[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.

[[Page S160]]

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

[[Page S161]]

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.

                          ____________________