On October 1st, 2013 Rep. Carol Shea-Porter of New Hampshire asked for and was granted permission to address the United States House of Representatives for one minute, on this the first full day of the Republican imposed government shutdown, regarding the need for the restoration of funding for government services.
“Many years ago, during the last shutdown, my husband was a Federal employee, and we were impacted. My husband used to leave the house every morning around 5:15, walk to the bus stop, like so many Federal employees, catch a bus at 5:30. And my son would have Cub Scouts maybe at 7, or some event that night, so he’d try to be home by quarter of 7. And then one day, the government shut down. And I can’t forget the sense of betrayal there. For all the hard work, for doing the people’s work, this is what happened.”
“And now this is happening again today to so many. This is just wrong on every level”, she said.
“The reason we have shut down the government is because they don’t like the law. They don’t like ObamaCare. They don’t want all the people who have no insurance to get insurance today. They don’t want people who have preexisting conditions now to be able to get health insurance. Send us a clean bill. If you really want to work this out, send us a bill, take out the ObamaCare, take out the part about birth control, take out all of your special stories there. Give us a clean bill, and we could pass it today. But, instead, they want to hold the American government hostage”, said Rep. Shea-Porter (source: Congressional Record http://thomas.loc.gov).
Rep. Shea-Porter serves as a member of the very powerful House Armed Services Committee (Subcommittees on Readiness and on Military Personnel) and the Natural Resources Committee (Subcommittees on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans & Insular Affairs and on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation).