WASHINGTON, DC - House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (MD) spoke on the Floor today in support of a resolution stating that government shutdowns are detrimental to our nation and should not happen. Below is a link to the video and excerpts of his remarks:     “This resolution is so simple. Shutdown is stupid. That's all it says.”

“This resolution… is one I believe nearly every Member of this House ought to support, unless you support shutting down the government of the United States of America. It says shutdown should never be a strategy in negotiations over funding. Period, full stop. We just endured 35 days of a dangerous and unnecessary partial government shutdown that caused 800,000 American workers to be denied their paychecks and that the CBO says… $11 billion was the cost. Those are the direct costs.”

“Our resolution makes it clear that such a use of shutdowns, or the threat of shutdowns, ought not to be tolerated in our political system… There's no reason why Americans should have to live under the threat of being taken hostage yet again the next time there's an unresolved debate over an issue – whatever the issue might be. Even many Republican leaders agree that using shutdown is wrong…”

“Sadly, I think a lot of you are going to vote no. I suppose on the theory that you think no, if we don't get our way, shutting down the government is our option… This resolution says let's not allow that to happen again. We now have three weeks to avert the next shutdown. I'm hopeful that the [conference committee] will present us with a bipartisan agreement on how best to invest in border security. We all need to do our job. I call on my colleagues to join us on this resolution to make it clear to our federal employees, to our contractors, the American people, and yes, to the rest of the world that we don't believe shutting down the government of the United States of America is an option in negotiations.”