[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 108 (Thursday, July 25, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5932-S5933]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               THE BUDGET

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, as the House and Senate have begun 
debating our separate appropriations bills for the coming year, we have 
been forced to take a very hard look at the numbers and exactly what so 
many important programs and services will look like next year under 
cuts that are forced by sequestration. I am here to tell you, it is not 
pretty.
  As chair of the Budget Committee, it has only served as a reminder to 
me of just how important it is to fully replace the across-the-board 
cuts that sequestration has forced us to make, because it is only 
getting worse.
  Some of my Republican colleagues in the Senate, and most of them in 
the House, it seems, don't believe sequestration has had a real impact 
on families, their communities, and our military.
  I wish to take a few minutes to talk about what I have already seen 
in my home State of Washington, where the impacts of sequestration have 
been very severe.

[[Page S5933]]

  Washington State has a proud history of supporting our Nation's Armed 
Forces. From Fairchild Air Force Base in eastern Washington to Joint 
Base Lewis-McChord in the Puget Sound region, our State is home to 
thousands of military families.
  In addition to those active-duty servicemembers, Washington State is 
also home to thousands of civilian defense employees who work at these 
various military installations. Under sequestration, these men and 
women have borne the brunt of these across-the-board budget cuts. This 
month, weekly furloughs began for nearly 10,000 of these civilian 
employees in my home State of Washington. So now, once every week, they 
can't go to work. That amounts to a pay cut for them of 20 percent.
  These are men and women--many of them veterans--with mortgages and 
medical bills and tuition costs, just like the rest of us. And thanks 
to the gridlock here in Congress, their lives have become 20-percent 
tougher. One of those people who is impacted is Will Silva. He lives in 
Tacoma, WA, and he works at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. We call it JBLM. 
Will is a former marine, he is an amputee, and he is a fire inspector 
at the base. Thanks to sequestration, he is one of 6,700 people in that 
community who won't be going to work tomorrow because Friday is 
furlough day at JBLM.
  So tomorrow, Friday, in my home State of Washington, the 911 call 
center and fire departments will be understaffed, air fields will be 
shuttered except for emergencies, the military personnel office and the 
substance abuse center will be closed, the Madigan Army Medical Center 
will be forced to close clinics, and even the wound care clinic is 
going to be understaffed. All of this is because of the cuts we all 
agree are hurting our country.
  Jennifer-Cari Green is another person who won't be going to work at 
JBLM tomorrow. Jennifer happens to be a single mother of a 6-year-old 
boy. She works at the Madigan Army Medical Center in the neurosurgery 
department. Her job is to care for servicemembers, many of whom are 
undergoing serious brain operations.
  Jennifer was here in Washington, DC, on Tuesday to testify at our 
Budget Committee hearing about the impacts of sequestration. It is 
impossible to forget her story. Jennifer works very hard. She started 
there as a volunteer in the surgery center but has worked her way up. 
She doesn't make much money to support herself and her young son, and 
so she budgets every month right down to the dollar. She has no 
luxuries, and in her only spare time she cares for her son and works 
toward an associate degree at the community college.
  Jennifer told me that because of these furloughs her take-home pay 
will be almost exactly $1,000 a month--$1,000 a month. That isn't 
enough for her to pay her most basic expenses. But even with all of the 
challenges she faces, Jennifer came here to talk about what those cuts 
will mean for others, for the people she cares for at the army hospital 
where she works.
  Because she has been furloughed--by the way, along with doctors and 
technicians and other employees at the hospital--servicemembers and 
veterans aren't going to get the care they need. These furloughs mean 
that everything from routine checkups to brain surgeries is being 
delayed for these men and women who served our country. Let me repeat 
that: brain surgeries at military hospitals are being delayed because 
of cuts from sequestration. That is unacceptable and, unfortunately, it 
is very real.
  The impacts on our civilian defense employees are just the tip of 
this iceberg. Sequestration has resulted in dramatic cuts to countless 
other programs throughout our country. Head Start facilities have been 
forced to shut their doors, Meals-on-Wheels Programs--vital to our 
Nation's seniors--are serving less needy seniors, and even our judicial 
system has been forced to let go of prosecutors and public defenders. 
The cuts are clear and they are, across the board, impacting so many 
people in this country in our communities and in our families.
  I understand many of us have different opinions here on how to 
address our Nation's financial challenges, but before we do that, all 
of us have to understand the devastating impact sequestration has 
already had on our Nation. I want to remind all my colleagues that it 
doesn't have to be this way. It doesn't have to be this way. It is now 
124 days since the Senate passed a budget that fully replaced the 
sequestration, and 17 times my colleagues and I have stood here and 
asked to go to conference with the House to fix these ridiculous cuts. 
But 17 times now our Republican colleagues have said no. They have 
refused.
  So I am here today absolutely committed to replacing sequestration. 
If some of my colleagues think this is about politics or this is some 
kind of game, I would ask them to talk to Will or Jennifer or any of 
the thousands of families who suddenly today can't pay their bills, 
because, for them, these cuts are very real and they need a solution 
now.
  I hope other Members of the Senate will come and talk about these 
cuts. We can fix this. We can replace sequestration. We can manage our 
country responsibly. We can be much smarter about what we are doing, 
but we need the will of the Senate to allow us to go to conference to 
fix this and move forward and tell Will and Jennifer we, as a country, 
can work for them.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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