[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 4864-4865]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          IMPACTS OF SEQUESTER

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, for many months now my Republican friends 
have promised the impacts of the sequester's arbitrary cuts would be 
minimal--don't worry about them. When they voiced any concern at all 
about the sequester cuts, it was over the potential impact on the U.S. 
military. The impact on middle-class families and the national economy 
wouldn't be that drastic, they promised in February and in March.
  Well, now it is April and contrary to Republican promises, Americans 
in communities from Massachusetts to Nevada, from coast to coast, in 
red States and in blue States, are beginning to feel the pinch of those 
across-the-board cuts.
  In the District of Columbia, tourists traveling from home to here for 
the National Cherry Blossom Festival experienced long lines to go 
through airport security because of these furloughs. Coming home from 
Nevada on Sunday there were mobs of people. When anyone sits down to 
talk to any of them, they will speak about how miserable it is getting 
through security checks at airports all over the country.
  In Murray, UT, a food pantry that feeds more than 1,000 people every 
month has closed because of these cuts. In Durham, NC, scores of 
employees at a medical research facility will get pink slips. In 
central Maine fewer senior citizens will be able to participate with 
Meals on Wheels. In Bethlehem, PA, more than 100 children are going to 
be kicked off Head Start.
  Now, maybe my Republican friends don't feel this, but I guarantee my 
colleagues the parents of these little children in Bethlehem, PA, feel 
it. People waiting in these airport lines feel it. Why, at this medical 
research facility, should these people get pink slips? Are they 
unnecessary? Of course not. If the food pantry in Utah closes, are the 
people still hungry? Of course they are--more of them than before this 
cut took place.
  In central Nebraska emergency response times have increased 
significantly since the local airport control tower closed. In southern 
Ohio the director of the local public defender's office--a man by the 
name of Steve Nolder--fired himself. He did that rather than lay off 
other members of his staff. He figured: I am one; I can save the jobs 
of three people. And that is what he did. That is quite unbelievable, 
but it is true. He has worked there for 18 years in the public 
defender's office. I repeat, he gave up his job so three could keep 
theirs.
  Perhaps most concerning of all, community cancer centers around the 
country are facing difficult choices. For the people who have 
experienced cancer or experienced cancer in their families, this is 
something that is noted. Community cancer centers around the country 
are facing a very difficult choice: send Medicare patients away or just 
close their doors. The Washington Post reports that because of the 
sequester cuts to Medicare reimbursements, cancer centers around the 
country can no longer afford to administer many common drugs. For 
people who have watched loved ones have chemotherapy--it was just a few 
months ago when people worried about whether they were going to be able 
to get the chemo drugs because there was a shortage. Well, now it is 
widespread.
  The Post reports, I repeat, because of the sequester cuts to 
Medicare, reimbursements for these cancer centers around the country 
have to make a choice: close or change their hours,

[[Page 4865]]

which is tough on patients. These clinics, where two-thirds of the 
cancer patients receive treatments, would lose so much money so quickly 
they could have to go out of business. So providers are sending cancer 
patients to overcrowded hospitals instead, not to the cancer centers. 
For patients in clinical trials for these new cancer drugs--lifesaving 
experiments--the situation is really dire. Some in these clinical 
trials are going to have to travel across the country, to Washington, 
DC, Boston, or New York. People can't afford that, especially when they 
are sick.
  As I said last month, the effects of the so-called sequester didn't 
break over us like a big wave, they sneaked up on us like a rising 
tide, and that tide is here now. But the effects are devastating, even 
though we didn't feel them immediately, and there is more pain to come. 
That is the sad part about it.
  In the coming months, meat inspectors, FBI officers, and Border 
Patrol agents will be furloughed. We haven't even begun to see the 
worst of the job losses. There will be 750,000 jobs lost because of 
sequester across the country.
  The overwhelming majority of Americans wanted us to compromise before 
their friends and family members got pink slips or furloughed or were 
told there is no more treatment for them even though they have cancer. 
For some it is already too late. But we can repair that damage, 
perhaps, and we should do it immediately, to put Americans back to 
work--no more furloughs.
  To give our economy a foundation for growth, we must replace the 
sequester with a balanced approach to deficit reduction. A balanced 
approach is one that asks the richest among us to contribute a little 
bit more--their fair share--to deficit reduction. The rich are willing 
to do this. If we did this, we would avert cuts that hurt American 
families, harm our military readiness, and hinder our economic 
recovery.
  I want everyone within the sound of my voice to doublecheck my 
statistics, but I heard on the radio on the way to work the Pentagon 
has decided that one-third of all of our aircraft simply will not be 
used because they don't have enough resources to fuel them. So that 
training just will not go forward. That is what I heard on the radio, 
and someone can doublecheck what I heard, but I am confident that is 
right.
  In the House and in the Senate, both Republicans and Democrats voted 
to impose these cuts quite a long time ago, so it is going to take 
Republicans and Democrats working together to avert them. That is what 
we need to do. It is senseless to go on as we are done with these cuts 
that are done with a meat cleaver, not a scalpel.

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