[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15495-15496]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     FURLOUGHED FEDERAL CONTRACTORS

  (Ms. TSONGAS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Ms. TSONGAS. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I had a heart-wrenching 
conversation with a nurse employed at a military installation in my 
district. She has been furloughed because of the Republican government 
shutdown. As a Federal contract employee, she is terrified that she 
won't be able to recover

[[Page 15496]]

her lost pay, putting her family at financial risk. ``We are the ones 
suffering,'' she told me. ``We are hardworking Americans working 
paycheck to paycheck. Something like this can destroy us.''
  No piecemeal approach, no temporary fix here or there is going to put 
an end to this reckless shutdown. Only one bill is guaranteed to reopen 
all of the government--or even any part of it today--and put this nurse 
and hundreds of thousands of Americans like her back to work.
  It is time for the House to vote on the straightforward, Senate-
passed funding bill. Mr. Speaker, let us vote.

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