Effects of the Shutdown

Floor Speech

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Ms. SEWELL of Alabama. Madam Speaker, I rise today in solidarity with over 800,000 Federal workers and contractors who are dramatically impacted by the shameful and irresponsible government shutdown. I rise today to share the stories of those Federal workers in my district, Alabama's Seventh Congressional District.

This shutdown is impacting everyone. I had the pleasure, recently, of going through the Montgomery airport and the Birmingham airport in my district. It was Martin Luther King Day, and everybody was trying to be upbeat, but, you know, it is really hard to be upbeat when you miss a paycheck. It is hard to be upbeat when you have bills to pay and you don't know how you are going to make ends meet.

We celebrated Martin Luther King's birthday on Monday, and it was Dr. King who said: ``Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.''

Well, Madam Speaker, it is a threat to justice that people work without pay in this country, in America. It is an injustice that they are about to miss the second paycheck.

It is unacceptable that we are not doing our job so that the people who are working without pay can get paid. We have to do better. We must reopen government. Enough is truly enough.

Today, my staff delivered food to the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Aliceville, Alabama, in Pickens County, to the hundreds of workers who work there every day and who have not gotten paid in 35 days. They did so out of service.

But do you know what? We, out of obligation, must open up this government so that everyone who is working gets paid, all those who are furloughed can go back to work.

We know the importance of dignity of a job. These are hardworking Federal workers and contractors who deserve to get paid. Why are we holding them hostage? Why are their paychecks held hostage all for a wall?

I want to be clear, Madam Speaker: We Democrats believe in border security, but we want effective border security.

I do not believe in spending $5.7 billion for a wall when people in my district, babies in my district, go to bed hungry, when there are people in my district who need basic water and sewer in Lowndes County and Pickens County and in Perry County, Alabama.

I will stand up and fight for all those in my district, and I stand in solidarity with my Federal workers and contractors. They deserve to get paid.

I had an opportunity to talk with a young TSA worker from Birmingham, Alabama, just on Tuesday. I pass through that airport once a week going to and fro to D.C.

This young worker, with a smile on her face, said: How are you this morning? Can I help you?

I said: How can I help you? I want you to know that we are working hard every day to open up government.

She said: I know that. I know that you are. I also know that you know that a wall will not make the difference.

You know, the sad irony is that so many of these Federal workers don't have savings. She told me that she was just happy to have a job with the Federal Government, to have the security of having a Federal job is what she said.

She also told me that right now things are okay because she has her mother to take care of her child. She can no longer afford to send her child to daycare and put gas in her car to drive to the Birmingham airport to work at 4 a.m., that first shift, but she does it. She does it as long as she can.

We have to stand on this floor and demand that we reopen government as long as we can, as long as they have not gotten their paychecks. It is unfair. It is an injustice. It is an injustice.

So today, many of my congressional staff are with those correctional officers in Aliceville, Alabama.

We heard the story of Heather Bryant, who is struggling to pay for the gas she needs to drive the 30 minutes to work.

You see, in this small community of Aliceville, Alabama, the Federal women's correctional facility is the major employer. It is the major employer in that city, in that county.

I want you to know that because, in the 35 days that these corrections officers, parole officers, prison workers have gone without pay, we have seen restaurants close. We have seen convenience stores reduce hours in that community. Indeed, in order for us to provide meals today, we had to reopen that Meat and Three diner in order to feed these workers today.

This is unacceptable because it is not just the Federal workers who are impacted; it is the collateral damage that is done to the communities around this country. Store owners, restaurant owners who depend upon those workers for their livelihoods are affected.

We must do something now. It is unfair for us to ask those folks who are furloughed to come back to work and not get paid. It is unfair and unjust for us to ask Federal workers who are working hard every day in our airports, in our prison systems all across this Nation to work without pay.

But as Martin Luther King also said: ``The time is always right to do what is right.''

What is right, Madam Speaker, is to reopen government now. We must stand with these Federal workers. We must unabashedly demand that they get paid, and we must seek ways to work across the aisle to get government open.

But they have to also offer an olive branch. This President hasn't done that. Instead, he has put his interests over the American people's interests.

Enough is enough. We must reopen government and let our Federal workers, our contractors, know that we stand in solidarity with them.

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