[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 9 (Wednesday, January 16, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H615-H616]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1215
                           REOPEN GOVERNMENT

  (Ms. ESCOBAR asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Ms. ESCOBAR. Madam Speaker, today, on the 26th day of the Trump

[[Page H616]]

shutdown, I rise on behalf of Lauren, an El Pasoan in my district on 
the U.S.-Mexico border.
  Lauren is married to one of our DEA agents, and he is one of nearly 
10,000 Federal employees in El Paso. Every day, her husband puts his 
life on the line to serve El Pasoans and our Nation, and, last week, he 
missed his paycheck.
  Lauren describes the shutdown as discouraging and scary. They are 
struggling to make ends meet for their family of three small children.
  Lauren and her family, and the hundreds of thousands of Federal 
employees in America, should not have to face this dire reality and 
don't deserve this treatment.
  We must reopen the government now and give our public servants the 
pay they have earned for their honorable work.
  And I will repeat what I know to be true: The border has never been 
more secure or safer.
  Madam Speaker, we, in the House, have voted on a number of bipartisan 
bills to reopen the government. I urge my colleagues in the Senate to 
come together, end this absurdity, have some compassion, and do the 
same.

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