[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 6 (Friday, January 11, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S159-S162]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ORDERS FOR MONDAY, JANUARY 14, 2019
Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the
Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 3 p.m., Monday,
January 14; further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning
hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date,
the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the
day, and morning business be closed; finally, that notwithstanding the
provisions of rule XXII, the cloture motion with respect to the motion
to proceed to S. 1 ripen at 5:30 p.m., Monday.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come
before the Senate, I asked that it stand adjourned under the previous
order following the remarks of our Democratic colleagues.
Mr. KING. Would the Senator yield for just a short comment?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine is recognized.
Mr. KING. I can't leave the floor without complimenting the Senator
from Alaska for her usual thoughtful analysis and constructive approach
to dealing with this issue. I am proud to serve with the Senator on the
Energy and Natural Resources Committee. She has brought the same wisdom
to the floor today that she does to the work of our committee. I simply
wanted to acknowledge that and thank her for her comments.
Ms. MURKOWSKI. I thank my friend from Maine. I enjoy working with the
Senator as well.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. (Ms. Murkowski). The Senator from Wisconsin.
Ms. BALDWIN. Madam President, I rise to speak about President Trump's
shutdown and the real pain that it is causing in my home State of
Wisconsin and in communities across this country. The Trump shutdown is
now in its 21st day, tying the longest Federal Government shutdown on
record. Today is also the day that approximately 800,000 Federal
workers will not get their regularly scheduled paychecks, including
approximately 3,000 Wisconsinites. Many of these workers are doing
their jobs without pay: Coast Guard workers, Transportation Security
Administration agents, air traffic controllers, along with Federal law
enforcement, including FBI and DEA agents.
These hard-working Americans are suffering because President Trump
and Republicans in Congress refuse to support bipartisan legislation to
end this shutdown and reopen the government.
We should be working today to pass bipartisan legislation to end this
senseless and useless shutdown and reopen the government. Sadly, no
votes are scheduled today by the Senate majority leader, meaning that
the Trump shutdown will continue.
The House did their job and passed bipartisan legislation to end the
Trump shutdown, but Senator Majority Leader McConnell has thus far
objected to bringing up this legislation in the Senate. In fact,
yesterday, I joined many of my colleagues on this Senate floor in an
effort to pass, once again, bipartisan legislation to reopen the
government, but Majority Leader McConnell blocked our efforts, and the
pain will continue for so many across this country.
Why is the government shut down? Over the past 3 years, President
Trump has publicly promised well over 200 times that Mexico would pay
for his wall. Now he has shut down our government over his failure to
keep his promise. He even said that he takes pride in this Trump
shutdown.
The American people shouldn't pay for this deception, and Congress
should not make taxpayers pay billions of dollars for his wasteful and
ineffective wall. What we should do instead is reopen the government
and pass bipartisan Homeland Security legislation--supported by both
Democrats and Republicans--that provides smart and cost-effective
border security.
President Trump's shutdown has many consequences, and he has created
many victims. I want to speak about some of the pain Wisconsinites are
feeling.
In Wisconsin, the Trump shutdown is hurting farmers and rural
communities. It really could not come at a worse time. Wisconsin lost
over 600 dairy farms last year and over 500 the year before. In
response, Congress worked together on a bipartisan basis to pass a farm
bill that would support our farmers and our rural economy.
Unfortunately, with this shutdown, President Trump has threatened all
of that progress. His shutdown is stalling the implementation of the
bipartisan farm bill and delaying things like subsidy payments and
loans that farmers need to get ready for the spring planting season and
plan how they will endure in these very uncertain market conditions.
We have heard from farmers about the pain the Trump shutdown is
causing them. Here is one story. Michael Slattery is a grain farmer
from Manitowoc County, WI. He is waiting on $9,000 that the Department
of Agriculture agreed to pay him to compensate him for the losses from
the President's trade war and for conservation efforts that he
participates in on his farm.
Mr. Slattery planned to use this money to get ready for the upcoming
planting season, but now that is all on hold. To quote Mr. Slattery:
``We are being played the stooge.''
He is right. Farmers like him have suffered enough under this
administration, and the Trump shutdown is another blow for Mr. Slattery
and farmers like him across Wisconsin and the entire Nation.
I have also heard from Kelly. Kelly lives in Black River Falls, WI.
Kelly has a disability, and she also takes care of a grandchild with a
disability. Kelly received funding from the Department of Agriculture,
including a program that specifically helps low-income and underserved
people in rural communities. The USDA had agreed to help her close on a
home and to help her make some immediate home repairs. Now the funding
is on hold. She can't pay the contractor who made the repairs, and she
is also having trouble paying the mortgage on her new home.
What is the Department of Agriculture doing to help or assist Kelly?
Right now, nothing. She can't even get information from the USDA
because of the Trump shutdown.
People like Kelly and Michael should not have to suffer because
President Trump broke a promise to make Mexico pay for an ineffective
border wall.
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Democrats and Republicans agree that President Trump should end his
shutdown and accept bipartisan legislation to fund the Department of
Agriculture and reopen other Agencies in the government.
In fact, the House passed bipartisan legislation just yesterday to
fund the USDA and reopen it for business. Unfortunately, the Senate
majority leader is blocking that legislation too.
I am calling for a vote in the U.S. Senate on the House-passed
legislation to fund the government, which Senate Republicans previously
have supported and would reopen the Federal Government and finally end
the Trump shutdown. We should pass this legislation, and the President
should sign this legislation so that this shutdown ends for people like
Kelly, people like Mike, people in rural communities, and all
communities across Wisconsin.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
Government Funding
Mr. KAINE. Madam President, I would just like to take the floor to
sort of continue comments that I began at 10 o'clock this morning. I
left at 10:30 to accompany my Virginia colleague, Senator Warner, to a
roundtable with Federal employees at a community center in Alexandria,
and I just want to share some of their stories.
What Agencies did these employees work for? There was quite a
variety--Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice,
Environmental Protection Agency, FAA, air traffic control, various
groups within the Agriculture Department, Chemical Safety Board,
Department of Labor, and immigration officials. So they were from many
different parts of the government affected by the shutdown.
How did they describe the effect of the shutdown on them? These were
almost all employees who were furloughed and their spouses and
children, in some instances. A couple of them were not furloughed, but
they were deemed essential and were working without pay.
How did they describe the choices they are having to make?
``I paid this month's mortgage payment, but I am not sure I can pay
the next.''
``I am a diabetic, and I have to decide which of the medications I
can afford this month.''
``My kid is in college. I am not sure I can make the entire tuition
payment for the spring semester.''
``I have had to take money out of my IRA to cover my bills and pay a
penalty for doing that. I am being penalized because the shutdown of
government leaves me no other choice than to dip into retirement
savings that are part of my IRA.''
``I have had to borrow money from family and friends.''
``I have had to reduce the money that I pay to help my mother rent
her apartment.''
``I tried to put my 7-week-old daughter on the Federal health
insurance plan that I get because I work at the Department of Justice,
but because I am furloughed and the HR department is furloughed, when I
tried to put her on the Federal health plan, I wasn't able to do that,
and when she needed medication--thankfully, for nothing life-
threatening--I was not able to get that covered by insurance. I finally
worked for a while and was able to find a workaround for it.''
So families described all kinds of ways that they are trying to cope
and all kinds of effects that this is having on them.
I was struck by a common theme: I work for the government because I
love serving people. I love serving the American people. That is why I
chose to do what I did. That is why I moved from somewhere else to come
here. That is how I met my wife or my husband, and we are jointly
committed to public service.
Many of them described: This was sitting on my desk the day that I
left, and I am so anxious that it is still there and undone.
For one of the individuals who works with the FAA, his job includes
certifying helicopter pilots who fly to support the American military
mission in Iraq. He said: I had a big sheaf of those sitting on my desk
when I left the office. These are people who support our military
mission, and they are not getting certified, and they are not getting
authorized to do the work as long as I am furloughed.
Another man talked about his passion for the food stamp program. He
worked with the Ag Department, and he is involved in one portion of the
SNAP program that is certifying new grocery stores to take SNAP
benefits. He indicated that in his unit, which is all furloughed--
because 95 percent of workers supporting the SNAP program are
furloughed--there have now been 2,500 grocery stores that have been
applying just in this short window around the country to be able to
accept SNAP benefits. Often there are food deserts where it is hard for
people who have SNAP benefits to find stores in their neighborhood that
will accept SNAP. There are 2,500 applications stacked up just in the 3
weeks of the shutdown.
He talked about his anxiety: I have got to get back to work to
process these so more places are more accessible to those people who
have food needs.
That passion for serving the public is what is driving them.
One woman indicated she had a great job in Colorado but was able to
get an internship with DHS. So she moved her family from Colorado to
Woodbridge, VA, for an internship, and that internship then turned into
full-time work at DHS, and she said how proud she is to be working at
Homeland Security and how challenging it is to have no pay.
The employees talked about the psychological damage of being deemed
inessential. Who is essential and who is inessential? Why is it that 95
percent of the people who work on the SNAP program are inessential? Is
it that we don't think hungry families matter? Those who are applying
for SNAP benefits when they fall into a situation where they need
food--that is not essential? Why is that not essential?
A lot of the discussion around the table was that, as painful as it
is to be deemed essential and have to work with no pay, being told that
you are nonessential is kind of even more of a ``dis'' to you. So this
was a powerful group for testimony.
I just want to conclude. I know Senator Warner is a slower driver
than me. So I got here before he did. He will be the last to close this
out.
Just the last thing, I got handed pay statements. I brought back--I
don't know--maybe 100 of these, and I am sure not going to read them
all, but it is interesting.
Robert, for the pay period January 5, 2019, which is the pay period
when the check comes in today: net pay, zero.
Jadyne, same pay period: net pay, zero.
Jared, same pay period: net pay, zero.
I saw this one. I really liked this one. Bryan, same period: net pay,
1 cent--1 cent.
These are mostly from air traffic controllers. In my speech earlier
this morning on the floor I said: Is there any group of Federal
employees that you would less want to be angry at work than air traffic
controllers?
If you think about it--and somebody shared this with me--if you are
there in the tower working on air traffic control, you want 100 percent
of your mind to be on keeping everybody safe. What if 5 percent of your
mind is on ``I just got this pay stub, and it is giving me 1 cent, and
I have been working and working overtime''--if that is on 5 percent of
your mind and another 15 to 20 percent of your mind is, ``How am I
going to pay the mortgage payment? How am I going to pay the
babysitter?''
One mother told me: Because I am furloughed, I am not paying the
babysitter, and now I am not paying the babysitter for 2 weeks and that
is affecting her. But I am saying: Please don't take another client.
You have been my regular babysitter for a long time. I am not paying
you this week, I am not paying you next week, and I am not paying you
as long as there is a shutdown because I am at home, but please don't
go find other work because I want to go back to work and I want to hire
you again.
But what babysitter can take that gig--week after week after week not
being paid on the hope that this person might come back to work?
But for some reason, of all of the indignities, these things really,
really stick in folks craws, because it is not as if, when there is a
shutdown, they don't get a paycheck or stub. In some ways, that might
be better than working full time and finding this paper on
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your desk or in your email or at your house--$41.75 or one penny.
So Madam President, I know I am preaching to the choir in this group
here, but I just hope as people are back home this weekend and they
hear similar stories, they will realize that immigration reform and
border security are really important, and we have work to do to find
some accommodation that both Congress and the President can accept, but
there is no reason to keep government shut down and sending out
paychecks for 1 cent and inflicting all these various harms on folks
while we figure that out. I would just pray that we stop this shutdown
and reopen government.
With that, I would like to yield the floor to my colleague from
Virginia.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
Mr. WARNER. Madam President, first of all, I want to thank my good
friend and colleague from Virginia, Senator Kaine, for appropriately
saying to the balance of the Senate yesterday that this is not business
as usual and for objecting to our going into recess as 800,000
Americans--many of them who are working as we heard earlier this
morning, many of them working overtime--are getting paychecks that have
zero on them.
Senator Kaine has probably already outlined where he just came from.
I want to give the same comments, and I want to also thank the Chair
because I know she has come to the floor as well and raised concerns.
We have a lot of debates in the Senate. There are legitimate policy
differences we have, and part of our job is to resolve those. Part of
our job should never be to shut down the enterprise of the greatest
government in the world, the United States of America.
I think about Mr. Trump, who has spent a bunch of time going on TV
and running to the border. My goodness, I just wish that Donald Trump
or someone from his White House could have sat in the room that Senator
Kaine and I just sat in with 16 Federal employees and just heard their
stories.
What we heard, virtually from all of them--and I am sure Senator
Kaine has already acknowledged this--is the fact that they viewed
public service and serving the government as a noble calling. I heard
many of them who had been in the Air Force, Army, or Navy and who had
served in our Nation's defense but felt they were continuing to serve
when they joined public service.
We heard another person who works in one part of the government that
I am a little familiar with--frankly, not that much--that does
investigations into chemical spills. It is a small, tiny agency of 40
professionals. There was a chemical spill in Houston 1 week ago, and no
one has done any investigation about what the effects of that spill
might be on that community. She was there saying that somehow she
doesn't feel like her job is nonessential.
We heard from a young man who had moved to Virginia just a few years
ago and bought a House. He thought he could get through one more
mortgage payment. He helps to approve food stamps and the grocery
stores that apply to take in food stamps. I think he said there are
2,700 grocery stores in this period that are in the process of trying
to get approval to take food stamps and haven't gotten approval. To say
to him that, somehow, making sure folks in this country get food is a
nonessential job was both insulting and, frankly, a little bit
demoralizing.
To hear, as well, from--I can't recall which organization he works
for--someone who was saying he understood that as a Federal employee,
when he came and joined the Federal workforce, he gave up his right in
many ways to organize and to strike, but he felt like he gave up those
rights but the deal was that the government was going to pay him for
his job. In many ways, what is happening right now, kind of in labor
terms, is that, effectively, the government is locking out our
workforce.
I don't want to steal Senator Kaine's thunder. He may have mentioned
this comment, but I thought it was telling. We had a number of air
traffic controllers there, and these folks are not only working without
pay, but many of them are working overtime without pay. With our air
traffic controllers, about 35, 40 percent of them are at the eligible
age of retirement today. They could throw it in, cash it in, and say:
We are done.
One of the things about the shutdown, as well, is that we have been
working for some time with Paul Rinaldi, the head of the National Air
Traffic Controllers Association. I would advise any Members who would
to talk with him because he can scare the dickens out of you about the
safety of our air system. We have had a challenge for the last decade
of making sure we replace those air traffic controllers. Well, the next
class of air traffic controllers is shut down.
Senator Kaine made mention, and I think Mr. Rinaldi made the point:
Do you really want an air traffic controller who is working an 80-hour
week with overtime to not be spending 100 percent of his or her focus
on keeping the skies safe but probably spending 20 percent of his time
thinking about paying the mortgage and another 15 percent of the time
thinking about whether he can pay his kid's tuition? Is that really
what we want from folks who are tasked with such an important job?
Now, due to the good work of Senator Kaine and others and the
Presiding Officer, we passed--I think, 2 days ago--an act so that all
of our Federal employees are going to get reimbursed. I think the House
has passed it now, as well, and the President has signed it. Let's not
presume, by any chance, that this is going to make everybody whole.
We heard from a lady this morning who had not saved very much but had
done what we all urge and had put some money in an IRA. She is taking
her money out of the IRA and paying the tax penalty of getting that
money out so she can get by. She gets a back paycheck but that doesn't
replace the tax penalties she pays on her statements.
We have another person who took an advance on his credit card. We
know credit cards have value, but those rates are not cheap. If you
take an advance against future pay from your credit card, and if you
get your back pay, that is not going to make up for those penalties.
Again, Senator Kaine may have mentioned this already, we in
Virginia--and I know Alaska has the same issue--have tens of thousands,
if not hundreds of thousands, of workers who are contractors who, even
when we reopen the government, have absolutely no guarantee that they
will be reimbursed. As a matter of fact--again, Senator Kaine may have
mentioned this already--there was a veteran-owned small business
contractor that had about nine employees that this week is probably
going to shut down because he can't pay his workers. He maintained as
long as he could, but he couldn't continue to pay his workers.
What about the folks who are never going to get the hours back who
work providing food services or cleaning up our buildings and who are
the lowest paid employees--oftentimes contractors who are never going
to get those hours back--who are going to be stuck with Christmas
presents but never get the income from that time?
The list goes on and on, and it is not just Federal employees and
contractors. Alaska and Virginia are both blessed with great heritage
sites, great national parks. There is the Shenandoah Valley, and around
where Senator Kaine lives, there are a lot of battlefields around
Richmond. I am sure it is the same in Alaska. There are a lot of
private businesses that are the restaurants, campsites, and other
facilities that may not be on national park grounds, but they get all
their business from tourists who come, oftentimes, during the holiday
period. Those folks get, even when we reopen the government, goose
eggs.
So I thank the Presiding Officer. I thank my friend from Virginia as
well.
I believe we will find a way to get this government reopened. My hope
is that our colleagues, when they are home this weekend, will be
refreshed by hearing from workers who are doing their jobs without pay,
and we will find a way to get this government reopened. But we should
be very clear about the damage that has been done--the damage that has
been done in terms of how Americans view all of us, regardless of where
we are on this policy--and how Americans view our Federal Government
and how the rest of the world views us now that we have this shutdown
that I believe by tomorrow becomes the longest Federal Government
shutdown in American history. I hope and pray that we all--maybe in the
[[Page S162]]
aftermath--step back and find a way to make sure that people who pay
undue financial penalties because, through no fault of their own, the
government shut down are compensated; and that we can sort through the
complicated issues around contractors and those private businesses that
are around Federal facilities; that we try to come to some kind of
joint agreement, that never again will we use an unconnected policy
issue to hold hostage 800,000 folks who work for us and hundreds of
thousands of others--and, frankly, millions--who depend upon these
services going forward.
I may be being overly optimistic that somehow or other we will get
this resolved. If we do, we ought to find--those of us who are part of
the groups that find common accord--to put some marker down to never
ever do this again.
I have stories from a variety of Virginians here. I know the
Presiding Officer wants to get out of the Chair at 1 p.m. I ask
unanimous consent that these statements be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Rebecca in Chesapeake writes: ``. . . I just want my
husband to be able to go back to the work he loves and to
have stability for my family returned . . . The stress of not
knowing how long this will last is eating at both my husband
and me.''
Here's what Chad, furloughed NASA engineer from Suffolk,
told me: ``I'm disappointed to once again find myself barred
from doing the job that I love. I find the recent executive
order to freeze civil servant pay at 2018 levels, while on
furlough no less, to be shockingly disrespectful and wrong.''
Rosemarie in Falls Church shared this: ``My husband was
diagnosed last week with advanced lung cancer and now on top
of that stress, I have to worry about not getting a paycheck
. . .''
Lisa in Arlington writes: ``I am forced to look for
multiple part-time jobs to make ends meet and my savings will
soon run out. Creditors and landlords have only so much
patience with us.''
Here's how Joanna from Woodbridge put it: ``I love my job,
but being a pawn for those who have no compassion for me or
those I work beside is going to drive me and many, many
others out of public service.''
Mr. WARNER. As somebody who has been in the private sector longer
than the public sector, like my friend the Senator from Virginia, we
both had the honor of being Governors of Virginia. We have both been in
executive positions. We have both been in positions where we had
workforces. As a business guy, you could tell how well the business
would do by how you treated your workforce. That is the most important
asset you have, your human capital.
If we think back on the past decade, we found ways, appropriately so,
for our military to get funded. We found ways, I think irresponsibly,
to dramatically cut our taxes, particularly for folks at the top. Every
time we had to try to make cutbacks. Where we made cutbacks has been in
what we call domestic discretionary, which in English are things like
the TSA, like air traffic controllers, like the Agriculture Department,
like the Coast Guard, and each year, whenever we find short cuts, we
cut those programs.
As a matter of fact, domestic discretionary spending is at the lowest
percentage it has been since the 1960s. So we asked all these folks who
were furloughed or being asked to work without pay, we asked them to do
more with less, which isn't great for the workforce morale.
Now we have a White House--and, my gosh, I wish somebody from the
White House could have sat there today. I would have loved for them to
try to explain how they ought to go back and negotiate with their
landlords about the rent due, or how they ought to make do with a side
job, or how they ought to do, as some folks were doing, as I was going
to report--some Virginians are selling their personal possessions on
eBay to pay the bills. The fact that this White House is willing to go
to the border for a political photo op--the President's words, not
mine--or get on television and blast his political opponents but not be
willing to send anyone from this administration to sit down and listen
to the concerns of our Federal workforce is disgraceful.
I again thank my colleague from Virginia for his great work on this.
I think it is appropriate that we are in session today raising these
issues. Think of the level of angst that is going to take place over
the next 48 hours as more and more people get those paychecks with zero
on it. We haven't seen anything yet. The kind of angst we felt in
Virginia, in Maryland, and the District, people will feel all over the
country.
We need to bring this government shutdown to an end. We need to put
our workforce back to work, and we need to make sure the services they
provide are being applied in a way to make our country safer and find a
way to make sure that never ever again will we use these folks' lives
as what they are being used right now--their words, not ours--political
pawns. They are more important, their jobs are more important, their
lives are more important than the way they have been treated over these
last 21 days.
I yield the floor.
____________________