[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5590-5591]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             SEQUESTRATION

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, Americans arriving at the airport--almost 
any airport in America--to take off on their summer vacations already 
face long lines at security checkpoints. Soon they will be facing long 
waits at the terminal as well. Last week the Federal Aviation 
Administration announced that starting this week thousands of flights 
every day will be delayed for up to 3 hours.
  Because of the devastating, arbitrary cuts of sequestration, the FAA 
is forced to furlough tens of thousands of workers. These furloughs 
could lead to 6,700 flight delays every day this summer. I repeat, 
every day, 6,700 delayed flights. By comparison, the worst travel day 
of last year, 2012, was about 3,000 flights being delayed. That was 
after severe thunderstorms accompanied by 2-inch hail and a 90-mile-an-
hour wind that ripped across the Midwest and Northeast and a tornado 
touched down in New York. That caused 3,000 flight delays. On any day 
this sequestration kicks in, it will be double that. Travelers were 
stranded at airports across the country during that very bad day we had 
last year. Some were stranded for days. It is going to be worse than 
that. As I said, this summer more than twice that number of flights 
will be delayed every single day.
  While major airports such as LaGuardia in New York and O'Hare in 
Chicago will see the worst delays, furloughs will impact every airport 
in the Nation. So whether Americans are traveling to Orlando, Las 
Vegas, San Diego or Seattle, Maine or Montana, they should expect a 
long wait for a flight.
  This will make air travel frustrating, to say the least. It is bad 
enough now. It will be worse. It will be time-consuming for millions of 
Americans, whether taking the family to see the Grand Canyon or heading 
to New York for business. It will cover everything. At airports across 
the country, millions of Americans who fly will get their first taste 
of the pain of sequestration.
  Many Americans have been feeling that pain for weeks. For example, in 
Rockland, ME, Meals on Wheels, a wonderful program, been in existence 
for a long time, decades--it is for people who are old and homebound. 
They bring them a meal, one meal a day, a hot meal. In Rockland, ME, 
Meals on Wheels has a waiting list for the first time in 16 years.
  It is going to affect Meals on Wheels Programs all over the country. 
They have literally cut the size of meals they serve to the elderly in 
order to save money. Not only are they going to be able to do less 
meals, but those they serve are going to be smaller. This is the only 
meal most of these seniors get every day. They may have a bowl of 
cereal, eat a piece of toast. But as far as a hot meal, this is it.
  In Fayetteville, AR, a Head Start Program will close 13 days early 
this spring, leaving hundreds of needy children without anywhere to go 
and without nutritious meals to eat. Nationwide, more than 70,000 
little boys and girls will be kicked off Head Start, a program for low-
income children who could not afford preschool.
  As the name Head Start says, the purpose of it is for these tiny 
little boys and girls to have preschool programs so they can learn to 
start to understand what it means to read, to understand what education 
is all about. Economically burdened little kids, because of this 
program, who want to get a head start will not be able to; these 
programs will be savaged.
  At Duke University, just one program out of hundreds at the School of

[[Page 5591]]

Medicine program will have 50 people laid off. These are people doing 
some of the most important research there is in the world to cure 
diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, diabetes. All over the 
country, thousands of these researchers will be furloughed or they will 
be laid off.
  The U.S. military has cut tuition assistance for soldiers and 
eliminated a program helping more than 100,000 homeless veterans get 
off the street and back on their feet. The U.S. Air Force has grounded 
one-third of its fighter jets and bombers because of the across-the-
board cuts. These programs are to train our military so in a time of 
crisis they can be prepared. They cannot be prepared if they cannot 
practice. More than 1 million Federal workers, including hundreds of 
thousands of Defense Department employees, are preparing to take forced 
furlough days. This is not only a hardship for individual families, it 
is also a threat to our national economy and our national security.
  In national parks across the Nation--Great Basin in Nevada, Bryce 
Canyon, UT, Mount Desert Island, thousands of miles away from those two 
places in Maine--employees face reduced hours, and closure will affect 
thousands of travelers.
  Long delays at the airport will not be the only damper on summer 
vacation travel. For every person who loses work because of this 
sequestration, that is less they can buy to help people who are selling 
goods and services. We cannot and we should not only address the FAA 
cuts. As important as they are, we should look at the whole spectrum. 
We cannot ignore the sequester's overall effect on Americans and on 
programs that help small businesses grow, fund crucial medical 
research, and keep our children and seniors safe.
  While airport delays are costly and frustrating, some would say they 
are not as severe as the pain of a senior citizen missing a meal, the 
only hot meal they would get that day, or veterans going without a roof 
over their head at night.
  Families and businesses in every State in the Nation, in red States 
and blue States, are at risk because of these haphazard cuts. That is 
what they are. But Congress has the power to reverse these self-
inflicted wounds without adding 1 penny to the deficit. We are winding 
down the war in Afghanistan, and Iraq has been wound down 
significantly. We have provided the money. The money is there. We have 
not spent it. We do not need to. We can use those savings from wrapping 
up two wars to avoid the full brunt of the sequester's arbitrary cuts. 
The Congressional Budget Office said that would score, that money is 
available, money we could use. Funding for the operations in Iraq and 
Afghanistan is kept in the so-called Overseas Contingency Operations 
Account. That is what it is called. Since the worst of the sequester 
cuts is creating an emergency situation, we should consider using these 
funds to offset their impact. These really are emergencies. We should 
do it. I am not proposing to use these funds to offset the entire 
sequester, but Congress has the power to avert the most painful and 
senseless of the sequester's cuts using these monies.
  Twenty-eight Republicans in the Senate and 174 Republicans in the 
House voted to oppose these sequester haphazard cuts. If those same 
Republicans will work with Democrats, we could act now to protect 
families, businesses, ensure our national defense, and save Americans 
millions of hours spent waiting at the airport.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.

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