[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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