[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 137 (Saturday, October 5, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7215-S7217]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS
Mr. REID. Madam President, Senator Schumer yesterday on the floor
talked about what the House is doing, and he described it as ``Alice in
Wonderland.'' I don't know if that is an apt description. Maybe it is
beyond that.
Here is where we are. The House has passed a bill to pay furloughed
Federal employees--now, listen to this--once the government opens.
Well, why wouldn't we do that? But the problem is that this
uncontroversial legislation is kind of unique, isn't it?
So now what the Republicans in the House are telling--because they
are the ones who set the agenda--they are telling all these Federal
workers: What we are going to do for you now--even though we don't like
Federal workers and we haven't given you a raise in 3 years--what we
are going to do now is give you a paid vacation.
That is what it is. These people who want to go to work can't go to
work, but they are going to get paid, they know, when they leave here,
and we knew that anyway. We heard today that a number of Federal
employees are applying for unemployment benefits. So it is really cruel
to tell workers they will receive backpay once the government opens and
then refuse to open the government.
Let's open the government. Hundreds of thousands of furloughed
Federal servants want to work. They should be allowed to work. We have,
for example, right now in our National Security Agency, 1,000
mathematicians--the numbers may be a little bit wrong but very close--
we have 2,500 computer scientists, and 940 Ph.D.s who are home. They
cannot work. They cannot get paid. It is not fair to them or our
country. Let them work.
We get these little piecemeal bits of legislation from the House--for
example, open the Park Service. In Nevada, that is great because we
have some national forests there. But 87 percent of the land in the
State of Nevada is owned by the Federal Government. The vast majority
of that land is Bureau of Land Management. We have some beautiful
conservation areas. One is called Red Rock, which over 1 million people
visit every year. It is closed. So opening the Park Service does not
help a place 8 or 9 miles out of Las Vegas where 1 million people come
to visit. They come there to do that. Some of the best rock climbing in
the world is there.
These are ordinary Americans who have not been treated very well
during the last several years by the Republicans anyway. No pay raises.
They treat Federal employees as if they are a lower class of worker
than other people.
Now, remember, Federal workers work really hard. The Presiding
Officer works hard. All 8 million Federal employees work hard. There
are exceptions, just like anyplace else.
I met two people yesterday. This hurts. Federal employees not being
able to work hurts others. Lockheed announced today that they are
laying off 3,000 people. They cannot get inspections done. I was with
someone yesterday evening from US Air. They cannot take custody of a
$180-million airplane, a brandnew airplane. It is just sitting there.
They cannot take custody of that airplane. Why? Because they need a
final inspection. This is all throughout America. The Federal
Government is involved in aspects of life that everyone has here in
America--food inspectors, inspectors for making sure there is safety
for a $180 million airplane. Lockheed has things they are building.
Some of them are missiles. They have to make sure they are safe and
reliable. One man told me that they must, for the warheads in these
nuclear weapons, test them after they have been here in service. They
just cannot leave them here, they need to test them. The time is here
for them to be tested. The safety and reliability of our nuclear
weapons--there is nobody to do it.
Now we are saying to the Federal employees: We are going to pay you
when this is all over, but right now you just
[[Page S7216]]
stay home. You 1,000 mathematicians, you 940 P.H.Ds, 2,500 computer
scientists who work for the National Security Agency: Stay home. Watch
TV. Play chess. Do whatever you want to do because we will not let you
work. But look ahead; you are going to get paid.
On this side of the aisle, we like Federal employees. I like Federal
employees. I look with great satisfaction at someone who works for the
FBI or the Park Service. I want them to work.
This is really an important time for people to visit our monuments,
our national treasures, but they cannot do that. So not only does it
hurt people who want to go see the Washington Monument up close, but
also--not in Washington as much--take the places around our national
parks. There are little motels and restaurants that depend on those
parks to make a living. Wintertime is coming. The ability to visit
these parks is now very limited.
I have always cared about Federal employees. They do these jobs. Take
the people who work for me and all Members of Congress. I have a Rhodes
Scholar. She is a lawyer. She could go out in the private sector and
make 10 times more money than she makes here. Why is she not doing
that? She has two children. Why does she not do that? Because she cares
about public service. I have people who work for me who are graduates
of the best schools in America. They are here because they believe in
public policy. They believe in being public servants. They are being
told they are nonessential.
Some Members of Congress are kind of showing off, saying: Well, I am
not closing my office.
I have closed my office because I do not think my employees should be
treated any differently than someone who is working for the Bureau of
Land Management or the FBI. They are home.
Mr. LEAHY. Would the Senator yield for a question?
Mr. REID. I would be happy to yield for a question from the senior
Senator from Vermont.
Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, the distinguished leader had the
opportunity to serve in both bodies. I appreciate what he said about
his staff and the other staff.
Is it not the leader's observation that these staff people come here
because of their love of this country, love of this government, and
without a doubt they put in extraordinary hours--far more hours than
the public might realize? Is that not a fact?
Mr. REID. Madam President, it is so true. These men and women, for
example, who are assistant U.S. attorneys, they do not punch a time
clock. They do not bill hours, how much they can make an hour. They
take care of the needs of this country. If there are bad guys out
there, they prosecute them. FBI agents, people who work for the U.S.
Marshal Service--they serve warrants to some of the most dangerous
people in the world. They are home now. They are home. They do those
jobs, I say to the distinguished President pro tempore of the Senate,
because they chose public service.
I will be a little bit personal here. I have four boys and a girl, a
daughter. I love my children as only a father could love his children.
My daughter is married to a lawyer. She is a schoolteacher. My four
boys are all lawyers. My next youngest gave up a job and took a pay cut
of $200,000 a year so he could go to work as a city attorney in
Henderson, NV. That is what public servants are all about. They are not
in it for the money. They are not in it for the glory. They are in it
because it is the right thing to do.
As I look over this Chamber, I see two of my staff in the back row. I
look at one young man who is a graduate of Stanford Law School. It is
either the first, second, or third best law school every year in
America. Could he go someplace else and make more money? You bet he
could. He is an expert. He is an expert in finance, the budget process.
Mr. NELSON. Would the Senator yield for a quick comment?
Mr. REID. I would be happy to yield to the senior Senator from the
great State of Florida.
Mr. NELSON. Madam President, since our leader is a former Capitol
policeman, might it be noted that all of the Capitol Police Force that
is protecting us and protected us the other day with the incident that
occurred here--they are still here protecting us, and they are not
being paid?
Mr. REID. Madam President, to my friend, I have given a couple of
statements the last 2 days about the Capitol Police, but I never
brought up the fact that I was a police officer. I was a police officer
here in this building. My badge number is 364. I was an original. I
still have it in my office here. I am proud of that. I did not have to
do the dangerous things these young men and women do here. Some of them
are not so young. They are really senior officers. But I carried a gun.
I did some of what police officers do.
To think, as we look around this room--plainclothes officers are
here, not getting paid. One of the officers was hurt and was
hospitalized in that accident. He wasn't getting paid.
Tell me, I say to anyone who will listen or answer this question, why
don't we open the government and let people go to work and do their
jobs.
Public service is a calling--I won't say it is a calling, but some
people feel it is.
I see the Senator from Maine. He and I worked in this building, the
Capitol complex. Maybe that is where we developed our love of public
service. I don't know where we developed it, but we both have it. Here
is a man who has done such remarkable things.
He not only worked in the Senate many years ago, he was in the march
for which we celebrated the 50-year anniversary. From a tree, he
watched Dr. Martin Luther King give a speech. He loves public service,
and he has a career that proves that.
The junior Senator from the State of Maine is one of the most
dignified, experienced Senators that this body has ever had. That is
the way it is with everybody.
The junior Senator from North Dakota has dedicated her life to public
service. She held many elected offices in the State of North Dakota.
She was a tax collector and attorney for Kent Conrad when he was tax
collector. She was attorney general, ran for Governor, and would likely
have been elected, but she was stricken with breast cancer. She came
back.
She came back because public service is in her blood. She ran against
great odds to become a Senator, and she is a Senator--not for the money
but because she is contributing to the welfare of this country.
We are having these people stay at home? It is hard for me to
comprehend.
It has been 1 week since the Senate passed a bill to reopen the
Federal Government--1 week. For 7 days the Senate has been waiting for
the House of Representatives to act.
Speaker Boehner has refused to allow the vote on the one bill that he
said would reopen the government. It would open the government and keep
it open. It has been all over the press the last few days.
He came to me and said: We can do a clean CR.
I said: What are the terms of that clean CR?
He said: It has to be at this year's level.
I said: We can't do that. We passed a budget here and we are $70
billion above that.
We talked and we talked. He said that is how we can get a clean CR.
What does that mean? It means we can just get it done quickly. I, as
the press has indicated, talked with Senator Murray. She may be small
in stature, but she is one tough Senator, the chairman of the Budget
Committee.
I also had to talk to Barbara Mikulski, the senior Senator from the
State of Maryland. It wasn't easy to get those two chairs to agree to
do $988 billion. Once we got that done, I had to go to my caucus and
sell that. I did it upon the representation that they would pass that
and send it over to us. They sure didn't do that.
The bill we are asking the Speaker to vote on is the one he told me
he wanted.
An economist who was John McCain's chief economic adviser during his
campaign, who has admiration for Democrats and Republicans, said if the
government shutdown drags on for 3 weeks, it will cost the economy $55
billion.
It is already 1 week. We can all do that math. That cost is on par
with the economic damage caused by Superstorm Sandy.
[[Page S7217]]
What the House has done with their ``Alice in Wonderland'' operation
is they created another Sandy. It could be $55 billion.
Although this is not an act of nature; this is a manmade disaster. It
is a manmade disaster waiting to happen for national security.
The tea party shutdown is hampering our ability to enforce sanctions
on Iran, just when they are beginning to bite hard.
The tea party shutdown is hurting our ability to gather intelligence.
I spoke about that today. According to the Chief of Staff of the Army,
the tea party shutdown is impacting the day-to-day operations of the
United States Armed Forces. If the chief of the Army were not enough,
the Secretary of Defense ridiculed what the House is doing. By the way,
Secretary Hagel is a Republican.
I know my Republican colleagues are as concerned about the safety and
security of the United States as I am. But they need to take a look at
themselves and ask are they doing what is right for the safety and
security of our country.
I am confident if they thought about it for a minute, they would like
to mitigate the impact of the shutdown on intelligence gathering, the
military, and a dozen other government agencies, as much as I do. A
piecemeal approach to funding the government bit by bit is simply not
the answer. Saying: We are going to pay you when we open this place is
not the answer. Let them go to work.
No matter how many bites the Republicans take at the apple, there is
only one bill that ensures every priority is met: the Senate bill to
fully reopen the Federal Government.
Why are they doing this?
The Presiding Officer is a distinguished attorney from the State of
Hawaii.
One does not need to be a distinguished attorney from any place to
understand how brazen what they are doing is. They are saying: We are
not going to do anything until you let us hamper a bill that has
already been around for 4 years.
Hamper is an understatement. They are not willing to do anything
unless they take a big whack with a meat-ax on ObamaCare. Already,
since ObamaCare has been open, only on the Federal Web site, there have
been 9 million hits in 4 days.
The priorities the Republicans have addressed so far are: Veterans,
national parks, National Guard, and the National Institutes of Health
are worthy. But there are many other needs that will go unmet and
priorities that will be ignored without fully reopening the government.
Take, for example--I haven't heard any speeches on the floor from my
Republican colleagues about 1,300 rape crisis centers which rely on
Federal funding to support victims of crime. They are losing their
ability to stay open.
Unless the Federal Government reopens, organizations that advocate
for victims of violence will be forced to close their doors or work
without pay, and that is in a matter of a few days. Will the House
Republicans pass a bill to help them?
I remember when we didn't have all the domestic shelters we have now.
I remember these women as I did domestic relations work. Oh, how sad.
They had no place to go. Now they have a few places to go. We have
domestic crisis shelters, and we have rape crisis centers, but the
Federal Government is the one that supports those. The piecemeal
approach of the House indicates that the needs of the people I just
described would not be met.
The commander in chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, William
Thein--I hope everyone here understands this is not some leftwing
organization out there demonstrating against Democrats. The Veterans of
Foreign Wars is what I have described it as, veterans of foreign wars.
They try to stay as neutral politically as any organization in America.
William Thein, commander in chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars,
wrote to leaders in Congress this week and said:
We expect more from our elected leadership, and not a
piecemeal approach that would use the military or disabled
veterans as leverage in a political game.
He is right. Neither veterans, the military, hungry infants nor
children with cancer should be used as political pawns. They should not
be left out in the cold.
There is only one bill. It is the bill that Speaker Boehner asked me
to get out of this Senate, and we did that. He needs to allow the House
of Representatives to vote, and it would pass by a huge margin. That
bill would fund all public priorities I have talked about, both to
protect and economy and national security.
The Senate's clean bill to reopen the government--the one the Speaker
said he wanted me to get out of here--and I did it, but it was not
easy. We have been waiting 1 week, but the Speaker could end this
government shutdown before they go home Sunday. It was the Speaker's
intention all along to pass a clean continuing resolution. I believe
that. But instead he was waylayed by this tea party-driven nonsense in
the House of Representatives. He has refused to allow a vote on a bill
that he proposed.
Republican Congressman Charles Dent said last night:
I do believe it's imperative that we have a clean funding
bill to fund the government. That was the intent of the
Republican leadership all along, but obviously there were a
few dozen folks in the House Republican Conference who
weren't prepared to vote for a clean bill, and that's why
we're in the situation we're in right now.
I say to the Speaker: Go with your first instinct. Pass a clean
continuing resolution.
Charlie Dent said it was to pass and fund the government.
Here is what one House Republican, Devin Nunes of California said:
The Speaker is taking his orders straight from the junior Senator from
Texas. But the next move would be--and this is what is Congressman
Nunes said yesterday:
You really have to call Cruz. I'm not even joking about
that. That's really what you have to do, because he is the
one that set up the strategy. He's the one that got us into
this mess, and so we've got to know what the next move is.
Stop taking marching orders from the tea party, I say to my
Republican friends in the House. All the Speaker has to do is find the
courage to defy the tea party for the good of our great country.
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