[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 98 (Wednesday, July 10, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H4313-H4314]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
END THE SEQUESTER
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) for 5 minutes.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, beginning this week, literally hundreds of
thousands of civilian workers are being furloughed at defense
installations in Maryland's Fifth District, across the State, and
around the country. That means as of Monday, more than 650,000
hardworking, middle class defense employees are being forced to take a
20 percent pay cut for the remainder of the fiscal year.
It isn't because they are not doing their job well; they are.
It isn't because they don't have enough work; they do.
And it isn't because we don't need their talents, their experience,
and their dedication to service; we need them more now than ever.
These employees are being furloughed because Congress has failed.
Congress has failed to achieve deficit reduction in a balanced and
responsible way. In fact, we passed a budget through the House of
Representatives; the United States Senate has passed a budget. But the
House of Representatives, Republican leadership, refuses to go to
conference, refuses to follow regular order for which they've called so
frequently, refuses to try to bring a compromise agreement back to this
floor. This Congress has failed to achieve deficit reduction in a
balanced and responsible way.
Instead, we now have the sequester--a senseless, stupid, irrational
policy. It's a real shame, Mr. Speaker, that partisan politics is
keeping some of our country's best and brightest from doing their jobs
supporting our warfighters as they serve in Afghanistan and around the
world.
Last Tuesday, I met with some of the outstanding men and women who
work in civilian defense jobs at Pax River Naval Air Station in my
district. When you go to Pax River, you often see uniformed and
civilian personnel sitting side by side, working to accomplish the same
mission, serving with the same dedication, partners in making our
government stronger and making our defense stronger, each complementing
the work of the other.
Now, as a result of these furloughs, one of them will get a 20
percent pay cut. One of them will be told to go home. One of them will
be told you can't even volunteer to come back and get the job done. And
the other will get one day a week of having to carry out the mission
alone.
At that meeting, I heard from members of the Pax River community who
are deeply concerned about the effects of these furloughs on our
military readiness, our ongoing missions, on Department morale, and on
the local economy. They were concerned about themselves, but they were
mainly concerned about the job that was going to be left undone,
finished late, undermining our security. One person scheduled to be
furloughed this Friday told me:
I have a strong work ethic, and I want to get the job done,
whether it's late nights and weekends. And I'm worried
someone will come to me on a Thursday and I'll have to say, I
can't get the job done until Monday.
Because, Mr. Speaker, we are telling that person you can't come to
work.
Another employee who was there last Tuesday emailed me afterward
about the upcoming furlough writing:
There are many people in this organization who stretch
themselves day after day, happily, to get the work done that
needs to get done to support the Department of Defense and
the warfighter.
I will tell you, and so many Members on both sides of the aisle have
met these folks, not these specific folks perhaps at Pax, but around
this country who are dedicated, patriotic, hardworking, and want to
make sure that their country is strong and that we serve our people.
This one constituent continues:
``I've already started to see some of these same people giving less
of themselves because they feel our Congressmen,'' that's meaning all
of us, ``and our country no longer put value in what they do.''
We are undermining the morale of the American workers. We are
undermining the ability of the American Government to be as effective
with respect to national defense as it needs to be.
Mr. Speaker, this sequester is harming morale and may lead skilled
employees to leave for the private sector just when we need them most.
[[Page H4314]]
The effects of the sequester extend beyond the gates of our
installations and affect entire communities with local businesses
standing to lose as a result of belt tightening by families
experiencing furloughs.
At the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Indian Head, also in
Maryland's Fifth Congressional District, 97 percent of civilian
personnel will be furloughed. That's more than 1,870 people.
Mr. Speaker, there's no reason why our civilian defense workers
should be kept from doing their job just because Congress hasn't done
its job. As long as the sequester remains in effect, and as long as
Republicans refuse to compromise on a balanced approach to deficits
that can end it, I'll keep coming to this floor and remind them exactly
what is at stake. And I continue to call on Speaker Boehner to end the
unnecessary delay in appointing budget conferees, which would be a
significant step toward beginning negotiations in earnest that could
lead to a big and balanced compromise on deficits.
We need to bring deficits down. We need to get our country on a
fiscally sustainable path, but we need to do so in a rational way which
does not undermine our national security, does not undermine the
services being rendered to the people who are relying on them, and that
does not send a message to our employees and those whom we need to
recruit in the future that we are a good employer, we're a caring
employer, we're an effective employer, and you ought to work for us,
you ought to work for your country, for your fellow citizens.
Mr. Speaker, we need to go to conference. We need to get rid of the
sequester. We need to put America on a rational path to fiscal
responsibility and effectiveness.
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