[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 2 (Thursday, January 4, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H122]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 LEGISLATION PROHIBITING OVERSEAS TRAVEL BY MEMBERS DURING GOVERNMENT 
                                SHUTDOWN

  (Mr. BARRETT of Wisconsin asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. BARRETT of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, last week I noticed a 
newspaper account that said that notwithstanding the fact that there 
are over 700,000 Federal employees who are not being paid, there are 
still 50 Members of Congress, nearly 50 Members of Congress, who were 
scheduled to go on foreign trips during this shutdown.
  Mr. Speaker, that is a slap in the face to the hard working Federal 
employees who want to be working and who should be paid. This is not 
the time for Members of Congress to be traveling overseas. And today 
the Speaker has scheduled a piece of legislation that allows us to be 
in recess for up to 3 weeks. That is wrong, too.
  I have introduced legislation that would prohibit Members of Congress 
from traveling overseas during times of Government furloughs. It is 
wrong, and the Members of Congress should stay here and we should not 
recess ourselves. We should stay here, get these people back to work. 
They want to work. They should be working. It is simply wrong to do 
what this Government has done.

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