[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 57 (Wednesday, April 24, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2914-S2918]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                             Sequestration

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, this morning our Democratic leader, 
Senator Reid, and the Republican leader, Senator McConnell, came to the 
floor and talked about sequestration. Sequestration had an 
overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 74 to 26. What it said was if 
Congress, on a bipartisan basis, could not reach an agreement on budget 
reduction, then automatic spending cuts would go into place.
  Unfortunately, we did not reach that agreement. The spending cuts, 
known as sequestration, went into place, and for the last month or so 
there has been speculation as to whether anybody would notice.
  People are starting to notice because across this country changes are 
taking place. For example, the Federal Aviation Administration has been 
asked to cut about 5 percent from their operating budget, such as 
salaries for employees. Because it is being done in a 6-month period, 
it turns out to be a 10-percent cut.
  What that means, for example, is one of the largest groups of 
employees in the FAA, the air traffic controllers, is going to go 
without pay 1 day out of every 10 working days. So with fewer air 
traffic controllers on the job and fewer people able to direct flights, 
we have noticed this week that flights are starting to slow down across 
the country. The FAA estimates that some 6,800 flights a day will be 
delayed. We have already started feeling that because air traffic 
controllers are being laid off due to the sequestration plan.
  Putting that into perspective, on the worst day of last year, because 
of weather, 3,000 flights were delayed. Now, on a regular daily basis 
more than twice that number will be delayed because of the reduction in 
force of air traffic controllers due to the sequestration passed by 
Congress.
  Senators are coming to the floor and looking for relief from that. 
Some on the other side are arguing if the Secretary of Transportation 
just had the power to pick and choose within his Department, he might 
be able to avoid these layoffs. I don't know if that is true, but I 
will say that making these cuts at the end of a fiscal year is going to 
create hardship in a lot of different departments and agencies.
  I heard one of my colleagues from Indiana come to the floor and say 
families face this all the time, and they have to make cutbacks. That 
is true. I have had that happen with my own family. They also want to 
make certain, if they can, to get through tough periods without cutting 
into the essentials of life, such as prescription drugs, paying the 
mortgage, and paying the utility bills. We need to make this a 
thoughtful effort to avoid sequestration.

[[Page S2918]]

  The Democratic leader, Senator Reid, has proposed that we, in fact, 
defer this sequestration through the remainder of this fiscal year, 
until October 1. To make up the costs, he uses the overseas contingency 
fund. This was a fund created to pay for our wars overseas, and thank 
goodness Iraq has been closed down as an act of war and Afghanistan is 
in the process. So there will be a surplus of money in this fund--some 
$600 billion--that otherwise had been anticipated to be spent.
  What the majority leader suggested is that we take a small part of 
that and use it so we can avoid the impact of sequestration and go back 
to business as usual for the remainder of this year.
  I happen to think sequestration is not a good policy. We need a 
better approach and more thoughtful approach, and this will give us a 
chance. We can take the funds that otherwise would be spent overseas--
on a war that, thank goodness, will not be there--and instead use them 
at home to avoid some hardships which have just been described.
  So now we hear from the Republican side that they don't think this is 
a viable alternative. They question whether there is an overseas 
contingency account. The irony is that Congressman Paul Ryan, chairman 
of the House Budget Committee, included the same money in his 
Republican budget. Senator McConnell, who was critical of it today, 
said back in April 2011:
  Today, the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, Congressman Paul 
Ryan, is releasing a serious and detailed plan for getting our nation's 
fiscal house in order.
  That serious plan, I might remind Senator McConnell, included just 
the funding that Senator Reid is asking for. So we are not asking for 
something the Republicans have not already stood up and embraced. 
Instead, we are saying let's deal with the national challenges and 
national emergencies and let's deal with them with the money that would 
otherwise be spent overseas.