[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 2 (Thursday, January 4, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H133]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1515
                       THIS IS ABOUT REAL PEOPLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Metcalf). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from North Carolina [Mrs. Clayton] is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, I agree with the last speaker, this is a 
great debate, this is a debate about who is important, who is not. It 
is a debate, I think, about the future, it is about the future we will 
allow all Americans to share in, hopefully. But I want to share with my 
colleagues a letter I received today from a mother of a 10-year-old 
girl. This letter is about a young girl that lives in Wilmington, my 
congressional district, with her mother and father. Her mother and 
father are musicians who have served as ambassadors for the U.S. 
Information Agency. On December 20 this little girl, 10 years old, 
traveled to Germany to visit her ailing stepmother, a stepmother who 
has cancer and is in treatment taking chemotherapy, but this is not 
where the story ends; it is really where it begins.
  Let me read her mother's letter. It is self-explanatory. She writes: 
I hope you can help. We have a 10-year-old stranded in Germany who is 
supposed to return home by January 8 and whose passport expired January 
2. This mother continued: She is flying Delta from Frankfort to 
Atlanta, and the Delta Airline international desk has told me that they 
will not let her board. This concerned mother goes on: The Hamburg 
consulate has told her father that they cannot issue a new passport due 
to the shutdown. Then she asks, could you please ask them to make an 
exception? She is an unaccompanied minor. Mr. Speaker, I enter this 
letter into the Record:

     To Eva Clayton:
       I have not been able to reach you by phone. I hope you can 
     help. We have a 10 year old stranded in Germany who's 
     supposed to return home Jan. 8th, but whose passport expired 
     Jan. 2nd. She's flying Delta from Frankfort to Atlanta. Delta 
     Airlines International Desk has told me they will not let her 
     board. The Hamburg Consulate has told her father that they 
     cannot issue a new passport due to the shut-down. Could you 
     please ask them to make an exception since she is an 
     unaccompanied minor? We appreciate your help! Thanks

  Mr. Speaker, imagine a 10-year-old girl alone, away from her parents, 
away from school, in a foreign land, and she is told by her government 
she is not able to go home and she is not able to come to the United 
States to go back to school. Why? Because its government is closed.
  On an average day the State Department processed some 23,000 
applications for passports. On this day and each of the days this 
Government has been shut down no application for passports are being 
processed. On an average day the State Department issued some 20,000 
visas to visitors who spent an average of $3,000 for a total of $60 
million, but for this little girl who is 10 years old this is no 
average day.
  They are not just numbers; they are people. When we talk about the 
common good for the multitude, we must remember those multitudes are 
made up of individual people who make up this great America.
  I intend to do all in my power to help this little girl get home, but 
I cannot do it alone. We need reasonable people on both sides to 
understand what we are doing to this Government is foolishness and this 
needs to stop. But a simple act by this House following the responsible 
bipartisan act of the Senate where both Republicans and Democrats 
unanimously say that this Government should be open while we have this 
great debate. We should do that. All we need now is 20 reasonable 
Republicans to join with the Democrats on this side to follow the 
example that the Senate has done. Both Republicans and Democrats have 
come together to say the Government should go on while we have this 
great debate.
  Do not hold this little girl in hostage. What will we tell her when 
we come home? What lessons are we teaching her as we do this? What 
lessons are we exemplifying to the rest of the world, that we cannot 
have a serious debate unless we hold people who are innocent as 
leverage, as hostage?
  This is no way for responsible people to govern their Nation. Yes, we 
are not being responsible, Mr. Speaker, because indeed we are making 
real people suffer, real people, not just some imaginative number of 
the future, but real people are suffering; senior citizens are 
suffering, and the prospect of their Meals on Wheels not being there to 
feed people who desperately need those. We certainly are making people 
suffer who are eligible for Social Security who cannot even process 
their application. Why? There is no one there to take the application.
  Yes, Mr. Speaker, if that is not bad enough, in this bitter cold 
season we do not have heat. The heat program that we had made available 
for what we call the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program is no 
longer available. No one has that opportunity. In the bitter cold we 
will say no to those people. Why? Because we want to make them 
sacrificial lambs.
  Mr. Speaker, on this 20th day we hope again we could find 20 
reasonable Republicans to join and follow the exemplary bipartisan 
responsible act of the Senate and put this Government back to work 
while we have this great debate.

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