[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 15286]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   PUT FEDERAL EMPLOYEES BACK TO WORK

  (Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker and Members, I want to wish a 
congratulations to our Republican majority and a thank you for bringing 
a bill to the floor that would guarantee the pay for the furloughed 
Federal employees. The essential employees who are already working will 
be paid from existing law, so now we pass it to the Senate where those 
furloughed employees will be able to be paid.
  My question of the majority Republicans is: now that we're going to 
pay these furloughed employees, let's bring them back to work. Why 
would we not bring them back to work if we're paying for them?
  I've heard of people being paid not to work, but I've never heard it 
from the Republican majority before that. I voted for it, and it passed 
unanimously out of the House, but let's bring those folks back to work. 
Let's reopen this government, and let's bring back those dedicated 
Federal employees so they don't have to stand down there and stop our 
veterans from going to the World War II Memorial.
  They're the folks who are working on all of the things that make our 
country great, so let's bring them back to work. We can do that. We are 
going to pay them. Let's let them come back and do their jobs.

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