[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 2 (Thursday, January 4, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H160-H161]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             THE EFFECTS OF FURLOUGHING GOVERNMENT WORKERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Deutsch] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DEUTSCH. Mr. Speaker, when my Republican colleagues took over the 
majority of this Chamber, they declared that they were going to run 
Congress like a business. Now, let us just think about that for a 
second. If we had a business where the CEO of that business and the 
board of directors had a disagreement and then what they decided to do 
was to furlough the workers and pay them, all right, think about that.
  There is no business in this country where there would be a 
disagreement between the CEO and the board of directors and they would 
furlough the workers and then pay them. And if you think about this for 
a second, if it was a publicly traded company and they decided to do 
that, what would happen in the market the next day? The value of that 
company would be destroyed.
  Well, that is where we are right now. That is what has happened, and 
what has happened is totally indefensible.
  I spent almost 3 hours on the floor yesterday evening, really 
involved in a dialog and debate with my Republican colleagues, and 
after 3 hours I still did not get an articulate answer, because there 
really is not. I mean, it is as crazy as it seems to people out there 
in America. It is as whacked out as it seems. There is no explanation. 
They can try to come up with an explanation. There is no explanation, 
except for irresponsibility, for what is going on. And we are starting 
to see real people and real just outrage at some of the things.
  I just got a fax from a constituent, Gregory Inch, from Hollywood, 
FL, and I will read part of it or just summarize part of the letter. He 
is a double amputee, a veteran. Let me read a little:

       In February of 1994, I was involved in an accident that 
     resulted in amputation of both my legs above the knee. It 
     took me and my family some time to get through the initial 
     shock. One year later, after a lot of soul-searching, I got 
     in touch with an organization that enabled me to attend 
     college, the department of vocational rehabilitation. This 
     organization helped me get back on my feet. I started Broward 
     Community College with hopes of receiving a preengineering 
     degree so I could transfer to Florida International 
     University and receive my BA. On January 3, 1996, I went 
     through the normal channels in order to continue my 
     education, only to be informed that the Government shutdown 
     caused the funding of the Department of Vocational 
     Rehabilitation to stop, a shock to me and my family that 
     almost equaled my disabling accident. Especially shocked was 
     my wife, who has been working two jobs to pay necessary 
     household bills while still in college. I am a registered 
     Republican, age 27, married, a veteran, one child, who is 
     having second thoughts on the way the government is handling 
     the responsibility to society at large.

  I could not say it better than he did.
  Let me also mention another thing, a fax I got in today from my 
district also. I have two ports in my district. The Consumer Product 
Safety Commission employees who are at those ports to basically do 
inspections are not there, so when crayons are coming in from China 
into Port Everglades in Broward County or Port Miami in Miami are not 
inspected, the lead content is coming in without inspection. We are 
going to read about the disasters that occur at a future time.
  I got a call today from the warden of a Federal correctional 
institution in my district, and the workers, the prison guards at that 
facility, are working, about 300 guards at that prison. They are 
working but not getting paid, and you can imagine the morale situation 
in a prison, a correctional institution where the guards are not 
getting paid, but in fact the prisoners are because the prison work 
program is getting paid. It is an unstable equilibrium.
  Twenty thousand visas are given to come to the United States a day in 
our foreign embassies. They have not been given out for the last 20 
days; 400,000 visas.
  Now, I am glad that my colleague from Florida is standing because it 
affects his district as much as it affects mine. We have the good 
fortune of living in south Florida, where people from around the 
country and around the world visit. Every one of those people who is 
not getting a visa is dollars lost to our communities. The actual out-
of-pocket payment that we are losing is over $40 million a day of 
taxpayers' money of out-of-pocket costs for taxpayers of this country. 
Over the 20-day period, close to a billion dollars has been lost by 
taxpayers in this country.
  In the previous shutdown, about $750 million of outright waste, 
garbage, a multiplier effect of 4 or 5 times that effect has cost our 
economy. It really is 

[[Page H161]]
time for us to act like adults. Adults can disagree on issues and yet 
they can still have discussions.
  I hope my Republican colleagues join what everyone in this country 
out there in America wants us to do, which is to pass a CR and get the 
Government moving again.

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