[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 28 (Wednesday, February 27, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H687]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               SEQUESTER

  (Mr. KENNEDY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to come 
together and avoid sequestration. Make no mistake: These cuts aren't 
just fodder for newspaper headlines. They are real. They are deep. And 
they will hurt.
  Back home in my district in Taunton, Massachusetts, we have an active 
chapter of Jumpstart, a national literacy organization that pairs 
community volunteers with low-income preschool children. They operate 
in tandem with the local Head Start. If sequestration happens, over 
70,000 children across the country could lose access to Head Start--
1,500 in Massachusetts--jeopardizing the ability of Jumpstart to 
continue offering their services. On top of that, the organization is 
run on the hard work of volunteers, most of whom come through Federal 
work-study programs--800 jobs lost in Massachusetts alone--or 
AmeriCorps--$38 million in cuts across the board.
  Those are big numbers. But for a moment forget the numbers. The 
numbers are just a succinct way of saying there's a 4-year-old girl in 
Taunton, Massachusetts, whose single mother depends on Jumpstart to get 
her child up to speed for kindergarten while she works two jobs to keep 
food on the table.
  Our budget is in difficult shape. It will require tough choices to 
clean up. But they have to be smart choices, worthy of our constituents 
back home who put their faith and trust in each and every one of us.

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