I am frustrated with inaction by the House and the Senate. All of them have not collectively represented the needs and welfare of our country.

The now infamous Citizens United ruling gave corporations a Constitutional right to influence elections through unlimited spending. This spending has a major impact on who gets elected and how public policy is crafted. There is a movement to reverse the effects of this Supreme Court ruling and regain control of our government. Several US Representatives have proposed resolutions to amend the US Constitution and establish that money is not speech and corporations do not have the Constitutional rights granted to people. Rep Nancy Pelosi speaks often about the need to do something about this problem, however she has not signed on to any of the existing legislation, nor has she written her own resolution to remedy this issue.

Last night, on the NBC Nightly News, Congressman Huelskamp said the government shutdown would not have a big affect on people. In actuality, some families will now struggle to feed their children, pay the bills and the rent. If the congressman thinks it's no big deal, how hard is he working to get the government up and running again? Tell Congressman Huelskamp the shutdown IS a big deal and he needs to realize that.

Shutdown leader Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is exercising more control over the House Republican caucus (and thus the agenda of the entire House of Representatives) than Speaker of the House John Boehner. Speaker Boehner needs to take back his gavel, take some control, and stop letting some Tea Party Senator use the House to hold America hostage to his extremist demands.

With the clock ticking down to the important state elections in November, Virginia is attempting to eliminate voters from the rolls who are also registered in other states -- ostensibly to stop "fraud." But Virginia city and county voter registrars have already noted a high error rate in the lists of voters identified by the state board of elections as registered to vote in other states. The purge could disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters and get them removed from the voter roles *without any warning to them whatsoever.*

Texas students deserve better than to have their education undermined by the insertion of religious creationism in biology textbooks to undermine the teaching of evolution. Because it's such a large market, Texas's standard could also impact textbooks sold to schools nationally.

This is a matter of grave concern. House Republicans are willing to risk delaying new Social Security benefits and student loans, military pay and other government services – all in the name of re-fighting a battle they lost three years ago.

During a time when Duke is continuing to charge it's customers for nuclear plants that are either closed, or not going to happen, I strongly feel that some of that money could be deferred to the Sunsense Progam so it can run continuously. If each house had it's own little power station, it would only benefit Duke and our out dated and over used grid. I'm tired of being thrown into a pit, waiting for the bell to ring, then competing for the little bit of funds that Duke put into the program. It should be an ongoing program and be treated a little more civilized.

Why is the Congress not affected like the 800,000 Americans that have been furloughed and left with no pay?

Getting House members to work together should be the main job of the House Speaker. The Speaker should not be controlled by a minority of Representatives, as is currently the case. This is all the more urgent since the Speaker is second in line for becoming President! Currently, members of the minority party in the U.S. House of Representatives (Democrats) are under pressure by their own party to vote strictly on party-lines. Yet this means that the members of the minority party essentially throw away their votes and miss a strategic opportunity to elect a more bipartisan Speaker. This is actually possible. It takes only seventeen Republicans, plus all Democrats, to have a majority of the House. If this effort even gets close to working, it will have a lasting effect. As citizens and voters, we insist that our representatives make Congress more bipartisan. Democrats and many Republicans understand that an extremist, no-compromise approach to governance is bad for America and Americans. We want Democrats, as the minority party, and moderate Republicans to work together to elect a moderate, collaborative member of the majority party as Speaker of the House. We need an immediate, limited solution to shutdown and default crisis. However, this petition's call to action is a doable and more permanent way to prevent crises like this one from recurring--by making it difficult for a small radical minority to hold our government and economy hostage. (For more background, see this Washington Post story: http://wapo.st/18OPP6f)

My petition is to prevent government shutdowns and permit timely funding of the government so that agencies and department may plan for the provision of their services in an efficient manner.

I have watched some powerful persons in Washington inflict pain on our general population while being untouched by their actions, i.e., while having wonderful health care themselves, they want to eradicate health care for the poor; while able to afford food for their families, they cut food assistance to the needy. Enough! Time for them to see how their actions affect others.