[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 153 (Thursday, September 21, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4640-S4642]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Unanimous Consent Request--S. 2791

  Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, since 1790, the Coast Guard, our Nation's 
oldest continuous seagoing service, has been the world's premier force 
in maritime safety, security, and stewardship. Guided by its core 
values of honor, respect, and devotion to duty, the Coast Guard is a 
symbol of resolve to our adversaries and of hope to those in peril at 
sea.
  Our Nation relies on more than 50,000 members of the Coast Guard each 
day to keep our country safe, to project national power, and to 
champion the rule of law and governance on our waters and beyond.
  In Texas, Coast Guard members are on patrol 365 days a year. From 
Station South Padre Island to Sector Houston-Galveston and beyond, 
Coast Guard members keep our citizens and our country safe. Just this 
week, a Coast Guard Air Station Houston helicopter crew completed a 
daring rescue, saving the life of a mariner 10 miles off the coast of 
Galveston, TX. When our Nation calls, the Coast Guard is always ready 
to answer.
  As the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which has 
responsibility for policies affecting the Coast Guard and Coast Guard 
servicemembers and their families, I believe that in the event of a 
shutdown, the Coast Guard must be paid without question and without 
delay.
  That is why, last week, I introduced the bipartisan Pay Our Coast 
Guard Act, which would treat coastguardsmen the same as all other 
servicemembers for purposes of pay and benefits if there is a lapse in 
appropriations. If a continuing resolution is not passed, the prudent 
thing to do--the right thing to do--is to agree now that we will pay 
the men and women of the Coast Guard. That is what this bill does.
  If there is a shutdown, military personnel from all branches of the 
Armed Forces will keep working. In past shutdowns, Congress acted 
swiftly to pay our troops. But since the Coast Guard is housed in the 
Department of Homeland Security and not the Department of Defense, 
coastguardsmen were left out; they weren't compensated.
  Our bipartisan legislation, which I introduced along with Senators 
Cantwell, Sullivan, and Baldwin, avoids that scenario by saying if 
there is a shutdown, all of our Armed Forces, including the Coast 
Guard, must be paid. This bipartisan bill makes clear, here and now, 
that we will not take the Coast Guard hostage to a shutdown fight.
  While the American people can always count on the Coast Guard, the 
Coast Guard has not been always able to count on this Chamber to do the 
right thing. During the last government shutdown, which was 
precipitated by the Democrat majority in this Chamber in 2019, members 
of a single branch of our Armed Forces, the Coast Guard, worked without 
paychecks for 34 days, oftentimes alongside servicemembers of other 
branches who were still being paid. The Defense Department was funded, 
but the Homeland Security Department was not. So I joined with several 
Senate colleagues to advance a bill that would have treated members of 
the Coast Guard the same as those of the Air Force, the Army, the Navy, 
and the Marine Corps.
  That bill was brought up before the entire U.S. Senate, but it was 
blocked by the Democratic leader.
  The only thing necessary to ensure timely payment of every Coast 
Guard servicemember was for my colleagues

[[Page S4641]]

across the aisle to withdraw their objection. Regrettably, that did not 
happen. While coastguardsmen put their lives in danger protecting our 
maritime borders, some of their families were forced to resort to food 
pantries and short-term loans to pay for housing.
  We have the opportunity today to get that right. Last month we marked 
the 233rd birthday of the Coast Guard. To commemorate the occasion, 
this Chamber unanimously passed a resolution that I introduced honoring 
the Coast Guard's excellence in maritime border security. The 
resolution also expressed the Senate's gratitude for the Coast Guard's 
work in protecting our people and our borders from illegal immigration 
and keeping deadly drugs like cocaine and fentanyl from entering the 
United States.
  Again, that resolution passed the Senate unanimously in July. I hope 
to see similar unanimous support for the Coast Guard from my colleagues 
today. Let's not wait until we know if there is going to be a shutdown 
or not to make sure that coastguardsmen are treated fairly and 
equitably. Let's act now to show the coastguardsmen who keep us safe 
that we have got their backs as well.
  Let's do the right thing by making clear that if we pay our 
Department of Defense groups, we are also going to pay our troops from 
the Coast Guard.
  At this point, I want to yield to my colleague, the Senator from 
Alaska, Senator Sullivan.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
  Mr. SULLIVAN. I want to thank my colleague and friend Senator Cruz 
from Texas, who has presented our bill, the Pay Our Coast Guard Act, 
which he noted is a bipartisan bill in the Commerce Committee--the 
chairman, the ranking member. I am the ranking member on the 
subcommittee in charge of the Coast Guard. The chair of that committee, 
Senator Baldwin, is also a cosponsor of this bill.
  Senator Cruz laid it out really well. This is a very simple bill. The 
men and women who protect our coastline, who protect our country, who 
are in the military, whom I see working so hard, risking their lives 
day in and day out in Alaska, where we have some of the most members of 
the Coast Guard stationed in our great State than in almost any other 
State--they need to be protected, and they need to know the U.S. Senate 
has their back.
  Now, it is kind of hard to believe what Senator Cruz just mentioned, 
but let me repeat what happened in 2019. When there was a partial 
government shutdown, every branch of the U.S. military--the Army, the 
Navy, the Marine Corps, the Air Force--they all got paid. They all got 
paid, with one exception--the Coast Guard.
  Imagine how you felt if you were in the Coast Guard, watching your 
brothers and sisters in the other services getting paid and you 
weren't. There were operations going on in the Persian Gulf where 
members of the Marine Corps, the Navy, and the Coast Guard were doing 
joint operations against Iranian aggression and one of those members on 
those ships and boats wasn't getting paid--the Coast Guard members.
  So this happened in America. As a matter of fact, the Commandant of 
the Coast Guard, at the time, ADM Karl Schultz, said:

       [T]his marks the first time in our Nation's history that 
     servicemembers in a U.S. Armed Force have not been paid 
     during a lapse in government appropriations.

  So what are we doing on the floor today? We are saying: Let's not let 
this happen again.
  In the event of a shutdown, which none of us want, let's make sure 
that what happened--and Senator Cruz just mentioned it. Coast Guard men 
and women across the country, including in Alaska, woke up for 34 days 
and did not know whether they were going to get a paycheck and, 
essentially, had to rely on donations from the communities in which 
they served to do their job.
  Now, look, the communities came together, and that was a wonderful 
thing. But I have committed to my Coast Guard members in Alaska and 
throughout the country that this should never happen again. This is a 
no-brainer, and I certainly hope no Senator is going to come down here 
and object and say: Well, this is an appropriations issue.
  Come on. This is a right or wrong issue. Fix it. We are trying to fix 
it--right now.
  I was the one who came down during the last government shutdown and 
tried to get unanimous consent. I talked to the President of the United 
States. He said he was going to sign our bill to pay the Coast Guard, 
and the Democratic minority leader, at the time, blocked it. I 
certainly hope none of our colleagues, Democrat or Republican, are 
going to block it again.
  This is a bipartisan bill. It makes sense, and the Coast Guard and 
their family members are watching. Does the U.S. Senate have their back 
or not?
  I strongly encourage my colleagues to work with us to pass our Pay 
Our Coast Guard Act bill right now.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
  Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, I thank Senator Sullivan for his excellent 
and heartfelt remarks.
  As if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the 
Committee on Appropriations be discharged from further consideration of 
S. 2791, the Pay Our Coast Guard Act, and that the Senate proceed to 
its immediate consideration; further, that the bill be considered read 
a third time and passed, and that the motion to reconsider be 
considered made and laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Washington.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I share my 
colleagues' concern with making sure the men and women of the Coast 
Guard get the pay they deserve in a timely way. In fact, I don't want 
any of our Federal workers to miss a paycheck. But this bill, which 
essentially says the Coast Guard gets paid as long as other members of 
our armed services are being paid, won't actually stop anyone from 
missing a paycheck in a few weeks because the looming shutdown would 
also stop pay for the military.
  I appreciate that my colleagues want to talk about how Coast Guard 
pay is handled compared to other branches of our armed services, but, 
respectfully, the pressing issue right now is making sure everyone gets 
paid, and we prevent a completely unnecessary shutdown that would hurt 
our families across the country, which is why I am working around the 
clock to make sure we pass a bipartisan CR and supplemental package. 
And I would urge all of my colleagues to join me in that effort.
  And I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.
  The Senator from Texas.
  Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, I want every member of the Coast Guard to 
understand what just happened. We are 9 days away from the expiration 
of current government funding. No one here knows whether a shutdown 
will happen or not, but it is not complicated, with partisan divisions 
in Washington, that there is a very real risk of a shutdown.
  I believe President Biden and the majority leader of the Senate--
Senator Schumer--want a shutdown. Whether they want it or not, it is 
clear there is a very real risk. And if, 9 days from now, what happened 
in 2019 happens again, which is that our soldiers are paid, our sailors 
are paid, our airmen are paid, our marines are paid, but our 
coastguardsmen are left in the lurch--that is what happened in 2019, 
when Senator Sullivan and I came to the floor, tried to take care of 
our coastguardsmen then, and the Democrats objected. And if, 9 days 
from now, for the over 50,000 coastguardsmen across this country, their 
paychecks stop, you will know why, and it was because of two simple 
words just uttered on behalf of Democrat leadership: ``I object.''
  Had the Democrats simply not said those words--``I object''--our 
coastguardsmen would be paid in 9 days. And understand that this 
legislation, as Senator Sullivan pointed out, is bipartisan 
legislation. It is authored by the chairman and ranking member of the 
Commerce Committee and the chairman and ranking member of the 
subcommittee with jurisdiction over the Coast Guard. And yet Democrat 
leadership wants to engage in a partisan battle with the House of 
Representatives, and they want to hold the men and women of the Coast 
Guard hostage.
  I am going to urge the Democrat leadership to reconsider. I don't 
know

[[Page S4642]]

whether we will have a shutdown or not, but I know it is unfair to 
treat coastguardsmen like the red-haired stepchild of our Armed Forces.
  The men and women of the Coast Guard, when disaster strikes--and, 
look, I saw firsthand, when Hurricane Harvey hit Texas, the incredible 
heroism of coastguardsmen who risked their lives to save people in 
harm's way.
  What just happened on the Senate floor is not right, and I would 
encourage Democrat leadership to listen to their own Democrat chairman 
of the Commerce Committee, their own ranking member of the Coast Guard 
committee and say: We are going to end this unfair discrimination 
against the Coast Guard. We are going to treat our Armed Forces with 
equity, and regardless of dysfunction in Washington, we are going to 
pay our Coast Guard.
  It is the right thing to do, and I would urge members from both sides 
of the aisle to come together and say: Just as we know the Coast Guard 
has our back if we are in trouble, that we have got their back as well. 
It is the right thing to do.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I am shocked, disappointed, and, to be 
honest, stunned. I didn't think anyone was going to object to this 
bill. It makes no sense to do so. I didn't understand the Senator from 
Washington's explanation. Her colleague from Washington is actually the 
chairman of the Commerce Committee and a cosponsor of this bill.
  So, again, this is a no-brainer. None of us want a government 
shutdown, but, if it happens, we can't let what happened in 2019 be 
repeated. And what happened in 2019 was that every member of the 
military services was paid, with the exception of the Coast Guard. And 
I have told them that we won't let that happen again.
  So I am going to keep coming down to the floor with Senator Cruz, and 
we are going to get this bill passed.
  And if you are watching and you are a Coast Guard member and you 
understand what happened, Democratic leadership in the U.S. Senate just 
blocked this bill--a bipartisan bill to make sure you get treated 
fairly in the event of a government shutdown.
  It is the right thing to do. Senator Cruz and I will keep working it 
to make sure this happens.
  I yield the floor.