Majority Statement

• Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV

  Chairman

  U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
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  Majority Statement

  Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV

  In 2008 and 2009, this country went through the worst recession since World War II.  We will probably never all agree about who or what caused it, but we know that our recovery from “the Great Recession” has been slow and painful. Five years after the crash, unemployment remains at stubbornly high levels. And while our country is finally growing again, it is growing much more slowly than we would like. Our financial experts and our business leaders are telling us this is still a “fragile recovery” – that the economy is still not fully healthy. They are saying that if we are not careful with our actions, a misstep could easily slip the economy back into a recession. 

  A small group of people in Congress have been ignoring these warnings. They have been recklessly putting our economy at risk of a relapse. Last week they wanted a repeal of the Affordable Care Act. This week they don't know what they want. But instead of coming to their senses, they are digging in. This only inflicts further pain on our businesses and families. Some people seem to think that manufacturing budget crises is good politics. I think they have been learning over the past two weeks that it’s not good politics. And I hope they also are realizing that it’s even worse public policy.          

  If you don’t trust my opinion that this shutdown is hurting our economy, let me read from a letter that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, and 250 other business groups sent to Congress on September 30, 2013. They wrote:  

  “It is not in the best interest of the employers, employees, or the American people to risk a government shutdown that will be economically disruptive and create even more uncertainties for the U.S. economy.” 

  The damage and the disruption caused by this government shutdown are real. It is hurting our families, our businesses, our government, and our standing in the world. It never should have happened. We often talk about the economy in abstract terms. But what we’re really talking about is millions of skilled and productive Americans – in both the public and private sectors – whose hard work and dedication make our country strong.

  All of us who serve on the Commerce Committee understand that economic success is based on a successful private-public partnership. Let me give you a few examples:

  • Our U.S. aviation manufacturing sector enjoys a worldwide reputation for quality and safety. How do we know their aircraft are safe and reliable? Because the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspects them, and certifies that they meet high safety standards.   

  • Why are our highway, railroad and pipeline networks among the safest in the world? Because experts from the Department of Transportation and the National Transportation Safety Board constantly monitor them and study how to make them safer.  

  • Why has the United States led the world for decades in technological innovation? Because scientists and technical experts at NASA, NSF, DOD, and other federal agencies have performed the basic research and engineering that private aerospace and technology companies need for commercial success.

  • How do we keep dangerous imported products off of store shelves and out of the hands of our children? Consumer Product Safety Commission officials monitor our ports and stop dangerous products from entering our stream of commerce.

  • Keith Colburn is going to explain to us how NOAA helps the U.S. commercial fishing industry harvest our country’s marine resources in a sustainable, responsible way. Perhaps he will also explain to us how his industry relies on the Coast Guard to prevent foreign vessels from fishing in our United States waters.

  For the past two weeks, House Republicans have blocked these government agencies from doing their important jobs. They have told most of our safety experts, scientists, and engineers, “Go home.” Without appropriations, some of the world’s most talented professionals are prohibited, by law, from contributing to our country’s economic success. One of the people sitting home this week on furlough, without a salary, is a NIST employee named Dr. David Wineland. Dr. Wineland received the Nobel Prize in 2012 for his work on atomic physics. The small handful of Members of Congress who engineered the government shutdown don’t seem to value Dr. Wineland’s work as much as world’s leading scientists do.         

  I regret that I had to call this hearing today. This shutdown is doing great harm to our country, and it was totally avoidable. All we needed was a House of Representatives willing to accept reality and the clean CR bill the Senate has sent them. I appreciate the participation of the witnesses who are here today and look forward to hearing their testimony. 

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Minority Statement

• Senator John R Thune

  Ranking Member

  U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
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  Minority Statement

  Senator John R Thune

  Mr. Chairman, we find ourselves in the midst of an avoidable partial government shutdown that no one wants, but somehow we’ve been unable – or unwilling – to end.  Let’s hope that changes quickly.    

  This lapse in government funding has been felt across the country, including by many South Dakotans.  The immediate and longer-term impacts of this shutdown cannot be ignored.  But, we also must not ignore the problems that precipitated the current crisis.

  One of the main reasons we find ourselves in this predicament is the Senate’s failure to do its job, year after year, to pass appropriations bills.  As we all know, Congress is supposed to pass annual appropriations bills.  We are expected to pass 12 of these targeted funding bills each year by October 1st.  Yet, so far this year, the Senate has passed zero.  Not one.  We need to get back to the normal funding process, so that we’re not ever faced with a shutdown. 

  For far too long we’ve been operating under these short-term, crisis-to-crisis, spending bills that lump everything together.  This imposes burdens—in terms of planning and proper budgeting—on the programs and agencies we’re funding.  And, it cheats Congress—and the American taxpayers—out of the kind of oversight and debate that should be occurring as part of the appropriations process in order to be fiscally responsible with the taxpayers’ money and improve our country’s long-term fiscal health. 

  In the current stalemate, there is no shortage of finger pointing.  But it is important to note that, aside from passing four measures to keep all federal agencies funded, our colleagues in the House of Representatives have passed over a dozen targeted bills to get important sectors of our government back up and running.  These bills have included funding for National Guard and Reserve pay, nutrition assistance for low-income families, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and veterans’ services.  Of particular note for this hearing, the measures adopted by the House would also: open all of our national parks and museums; provide funding for the National Institute of Health, including ongoing cancer research; fund the Food and Drug Administration; and ensure immediate funding for the Federal Aviation Administration.

  So, Mr. Chairman, as we reflect on the impacts of this funding impasse, we should acknowledge that there are viable options to end the partial shutdown, or mitigate its negative consequences.  I know some of our colleagues have rejected the idea of dealing with discrete impacts of the shutdown, but our collaboration on behalf of our men and women in uniform and their families suggests that some efforts to minimize the impacts of the shutdown are worthy of consideration.

  In addition to the important issue of the partial shutdown, we are now also faced with the request from the administration to raise the debt ceiling.  It seems increasingly likely that these two issues, in the short-term and long-term, will be dealt with together.  Unfortunately, the president, and some of our colleagues here in the Senate, have previously insisted that they will not negotiate.  Hopefully this week’s meetings at the White House reflect a willingness to reconsider that shortsighted strategy. 

  It seems to me that raising the debt ceiling without taking reasonable steps to address our growing debt—which is rapidly approaching $17 trillion—is simply irresponsible.  So I hope our colleagues from both sides of the aisle will come together to find the common ground here and address these issues.  If we don’t, we’ll be burdening our children and grandchildren with unsustainable debts that will diminish their chance to participate fully in the American Dream.

  Mr. Chairman, let’s hope that this is the last hearing held on this issue, and that – in the very near future – we are talking about long-term solutions to our fiscal problems, rather than the consequences of our failure to act.

  With that, I want to thank our witnesses for their willingness to appear today and share their views on the impacts of the current shutdown. 

Testimony

• The Honorable Deborah A.P. Hersman

  Chairman

  National Transportation Safety Board
  Download Testimony (113.50 KB)

• The Honorable Marion C. Blakey President & Chief Executive Officer

  Aerospace Industries Association
  Download Testimony (110.40 KB)

• Dr. Alan I. Leshner

  Chief Executive Officer, American Association for the Advancement of Science

  Executive Publisher, Science
  Download Testimony (150.95 KB)

• Captain Keith Colburn

  Alaska fisherman

  Owner and Operator, F/V Wizard
  Download Testimony (58.44 KB)

• Ms. Rachel Weintraub

  Legislative Director and Senior Counsel

  Consumer Federation of America
  Download Testimony (129.19 KB)