U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz., spoke on the House floor today to denounce the daily trickle of dead-end, piecemeal votes – which are designed to create fodder for the 2014 campaign attack cycle — instead of holding a single vote on a clean funding bill to reopen the government.
Click here to watch Kirkpatrick’s 1-minute floor speech. (Transcript further below)
TRANSCRIPT of floor speech:
Mr. Speaker, The good people in my Arizona district are disgusted with this Congress. They see Washington treating this shutdown as a political game.
News reports now confirm there are enough votes in the House — Democrat and Republican — to pass a clean funding bill and reopen the government right now.
Yet the House GOP keeps bringing up piecemeal bills that are going nowhere — designed only to create campaign attack fodder.
This week, the House majority cynically used piecemeal votes on veterans and national parks.
My district has the Grand Canyon and many national parks, and as a member of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, I am disgusted with these dead-end piecemeal games.
And you know who else is disgusted? Veterans.
Yesterday, the commander in chief of the VFW said, “We expect more from our elected leadership, and not a piecemeal approach that would use the military or disabled veterans as leverage in a political game.”
Mr. Speaker, the House must act now to stop the piecemeal games and restart our government.
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About Ann Kirkpatrick
Arizona born and raised, Ann Kirkpatrick resides in Flagstaff, and her earliest roots are found in Eastern Arizona in McNary on the White Mountain Apache Nation. Her father ran a general store and her mother was a schoolteacher. Ann graduated from Blue Ridge High School in the White Mountains and then worked her way through the University of Arizona, earning a bachelor’s degree and then a law degree there. After earning her law degree, Ann served the people of Greater Arizona in a variety of positions. In 1980, she became Coconino County’s first female Deputy County Attorney, cracking down on criminals and protecting neighborhoods and families in Northern Arizona. She later served as Sedona’s City Attorney. In November 2004, Ann’s neighbors elected her to the Arizona House of Representatives to represent Legislative District 2, which includes Flagstaff and the Havasupai, Hopi, Hualapai, Navajo, and San Juan Southern Paiute Nations. At the state Capitol, Ann championed fiscal responsibility and quality education. During her 2008-10 term in the U.S. House of Representatives, Ann’s results stood out in Congress, seeing more of her bills and amendments signed into law than almost any other freshman representative. Ann’s hard work created jobs, helped small businesses, hired more border patrol agents, and protected veterans and seniors in Greater Arizona. In November 2012, the voters of Congressional District 1 elected Kirkpatrick to once again represent them in Congress. She serves on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.