[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 7006]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             SEQUESTRATION

  Mr. WARNER. I thank the Senator from Oklahoma and wish him good 
travels.
  I rise briefly today to point out one more time some of the 
ramifications of the policy I have repeatedly called stupidity on 
steroids, which is our sequestration policy. Word came out earlier this 
week from the Department of Defense that the Secretary, to meet his 
sequestration numbers, is going to have to furlough teachers in 
Department of Defense schools for 5 days and education support 
personnel for 11 days.
  Many of us on the floor of the Senate stand and praise our men and 
women who serve in the military, who defend our freedoms. I cannot 
think of anything that is more of an antithesis to those words we say, 
that we would praise their service, if we say: Yes, you go off and 
defend our Nation in Iraq and Afghanistan; meanwhile, your families and 
your children cannot go to school.
  What makes this particularly difficult to stomach at this point is 
just today, Blue Star Families--one of our Nation's best veterans 
organizations, veterans support group organizations--came out and said 
in a list of priorities for military families, No. 1, the impact of 
deployments, repeated deployments on military families and particularly 
children; and, No. 2, military children education.
  In my State and many other States, military families, particularly on 
base, have a military DOD school. Those schools provide a valuable 
service to those military families oftentimes who have their parents 
deployed. In my mind, how can we stand on the floor of this Senate and 
commend those men and women who serve and at the same time say we 
support that service: We want to support you at home, but not enough to 
not have your kids have to miss 5 days of school because their teachers 
are furloughed or providers of other support services for educational 
personnel are furloughed for 11 days.
  I am going to write Secretary Hagel, and I ask that all of my 
colleagues join with me in this matter in urging that the furloughs of 
these educators who educate the children of our military families be 
exempted from the process of sequestration.
  While it begs the large question that the Nation confronts a $16 
trillion debt, I think most of us in this Chamber know that the only 
way we are going to get to a solution is if those of us on this side of 
the aisle find a way to make smart and sensible reforms to our 
entitlement programs. Our colleagues on the opposite side of the aisle 
are going to have to work with us to find ways to generate additional 
revenues; otherwise, we are going to keep coming back to the kinds of 
cuts we have seen in sequestration and in domestic discretionary.
  We are on a current path that would take domestic discretionary 
spending from 16 percent of our Federal spending down to 4 percent. As 
a business investor, I would never invest in a business that spent less 
than 5 percent of its resources on its workforce and infrastructure.
  So today I rise on the issue of making sure we actually honor those 
military families of whom we speak so often and make sure their kids 
get to go to school next year and don't have to lose valuable 
educational time because their teachers are furloughed. I hope my 
colleagues will join me on the letter to Secretary Hagel.
  With that, I yield the floor, and I thank the Senator from Texas for 
his courtesy.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.

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