this resolved.
As I understand it, the folks who came to Washington seeking aggressive deficit reductions and spending cuts in this fiscal year have achieved virtually all of their objectives. I think the initial goal was 100 billion. And my understanding, as you heard as well Mr. President today in our caucus lunch, was we have agreed to up to $78 billion in spending cuts in this fiscal year, across the board from lots of different sources, from domestic, discretionary as well as other programs that can be cut in this year.
And that is a hard concession for folks who support government action in our community and our society to accept. But I think one of our challenges is for the folks who may be on the other side of this debate to hear yes, to accept that we have come almost 80 percent of the way to meeting their initial goal and to instead recognize that I think this has long since turned into a fight over ideology over the narrow issue of women’s health.
Let me give you one last example if I can of what this really means in my hometown. My Senate office in Delaware and I have been working hard for several months to follow on the example of my predecessor in this seat, Sen. Ted Kaufman of Delaware, and host a job fair. Monday from nine to four, at the single biggest public space in Delaware, the Riverfront Arts Center, we are going to host a job fair, and we have got more than 50 employers lined up and ready to interview people. We expect more than 1,000 out of work Delawareans to show up resumes in hand ready to be interviewed, hopefully and to be hired.
But if I understand the rules right, if the federal government shuts down tonight, my staff can’t carry out this job fair on Monday. Job one for me, and I think job one for all of is in this chamber, is helping our private sector, helping small businesses, helping our communities connect good jobs with the folks who are out of work and seeking employment. Fortunately in our case, we have scrambled and worked hard in the last few days, the Governor of Delaware, our Department of Labor, the Delaware Economic Office, other volunteers have stepped up, and they are going to work hard to make sure this job fair comes off Monday just fine without interruption.
We need to be focused on reigning in the deficit and the debt, dealing with our long term budget, and getting folks back to work.
It is my hope Mr. President, in conclusion, that as a body, that we can come together in a common sense way, if we need to have a vote on the floor, if we need to have a fight about access to health care for women and Title X, let’s have that debate. But this should be a discussion today about the deficit and about funding the operation of the federal government for the year ahead. I look forward and hope we can turn back to that very real work and not instead have a fight about ideology and access to women’s health care.
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