[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 15210-15211]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

  (Mr. GRIFFITH of Virginia asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. GRIFFITH of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I did not plan to take the

[[Page 15211]]

floor today, but I was receiving a call this afternoon from Felecia 
Shelor, who runs the Poor Farmers Market in Meadows of Dan. She was 
calling both on her behalf and on behalf of her friends who run Mabry 
Mill, an establishment just off the Blue Ridge Parkway.
  She told me that they were having similar problems to what we've read 
about with Mt. Vernon being closed down, even though it's not run by 
the Federal Government and isn't owned by the Federal Government. Mabry 
Mill is not a Federal facility, but it's just off the Parkway. We know 
in North Carolina there was a facility where they blocked the parking. 
We don't have the ability to do the regular things, but we can block 
the parking of businesses.
  Ladies and gentlemen, this is a tragedy. Sixty-some employees in the 
various businesses there may be affected negatively by the actions of 
the park service. I call your attention to this. I ask you if you're in 
the neighborhood, go to the Blue Ridge Parkway, travel down it, go to 
Mabry Mill, shop the stores nearby. They need you to show that they're 
not going to allow the government to play cheap tricks, as one park 
ranger said they were doing in an article in the Washington Times 
today:

       We've been told to make life as difficult for people as we 
     can. It's disgusting.

  That's what an angry park ranger said.
  Everyone, Madam Speaker, in this country should be angry, and they 
should go out to the Parkway.

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