Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because I am deeply concerned that we are headed towards a government shutdown, which is on March 14th.

And it's not about whether Democrats or Republicans would win politically because we know the American people will lose.

But let me tell you why I'm deeply concerned that we are headed to a government

shut down on March 14th. I'm worried because the Speaker has not brought the 12 individual

spending bills, the way we should fund the government. In fact, the promise that was made by

my Republican colleagues on how we would fund the government.

Republicans have made the argument that the last election was about the status quo,

disappearing. It can't exist. People are fed up.

They created Doge, right? Doge, which is going through the federal government

and finding fraud, waste, and abuse,

so they say, so they claim. But if that's true, Mr. Speaker, if Elon Musk and Doge has found

all this fraud and waste and abuse, hundreds of billions of dollars, as they claim, well then, Mr.

Speaker, we can't fund the government by CR anymore because

the CR would refund all of that waste, fraud, and abuse that Doge has found, which means the

only way to fund the government is to fund it by individual spending bills. But we're running

at a time, Mr. Speaker. We have a month before the

government shuts down. We've got to get back to the process of individual spending bills.

If we don't, if we don't, then the Speaker will be the one who will have closed the government

for the American people. And so I'm concerned. I'm here to work with the Speaker on the 12 individual spending

bills. Democrats are at the table to do that. But we have to be honest. We can't tell the American

people we're for reducing fraud, waste, and abuse, we're for government efficiency.

Look at all these things we have found, and then say, but we're

...