[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 7478-7479]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      THE EFFECTS OF SEQUESTRATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, as the sequester's effects continue to place 
our economy and national security at risk, the news that 650,000 
civilian defense workers will be forced to take unpaid leave ought to 
alarm all Americans who are concerned about our military readiness and 
national security. These furloughs will affect thousands who live in my 
district and thousands who live in the districts of every Member here.
  After Congress voted earlier this month to end furloughs for air 
traffic controllers that had caused flight delays, one would have 
expected there to be a unanimous outcry for the rest of the sequester 
to be replaced.
  The best way to do that, of course, Mr. Speaker, is with a big and 
balanced agreement, but, instead, Republicans in this House don't seem 
interested.
  It's not just Democrats who are taken aback by their silence. 
Republican Senator and former Presidential nominee of the Republican 
Party, John McCain, said on May 14, just a few days ago, about these 
furloughs for civilian defense employees:

       Nobody seems to care. It's amazing. It's one of the most 
     amazing things I've seen in the years I've been in the 
     Senate.

  So said John McCain.
  Democrats continue to call for the sequester to be replaced with a 
balanced approach to deficits that restores fiscal discipline, 
preserves our ability to pay for our military readiness, and invests in 
a strong economy.
  The sequester, on its own, is not a solution. It has been, however, 
Republican policy all along and is now in effect because they refuse to 
compromise in a bipartisan way to find a real solution.
  If you go back to July of 2011 and look at the Republican offer of 
the Cut, Cap and Balance bill, you will see that sequestration is in 
there. It is the alternative that Republicans put forth as policy; 229 
Republicans voted for that policy.
  Well, they got what they wanted. On April 27, a report in The Hill 
said:

       GOP leaders in the House said they have no plans to bring 
     up broad legislation to replace sequestration, according to a 
     leadership aide.

  The men and women who are hard at work supporting our troops and 
protecting our Nation are set to be furloughed for 11 days this year--
an unfair, unplanned, undeserved pay cut, while, frankly, the 
leadership of this House sits idly by and takes no action to replace 
the sequester.
  The same goes for the other terrible effects sequestration could 
have: 70,000 eligible children kicked off Head Start; 10,000 teachers' 
jobs at risk; retirement disability claims delayed; 4 million fewer 
Meals on Wheels for seniors; 125,000 fewer rental assistance vouchers; 
2,100 fewer food safety inspectors.
  Surely, if those were on the floor for a vote, most of us would not 
vote for them; but that's what's happening as a result of the 
sequester.

[[Page 7479]]

  We know, Mr. Speaker, what the Republican plan is for these defense 
cuts, to pass appropriation bills in the House that shift those cuts so 
that domestic programs, those education, Head Start, food safety that 
I've just mentioned, basic biomedical research, are cut more deeply 
than the parties agreed to in the Budget Control Act in 2011.
  We also understand, Mr. Speaker, and everyone recognizes, that the 
domestic cuts Republicans want to impose, instead, couldn't even pass 
the House, let alone make it through the Senate or survive a certain 
veto.
  So, again, Mr. Speaker, we have only one reasonable option before us, 
and that is to work together, to set our differences aside for the good 
of our country, and to achieve real compromise.
  A big, balanced, bipartisan approach that replaces the entire 
sequester is the only way to protect our defense workers against these 
furloughs and end the uncertainty that they and their families are 
facing.
  Let's have a vote, Mr. Speaker, on a balanced alternative, not 
another vote to repeal health care reform that's not going anyplace, 
not another vote to roll back the rights of workers, not another vote 
to strip away safety standards or environmental protections.
  Let's stop wasting time and get to work on the most pressing 
challenge we face, and make the tough choices necessary to restore 
fiscal stability and invest in our economy and in our national 
security.

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