[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 204 (Tuesday, December 19, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H15169-H15170]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 PUTTING A FACE ON GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Maryland [Mrs. Morella] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. MORELLA. Mr. Speaker, yesterday this House, by a resounding vote 
of 351 to 40, voted for a resolution for a balanced budget in 7 years 
using CBO numbers. The President has indicated that he is in favor of 
it; certainly the leadership in Congress is in favor of it. Let us get 
on with it. Let us get on with it.
  What is happening with this Government shutdown, Mr. Speaker, is that 
we have Federal employees and those who have Federal contracts and 
those in the community that really are victims of the fact that 
Congress and the administration have not come to grips with balancing 
this budget.
  I want to put a face on this Federal shutdown. This is shutdown No. 
2. This is shutdown No. 2 that has said to 260,000 Federal employees 
and their families, we do not need you; there is no work for you now. 
This is the third day of Hannukah. In 6 days it will be Christmas, and 
yet we have these people and their families who have been told they are 
nonemergency. I do not even use that term, ``nonessential,'' because 
everybody is essential who works for the Federal Government. But 
nonessential, or nonemergency is probably the term to use.
  I have heard from a woman who was deemed emergency and who made 
prearranged plans to take time off, time that she had accrued for the 
holidays, but she has been told that because she is emergency, she 
cannot take that prearranged time off; she must report to work. If she 
takes that vacation time, her agency told her that under the rules, she 
would be fired.
  I had another extraordinary situation which we are trying to work 
out, and that is again somebody who had claimed time off for a 
honeymoon that was told, you are essential and we do not believe that 
you can take the time off for a honeymoon, even though it was planned 
months and months in advance.

                              {time}  1845

  I have a person at the National Institutes of Health, and this is 
pretty typical, a pharmacist, a pharmacist who had been deemed 
emergency because people across the country depend on 

[[Page H15170]]
the prescriptions that he fills. Although he is at work filling these 
prescriptions, he cannot send them out. Why? Because the mail room is 
closed.
  During the last shutdown, he sent them out with his own money, but he 
does not know whether he can afford it this time. Can you imagine that?
  I have some neighbors down the street from me in Montgomery County, 
MD, and I noticed their cars were parked in their driveway this morning 
at 7:15 in the morning. Ordinarily they are gone at about 6:45 or 
certainly by 7. Why were they there? Because one works for Health and 
Human Services and the other one works for the Department of Commerce. 
They have 4 children, 2 are in college, and I am sure they are looking 
for gifts for Hanukkah and Christmas but I am not sure that they are 
going to be able to feel that they can transcend that anxiety and the 
angst of not having work.
  I just think that we must look at the human factor of this shutdown 
and those people who are being unfairly victimized and held hostage for 
it. It should let us know that we have got to lead, very soon, like 
within the next few moments say that we can come together as we are 
supposed to.

  But I also want you to know that there are others who are affected 
adversely by this shutdown, too. The local economy, hotels and 
restaurants, Federal contracts, certainly I can use as an example the 
National Institutes of Health grants, research that has been slowed 
down.
  There is an article in the paper today that come out, too. It said 
that the National Institutes of Health, this is the time of year 
officials normally would be deciding how to hand out more than $2 
billion in research grants. ``They have gone through peer review, have 
been found to be excellent science and we're about ready to fund 
them.''
  This is research. This is important research. However, we cannot do 
it. We cannot do it because we do not know what is going to happen with 
the budget, and we have been told that we must shut down that facet of 
government.
  So there are thousands of Federal workers in Maryland who are on 
furlough--this comes from the newspaper story--for the second time in 2 
months, feeling the most immediate impact of the inability of President 
Clinton and Congress to agree on a budget.
  But there is also a trickle-down effect, and I would like to point 
that out, albeit briefly, the trickle-down effect to the local economy. 
I have a letter from a suburban Maryland high technology council 
talking about those people who are on Federal contracts, who will not 
be reimbursed.
  I say, Mr. Speaker, to this distinguished body, let our people go 
back to work. Let us balance this budget.

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