[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15612]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      HUMAN CONSEQUENCES OF IRRESPONSIBLE AND IRRATIONAL SHUTDOWN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Illinois (Mrs. Bustos) for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. BUSTOS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to continue speaking out about 
the human consequences of this irresponsible and irrational government 
shutdown. We are now 10 days into this ridiculousness, and what I have 
been doing is spending time on the phone each day with the people from 
my region who tell me their stories about suffering due to the needless 
and increasingly maddening shutdown.
  I recently spoke with the family of Jeremiah Johnson. They are from a 
town called Prophetstown, Illinois. It is a small town of about 2,000 
people in Whiteside County, right in the heart of my congressional 
district.
  Jeremiah is a disabled combat veteran who served his country bravely 
in Iraq. He now is also a Federal law enforcement employee who happens 
to be working without any pay; and while he is receiving no paycheck, 
he is also worried about the disability benefits being delayed because 
of the shutdown. So absolutely a double whammy for this father and 
husband.
  In fact, he and his wife, Pam, just celebrated their 18th wedding 
anniversary on Monday; and rather than go out and celebrate like many 
couples do to mark their joyous occasion, they ate at home because they 
don't know when to expect their next paycheck. So Pam made a pie for 
her husband and Jeremiah gave his wife an anniversary card, very simple 
and very sweet. On top of that, their 12-year-old daughter, Carissa, 
actually offered her parents her entire savings in case they need it. 
When Pam told me this story, she got a little emotional about it and 
spoke over and over about just what a good daughter they have.
  So in spite of their seventh grader's loving offer and Pam and 
Jeremiah removing any extravagance from their wedding anniversary 
plans, of course they remain worried about the lack of a paycheck and 
really their own ability to be able to pay their car payment and their 
house payment. This is absolutely an unacceptable way that we would 
ever as a Nation treat our disabled veterans like Jeremiah.
  We have the votes right now to open up our government and put 
Jeremiah and his family at ease; but there is one way to do this, and 
it is only if Democrats and Republicans come together. That is our 
path. It is that simple. It is commonsense, it is reasonable, and it is 
absolutely the right thing to do.

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