[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 14 (Wednesday, January 23, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H1012]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   PRESERVE DIGNITY OF OUR CITIZENRY

  (Mr. DELGADO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DELGADO. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to lay bare the calamity that 
is the shutdown. From phones ringing off the hook, to folks I talked to 
at my townhall meeting on Monday, we have heard from far too many of 
our fellow citizens struggling because of government inaction.
  Take the Coast Guard, who I met with in Saugerties last Friday. They 
are providing an invaluable service to our community up and down the 
Hudson River, not only search and rescue, but ice cutting, which is 
critical to our local economy.
  They are out there working in the freezing cold and not being paid. 
This is the first time in history U.S. Armed Forces servicemembers are 
not being paid during a lapse in government funding.
  I repeat: Because of the shutdown, members of the U.S. military are 
working without pay.
  Government dysfunction of any kind is not good for the well-being of 
our democratic order. We are now approaching levels of dysfunction that 
ought not be tolerable for anyone who cares to preserve the dignity of 
our citizenry. We must open the government now.

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