[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 14 (Wednesday, January 23, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H1008-H1009]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Washington (Ms. Schrier) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SCHRIER. Madam Speaker, yesterday marked 1 full month of this 
unnecessary government shutdown, and 800,000 Federal employees are set 
to miss their second paycheck later this week.
  The shutdown is not only affecting those workers, but we are seeing 
ripple effects of agencies being closed or staff being downsized. Food 
banks are seeing massive increases, some almost twelvefold, in demand 
from Federal employees, but also people who rely on help like Section 8 
housing checks or SNAP benefits.
  Here is some of what I am hearing. I heard from a constituent who is 
a career employee at the FAA that ``it is frustrating that thousands of 
hardworking Federal employees have become innocent pawns in the current 
Washington standoff between Congress and the President over funding for 
border security. As an integral part of the Nation's air traffic 
control system, my focus has always been and will always be on 
safety.''
  He goes on: ``My dedicated colleagues and I at the FAA work 
tirelessly in furtherance of the agency's mission of providing the 
safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world, despite some of 
us now doing so without pay.''
  I have also heard from a woman whose husband is a Federal agent at 
the FDA. ``My question,'' she says, ``is how are we going to make ends 
meet without a paycheck from my husband this Friday? We adopted our 
sweet son a year and a half ago, draining our savings account to do so. 
We currently do

[[Page H1009]]

not have savings to fall back on during this time.
  ``How are we supposed to pay our rent, our bills, keep food on the 
table for our family, or pay for an emergency should it arise? I do 
have a full-time job that will at least bring us some income during 
this shutdown, and I am sure we are luckier than most Federal-employed 
families, but I can assure you that our family is in true panic mode.
  ``We have been doing everything in our power to ensure our family 
would be able to purchase a home this summer. How do we explain to 
creditors that we don't have the money to pay them right now without it 
affecting our credit?''
  I have also heard from a constituent who is a furloughed Federal 
worker who is ``forced to come to work every day without pay due to the 
partial government shutdown.
  ``Every day that goes by, the stress and anxiety about not having a 
paycheck and having to support my family, all the while having to incur 
the costs of going to work every day, mounts. To top this all off, as 
an `excepted,' or an `exempt,' employee, under current Federal law, I 
am not allowed to apply for nor can I receive unemployment 
compensation.''
  I have also heard from a local business owner who contracts with 
Federal entities. He says: ``My work has ground to a halt. I won't be 
compensated for any downtime, and I will have to reduce my workforce. 
We don't need a wall; we don't need to waste money; and we don't need 
symbolic racism. We need an open government that manages land, 
services, travel, and commerce. Please apply pressure to get the 
government open and our district's Federal employees, contractors, and 
private-sector partners back to work.''
  I have heard from a constituent who served 40 years in the Coast 
Guard, under many different administrations, who said: ``Worst of all, 
it is negatively impacting the most junior members of our workforce. 
These are the people you will meet if you ever take your family out 
boating on Puget Sound or the navigable waters of this country and 
experience some form of distress. As a retiree, I will not be paid at 
the end of this month, a statement I once believed I would never have 
to say.''
  I have heard from a social worker whose client left a domestic 
violence situation and recently received a letter about discontinuation 
of Section 8 housing benefits: ``This family, without this support, 
will be homeless once again, let alone the emotional strain that this 
is causing. Please do what you can,'' she says, ``to prevent the stress 
on our most vulnerable.''
  The shutdown must end now. Federal employees and their families 
should not be held hostage for a wasteful and ineffective wall. People 
who rely on assistance from the Federal Government are now caught in 
the fray.
  The House now has voted nine times to reopen the government with 
bipartisan bills that have similar language to what the Republican 
Senate passed in December, and we will introduce similar legislation 
today, giving Republicans in the Senate yet another opportunity to open 
the government.
  I will not support reopening the government in exchange for the 
President's wall. This hostage-taking strategy must not be a successful 
one, or we will see it again.
  The wall, as he defines it, is a monument to racism and xenophobia, 
an environmental disaster, and a huge waste of hard-earned taxpayer 
dollars.
  Let's be clear that what Mr. Trump offered as a ``compromise'' on 
Saturday doesn't even undo the damage he alone has caused. That is no 
compromise; that is lip service.
  Get the government open, and then we can have an informed, evidence-
based discussion about the best way to protect our borders without 
holding the American people hostage.

                          ____________________