[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 214 (Tuesday, January 2, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S19326-S19327]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
A CLEAN CONTINUING RESOLUTION
Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I rise to make once again a very strong
plea for a clean continuing resolution in order to allow the Federal
employees to go back to work and for the Government to function while
the negotiations continue over a 7-year budget plan.
The shutdown of the Government ought not to be used as a coercive
tactic in order to reach a particular solution with respect to the 7-
year budget plan. Unfortunately, that is what has happened.
The employees are being used as pawns in this game, in this tragic
game. And what is happening now is that you have over 500,000 employees
who have been going into their offices and working, but who are not
being paid for the period since December 16. You have another 260,000
employees who have been furloughed. So you have a total of almost
800,000 employees not being paid for doing their jobs.
Of course, their inability to do their jobs affects citizens all
across the country. There is an impact upon the private sector and upon
millions of citizens. The NIH, which should be processing its grants to
the private researchers, is not able to do so because people are on
furlough. A number of States are slowing down the operation of their
safety and health programs and their unemployment insurance programs
because of the partial closedown in the Federal Government. You have a
number of agencies that are not providing very needed services--the
passport office, for example. A lot of people get passports for
business reasons. Others have planned trips for long periods of time.
All of a sudden, none of them can carry through on their plans often at
great expense and inconvenience.
The impact of this partial closedown on the Federal Government is
disrupting the lives of millions of people, not only the Federal
employees, but ordinary citizens who depend upon the Federal employees
to provide them with important services.
There are strong differences about the basic 7-year plan. Those
differences
[[Page S19327]]
ought to be fought out. But the employees in the Government ought not
to be taken hostage as a coercive tactic in that debate, in that sharp
difference over what the budget priorities ought to be. We have
discussed those differences at length on the floor of the Senate, and I
assume further discussions are going on, about the deep cuts in
Medicare services, and in Medicaid services versus tax breaks for
people at the top end of the economic scale. But we ought not to be
holding hostage Federal employees to that debate.
This week, people will receive paychecks that pay them for only 1
week, up until the 16th of December, when the last continuing
resolution expired. Instead of a 2-week paycheck, they are going to get
a 1-week paycheck. They will not get the second week because that was
beyond the time of the continuing resolution, although over 500,000 of
these employees were brought in to work. Although these employees were
brought in to work, over half a million of them--and another 260,000
who have been furloughed find themselves in the same situation--they
will get the 1-week paycheck, not beyond that. Then, after this week,
unless the Congress takes action, they are not going to get paid.
It is said that we are going to pass a provision which later, when we
get a budget and an appropriation, will go back and pay these people.
That is only decent and humane and just, it certainly should be done.
But what are these workers to do in the meantime? There seems to be an
assumption on the part of many Members of the Congress--maybe it
reflects their own particular financial situation--an assumption that
people somehow have money stashed away that they can simply draw down
on. So when the paycheck does not come in, it does not make any
difference in their standard of living.
That is not true for a great many people. Most people need a regular
paycheck in order to make car payments, house payments, tuition
payments--to meet their ordinary living expenses. This is particularly
true of people at the lower and middle grades, but it applies
throughout the Federal service.
What is being done to dedicated employees is an absolute outrage. It
defies all reason and all common sense. There is no way, rationally,
one can justify what is now happening and it clearly flouts common
sense.
The Washington Post, in a very strong editorial--and I ask unanimous
consent the editorial be printed in the Record.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
(See exhibit 1.)
Mr. SARBANES. The Washington Post editorial said:
Federal employees have every right to feel as if they are
the real pawns in this sorry mess. One day they are proud and
productive members of the Federal Government, protecting the
health and safety of the Nation; the next, they are handed a
slip of paper and sent home with no idea when they will be
paid. That is no way to motivate a work force, let alone
demonstrate respect for it.
Let us pass a clean continuing resolution. Let the people go back to
work. Let the Government function. And then let the debate over the
broader budget, the 7-year budget plan, continue without this coercive
effort to use the Federal employees as a pawn in that debate.
Exhibit 1
[From the Washington Post, Dec. 17, 1995]
A Shutdown's Other Costs
There is more to the stalemate of the government than the
failure of the president and the GOP to agree on a seven-year
balanced-budget plan. The furloughing of federal employees
exacts a terrible cost from a valuable work force. Nothing
can be more demoralizing to men and women who look out for
the nation's veterans, hunt for the cures to deadly diseases,
keep our air and water clean, send out the Social Security
checks and otherwise serve the nation in ways most of us
don't think about, than to be told that despite their
fidelity and contribution, they are really ``nonessential.''
That insult, being added to all the other guff federal
workers catch in the halls of Congress, on talk shows and
from television comics, comes as an undeserved kick in the
teeth from their own government.
Federal employees have every right to feel as if they are
the real pawns in this sorry mess. One day they are proud and
productive members of the federal government, protecting the
health and safety of the nation; the next they are handed a
slip of paper and sent home with no idea when they will be
paid. That is no way to motivate a work force, let alone
demonstrate respect for it.
The daily payroll cost for the furlough of employees is no
small matter--even if employees are paid retroactively for
their days out of work. But there are consequences of the
cavalier treatment of the federal work force that will be
felt long after the government is back in business.
A government that is in gridlock--worse yet, shuttered--
does little to bolster a political system already losing the
public's confidence. It downright debilitates its own work
force. As a furloughed federal economist said during the last
interruption, ``Can you imagine a Fortune 500 company
operating like this? If they had a dispute between their
board of directors and their president, and they sent
everybody home?'' And in addition to the effect on morale,
can such interruption be supposed to be a help to the work
they do?
In an open letter to federal employees, President Clinton
and Vice President Gore signaled their recognition of the
shabby treatment afforded the federal work force: ``you
remain good people caught in what Churchill called the `worst
system of government devised by the wit of man, except for
all the others,' '' they wrote. Good people--and they are--
should not be made to pay for the failures of their leaders.
Getting federal employees out of the middle and back on the
job is the way to respect them.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Wyoming.
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