[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 11190-11191]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           END THE SEQUESTER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, beginning this week, literally hundreds of 
thousands of civilian workers are being furloughed at defense 
installations in Maryland's Fifth District, across the State, and 
around the country. That means as of Monday, more than 650,000 
hardworking, middle class defense employees are being forced to take a 
20 percent pay cut for the remainder of the fiscal year.
  It isn't because they are not doing their job well; they are.
  It isn't because they don't have enough work; they do.
  And it isn't because we don't need their talents, their experience, 
and their dedication to service; we need them more now than ever.
  These employees are being furloughed because Congress has failed. 
Congress has failed to achieve deficit reduction in a balanced and 
responsible way. In fact, we passed a budget through the House of 
Representatives; the United States Senate has passed a budget. But the 
House of Representatives, Republican leadership, refuses to go to 
conference, refuses to follow regular order for which they've called so 
frequently, refuses to try to bring a compromise agreement back to this 
floor. This Congress has failed to achieve deficit reduction in a 
balanced and responsible way.
  Instead, we now have the sequester--a senseless, stupid, irrational 
policy. It's a real shame, Mr. Speaker, that partisan politics is 
keeping some of our country's best and brightest from doing their jobs 
supporting our warfighters as they serve in Afghanistan and around the 
world.
  Last Tuesday, I met with some of the outstanding men and women who 
work in civilian defense jobs at Pax River Naval Air Station in my 
district. When you go to Pax River, you often see uniformed and 
civilian personnel sitting side by side, working to accomplish the same 
mission, serving with the same dedication, partners in making our 
government stronger and making our defense stronger, each complementing 
the work of the other.
  Now, as a result of these furloughs, one of them will get a 20 
percent pay cut. One of them will be told to go home. One of them will 
be told you can't even volunteer to come back and get the job done. And 
the other will get one day a week of having to carry out the mission 
alone.
  At that meeting, I heard from members of the Pax River community who 
are deeply concerned about the effects of these furloughs on our 
military readiness, our ongoing missions, on Department morale, and on 
the local economy. They were concerned about themselves, but they were 
mainly concerned about the job that was going to be left undone, 
finished late, undermining our security. One person scheduled to be 
furloughed this Friday told me:

       I have a strong work ethic, and I want to get the job done, 
     whether it's late nights and weekends. And I'm worried 
     someone will come to me on a Thursday and I'll have to say, I 
     can't get the job done until Monday.

  Because, Mr. Speaker, we are telling that person you can't come to 
work.
  Another employee who was there last Tuesday emailed me afterward 
about the upcoming furlough writing:

       There are many people in this organization who stretch 
     themselves day after day, happily, to get the work done that 
     needs to get done to support the Department of Defense and 
     the warfighter.

  I will tell you, and so many Members on both sides of the aisle have 
met these folks, not these specific folks perhaps at Pax, but around 
this country who are dedicated, patriotic, hardworking, and want to 
make sure that their country is strong and that we serve our people.
  This one constituent continues:
  ``I've already started to see some of these same people giving less 
of themselves because they feel our Congressmen,'' that's meaning all 
of us, ``and our country no longer put value in what they do.''
  We are undermining the morale of the American workers. We are 
undermining the ability of the American Government to be as effective 
with respect to national defense as it needs to be.
  Mr. Speaker, this sequester is harming morale and may lead skilled 
employees to leave for the private sector just when we need them most.
  The effects of the sequester extend beyond the gates of our 
installations and affect entire communities with local businesses 
standing to lose as a result of belt tightening by families 
experiencing furloughs.
  At the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Indian Head, also in 
Maryland's Fifth Congressional District, 97 percent of civilian 
personnel will be furloughed. That's more than 1,870 people.
  Mr. Speaker, there's no reason why our civilian defense workers 
should be kept from doing their job just because Congress hasn't done 
its job. As long as the sequester remains in effect, and as long as 
Republicans refuse to compromise on a balanced approach to deficits 
that can end it, I'll keep coming to this floor and remind them exactly 
what is at stake. And I continue to call on Speaker Boehner to end the 
unnecessary delay in appointing budget conferees, which would be a 
significant step toward beginning negotiations in earnest that could 
lead to a big and balanced compromise on deficits.
  We need to bring deficits down. We need to get our country on a 
fiscally sustainable path, but we need to do so in a rational way which 
does not undermine our national security, does not undermine the 
services being rendered to the people who are relying on them, and that 
does not send a message to our employees and those whom we need to 
recruit in the future that we are a good employer, we're a caring 
employer, we're an effective employer, and you ought to work for us, 
you ought to work for your country, for your fellow citizens.
  Mr. Speaker, we need to go to conference. We need to get rid of the 
sequester. We need to put America on a

[[Page 11191]]

rational path to fiscal responsibility and effectiveness.

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