text: One year ago today, House Republican leadership shut down the government in an attempt to force through their agenda to repeal healthcare reform. It cost our economy $24 billion and 120,000 jobs, halted business loans, disrupted job training for returning veterans, prevented patients from entering NIH clinical trials, and furloughed two-thirds of the staff at the Centers for Disease Control. IÛªm relieved Republican leaders did not repeat such irresponsible behavior this year, and IÛªm now working on a bipartisan project to modernize medical research, but Congress must never do this kind of direct damage to the country.