OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Government Shutdown

Floor Speech

Date: Oct. 4, 2013
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Employment and Affirmative Action Government Operations Health Insurance Government Budget and Spending

Mr. O'ROURKE. Madam Speaker, I received the following email from Stu Harris in El Paso yesterday. He's the vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, Local 1929. He writes:

Our Border Patrol agents in the El Paso sector are outraged by this nonsense. We cannot understand tying the fight against the Affordable Care Act with funding the government.

I can only hope that nothing happens to any of our agents in the field putting their lives on the line and doing it for free. Imagine having to be in a state of heightened awareness for 10 hours a day, all the time not knowing if or when the paycheck will come in or how we're going to pay the bills and feed our families.

Due to the shutdown, all Border Patrol agent trainees that were at the academy have been sent home. This amounts to yet another delay in adding measures to secure the border.

Madam Speaker, it is time to reopen the government and allow an up-or-down vote on funding this government.


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