Government Funding

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I come to the floor this evening to urge my Republican colleagues to do the right thing and stand with us to reopen the government and end this completely unnecessary and, really, absurd crisis.

President Trump's latest government shutdown is now the longest one in American history--24 days of workers unsure of when their next paychecks will come, 24 days of economic impacts in communities all over this country, 24 days of slowdowns at our airports, 24 days of small business owners waiting on loans. Twenty-four days of trash piling up and irreparable damage being done at our national parks. Twenty-four days of dysfunction. Twenty-four days of chaos. Twenty-four days of the government simply not working at its most basic duties, not being allowed to work by its own leaders.

There have been 24 days of story after story here in the United States of America that would embarrass citizens of far less developed nations.

One woman from Seattle--she is a Federal employee and has been there 25 years--wrote that the stress of not knowing how she will manage her bills is causing her sleepless nights--nights she is worried about her credit score taking a hit if she can't pay her bills on time. She is trying to balance all of that while helping take care of her father, who is a Navy veteran suffering from a progressive neurological disease.

Another man wrote to me. He is not a Federal employee, but he and his wife own a small business frequented by people who are. He told me that the shutdown has brought his business to a halt and that he is not sure how much longer he can make it work.

A U.S. Forest Service worker wrote to me saying that he is pretty sure he can weather the shutdown financially, but he is very scared for his coworkers who cannot, and he is worried about the deeper damage now being done to his restoration work that is supposed to be happening in the Olympic National Forest.

I know every one of my colleagues is getting letters like these, hundreds of thousands of them. They need to read some of those letters. I would challenge them and anyone who doubts the sincerity and fears so many Americans are feeling right now to sit down and hear from their constituents who are being impacted--face to face.

This past weekend, when it became clear the Senate would not get a chance to vote on reopening the government, I flew home to Washington State. I walked through security lines on my way out and thanked the men and women of TSA who are working to protect us, not knowing when they are going to get paid. When I got to the airport in Seattle, I sat down with people who had tears in their eyes, who were describing their fear over the uncertainty this Trump shutdown has caused. I talked to an air traffic controller who worked overtime during the busy holiday season and who worries about the added stress and distractions on top of an already very tough job. I heard from a Coast Guard spouse who talked about friends in a similar situation returning Christmas presents to pay bills. Story after story--workers with their families, small business owners, and many more. This is about individuals and their stories, but it is also rippling across communities.

(Mr. SULLIVAN assumed the Chair.)

This is about individuals and their stories, but it is also rippling across communities.

Right now in my home State of Washington, paychecks are frozen for nearly 13,000 workers. They are workers who are not going out and spending money at local businesses the way they usually do. They are at risk of missing their rent payment or their mortgage payment or their car payment or their phone bill or their credit card bill. They may know they will get their pay back eventually when this shutdown finally ends, but that is not going to cover late fees or interest fees, and it will not compensate them for the emotional anguish and deep uncertainty. And that is just those 13,000 workers and their families. Millions of people in my home State, like every State, are affected by work that is not happening or at risk of being cut off, such as routine inspections on Washington State ferries, an accident investigation report concerning a deadly train accident, decisionmaking on the ongoing Hanford nuclear site cleanup process, applications for Federal financial student aid, Federal food safety inspections, emergency food supplies for hungry families, and assistance for domestic violence survivors and crime victims.

The government can't even pay its bills. Just this morning, I saw the headline ``Layoffs hit two space companies.'' One of those is in my home State. Tethers Unlimited said it is going to lay off 20 percent of its employees because it hasn't been paid for its government work during this shutdown. This is absurd. This is no way for a country like ours to run. It is shameful. Once again, this has to end.

Those whom I just talked about are just a few of the stories. Those are just a few of the impacts. There are so many more--big ones, small ones, narrow ones, broad ones, from individual workers and their families who are being impacted in unique and specific ways, to entire industries and regions that are being harmed.

This is not a theoretical issue. It is not just a debate here in DC. This is very real for millions and millions of people, and that number grows with every passing day. I and other Democrats are going to keep making sure these stories aren't forgotten or pushed aside. We are glad to be joined by a growing number of Republicans who are also hearing from their constituents and who know this shutdown simply cannot be justified and cannot be explained. We are going to keep up this pressure. We are not going to stop until President Trump agrees to end this crisis or until Republican leaders in the Senate finally decide to stand up to him and work with us to end it for him.

Let me close with this final point: Although no shutdown is good, this one is particularly obscene and particularly unnecessary. Democrats and Republicans right here in this Senate voted unanimously just a few weeks ago to keep the government open without any funding for President Trump's wall, and the House voted to do the same. Whatever one thinks about using American taxpayer dollars to pay for President Trump's wall--a wall, I would remind us, he promised Mexico would pay for--there is absolutely no reason to keep this government shut down while we have that debate. All that does is hurt people and hurt communities and hurt our country for absolutely no reason at all.

President Trump and some of his Republican allies may see this as a political fight they somehow need to win, but I see this as a fight for the people we represent, for a government that functions, and for a country that we all know can do better than this.

This is about whether we send the alarming message that President Trump can make outlandish demands, throw a tantrum, not care how much instability he causes or how many people he hurts, and get away with it, or whether instead we make clear here in this Senate that his bad behavior will not be rewarded. Tantrums and dysfunctional governing are not the path to success.

I call on Republican leaders to allow a vote on the bill the House passed, allow a vote to reopen the government. That bill would pass overwhelmingly, just as it did last month.

Let's send a message to President Trump that the people who sent us here want this dysfunction to end. Let's end this Trump shutdown, and let's then get back to work to fix the problems it created. Let's get our country back on track.

Thank you.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source