January 24, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 15 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages H1197-H1198]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

  (Ms. PELOSI asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. PELOSI. Madam Speaker, I rise following our 11th vote earlier 
today to reopen government and end the senseless chaos and the pain of 
this shutdown.
  Why won't the Republicans take yes for an answer? Why won't they 
provide relief for the hardworking Americans suffering in their own 
communities?
  It is important to note, Madam Speaker, that on every occasion we 
have presented to the floor initiatives that had been passed by the 
Republicans in the Senate, just their own bills, sending them back to 
them, and they have said no, or their bills acted upon by a bipartisan 
group in the House, our most recent contribution to send over to the 
Senate, and they have said no.
  And today, in the simplest--the simplest--of resolutions, we said 
please vote ``yes'' for $12 billion for disaster assistance--we all 
know that we have to do that--and open up the government for 2 weeks in 
order to have a discussion of how best to protect our borders. And they 
said no.
  Madam Speaker, $12 billion for disaster assistance and 2 weeks of 
opening up government to allow the debate to continue so that people 
can come to work and those who are working already, all of them, can be 
paid:

  Americans like Brenda from Maine, whose family can no longer pay for 
heating fuel this winter, while temperatures remain below freezing;
  Americans like Julie from rural Iowa, who says that farmers, already 
hit hard by tariffs, will feel the squeeze even more now;
  Americans like Sarah from Colorado, whose new job at the VA is on 
hold, adding to wait times for veterans who need healthcare services; 
and.
  Veterans, who comprise nearly a third of our Federal workforce, 31 
percent. Our veterans' security clearances are at risk. You can lose 
your security clearance if you lose your credit rating, and you can 
lose your credit rating if you cannot pay your bills on time--your 
mortgage, your rent, your car payment, your credit card bills, and the 
rest. If your credit rating goes down, the vulnerability of your 
security clearance is increased.
  So it is harmful to our veterans to be doing this, and it is 
important for everyone to know how they are affected because our 
veterans, who have donned the uniform of our country to protect us and 
then carry on their commitment to public service in the public sector 
as Federal employees--in some ways still continuing to protect us, in 
other ways meeting our needs in another way--all of them are affected 
by this shutdown.
  Or like Lila from Georgia, who says: ``Food stamp recipients will go 
hungry. Many will lose subsidized housing. State and local services 
will be overwhelmed trying to make up for the losses.''
  One woman, Vivian, from Maine, asked: ``How is a wall more important 
than families?''
  This senseless shutdown throws the American people's safety and 
security into peril.
  This week, FBI agents released a report warning of the dire effects 
of the shutdown on nearly every aspect of their work.
  The FBI writes: ``We don't have funds to get drugs and guns off the 
streets and to prosecute the violent gang and drug traffickers. . . . 
''
  ``We aren't able to take child sexual exploitation cases to grand 
jury to seek indictments and warrants in order to get our most violent 
offenders arrested. . . . This just puts our children in jeopardy. . . 
. ''
  ``We have no funds'' to pay sources that provide cybersecurity 
intelligence to protect the country ``against our foreign 
adversaries.''
  And they conclude: ``The fear,'' during this disastrous shutdown, 
``is our enemies know they can run freely.''
  The FBI talked about children, putting our children in jeopardy. This 
shutdown is putting so many children and the families of our Federal 
workers in jeopardy as well.
  Those of us who have had the privilege of serving those in food lines 
and the rest, to listen and hear their stories, can tell you firsthand 
that this is making enough impact that it is material for sure. It is 
about their financial security, but psychological as well.
  We are doing serious damage to our country, totally unnecessarily.
  The President and the Republicans either do not notice or do not care 
about the real effects of this shutdown on real people. They say: Oh, 
you will get paid later.
  Well, they have to pay their bills on time, not sometime later.
  This morning, when told that many Federal workers were going to food 
banks, Treasury Secretary Wilbur Ross said: ``I don't quite understand 
why.''
  As hundreds of thousands of workers are about to miss a second 
paycheck tomorrow, Secretary Ross does not know why people without a 
paycheck have to go to food lines.
  This Marie Antoinette attitude of ``let them eat cake'' is pervasive 
in the administration. The President thinks, I guess, that they can 
call their dads for money.
  Hours after Secretary Ross made his statement, White House economic 
adviser Larry Kudlow doubled down on this administration's ``let them 
eat cake'' attitude, saying that the shutdown was ``just a glitch.''
  Just a glitch? Maybe to you it is a glitch, but it is a paycheck to 
our Federal employees and the work they do for us.

                              {time}  1715

  So they are being harmed by not getting paid. The people they serve, 
the American people, are being harmed by not being served.
  Our economy will suffer a downturn. It does, at these times. The 
President's own economic advisers can tell them that.
  This shutdown is not a glitch. It is a crisis that the President 
alone created and that the President alone can end. The Republicans in 
the Congress have been accomplices to the President's irresponsibility 
in just ignoring the consequences of his actions. Either he doesn't 
know or he doesn't care, but, nonetheless, the Trump shutdown goes on.
  Once again, we call on the President and the Republicans in Congress, 
especially in the United States Senate, where they are holding this up, 
to reopen government now for the sake of the health, the safety, and 
the well-being of the American people.
  I thank our Federal employees for what they do to meet the needs of 
the

[[Page H1198]]

American people, for the role they play in providing the public-sector 
promise that we make to people to meet their needs, to provide the 
services of the courts and the protections of our security in terms of 
the FBI, of TSA, of the Coast Guard.
  The cost of this shutdown--the Coast Guard is the only defense entity 
that is not being paid. Because this is a 25 percent shutdown, 75 
percent of the workforce is at work. The Department of Defense is at 
work, but the Department of Homeland Security is not, and that is what 
the Coast Guard falls under.
  Imagine those responsible for search and rescue and emergency 
situations having to go to food banks to get food for their families. 
How does that keep them as strong as they can possibly be, as strong as 
they can possibly be to search and rescue and to protect us? They are a 
line of defense in securing our borders.
  A lot of the discussion is about secure borders. Well, our borders 
extend to the seas, and our Coast Guard is our line of defense there. 
In our proposals for the opening up of government, we have funding for 
our Coast Guard for assets that they have asked us for.
  This is a tragedy in so many respects. It shouldn't go on any longer. 
We should at least be able to discuss and compare the merits of our 
different proposals, and we should be able to do that with government 
open and not holding the American people hostage, Federal employees 
hostage, the security of our people hostage, and the safety and well-
being of our children hostage to an idle campaign applause line that 
the President seems committed to at this time.

                          ____________________