[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 4010]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             SEQUESTRATION

  (Mr. MAFFEI asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MAFFEI. Mr. Speaker, I stood here a few days before the sequester 
deadline and urged this House to take action. The sequester is a set of 
random, arbitrary, temporary cuts that put thousands of jobs in 
jeopardy and harm our national security readiness and our economy. Some 
have yet to see the immediate effects. But this problem is like a 
pipeline being shut off 10 miles down the road. We may not notice it 
right away, but soon it'll start to turn into a trickle.
  In central New York, we are seeing the effects at our airports, our 
schools, our hospitals, and throughout our community:
  280 employees are slated to be furloughed at the 174th Attack Wing at 
Hancock Field, a unit currently in operations in Afghanistan;
  The air traffic control tower at Hancock Airport may close for 
overnight flights;
  The Syracuse City Schools could lose more than a million dollars in 
aid. They have already lost nearly a thousand positions in the last 3 
years.
  Mr. Speaker, we cannot continue to slam our schools and expect to 
have an educated workforce for the 21st century. We need to address our 
debt and balance the budget. But we can't do it on the backs of our 
middle class and seniors, and we shouldn't do it at the expense of 
thousands of hardworking men and women: our teachers, public health 
workers, law enforcement officers, prison guards, FDA inspectors, 
Social Security workers, and civilian Defense Department workers. 
They're just trying to make a living and keep their jobs.
  Just as my constituents have asked me to do, I'm going to keep urging 
this House to take action. We need to work together to protect our 
middle class, protect jobs, and get our economy moving again. We cannot 
continue this policy of random cuts time and again, putting our economy 
at risk. We have to stop punishing our constituents because Washington 
doesn't work.


                Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hastings of Washington). Members are 
reminded to heed the gavel at the expiration of the time for which they 
are recognized.

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