TSA Office of Inspection Accountability Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, Wednesday night is the deadline. On Wednesday night, the authority of the government of the United States to do business ends. The funding for our government ends. It is a scary time. We don't want that to happen--most of us--because we know it will be catastrophic. There will be people who will suffer if we fail to do our job.

Now, this isn't the first time we have been up against a deadline. We have faced them before, and many times we have to buy a little extra time to negotiate the budget. That is understandable. In this circumstance, though, we actually have announced candidates for the Presidency of the United States who are calling for a government shutdown.

What happens when our government shuts down? Well, it is pretty obvious. Agencies stop doing business as usual. What we find, though, is that the impact goes far beyond just that simple statement.

I went back to Illinois this last weekend, and I went for a visit to Scott Air Force Base. It is the largest single employer in the State of Illinois and downstate.

In 2013--the last time we had a government shutdown--the junior Senator from Texas, Senator Ted Cruz, wanted to shut down our government to protest ObamaCare. So he successfully closed down the government and found other Republicans who would join him in that effort, and it went on for a long period of time.

In 2013, at Scott Air Force Base, one of the most important defense facilities in our country, in Belleville, IL, we saw two-thirds of the civilian workforce--that is about 3,400 people--sent home immediately without pay. Those who were required to report for duty, including all of the base's 5,000 military personnel, would have been given IOUs rather than paychecks. Scott Air Force Base families were forced to limit their spending and stretch their savings while the Senator from Texas gave speeches on the floor about Dr. Seuss. I am not making this up.

This had an impact on the entire region of Southwestern Illinois. Scott Air Force Base has a $1.6 billion economic impact on the local area, including supporting thousands of indirect jobs. Every part of this regional economy felt the impact of this decision to shut down the government 2 years ago--gas stations, restaurants, small businesses, contractors, everybody.

Now, this brinksmanship goes far beyond flowery speeches on the floor and press attention. The last shutdown hurt the gross domestic product of the United States of America. Consumer confidence drops when the government shuts down. We saw $2 billion in lost productivity from furloughed employees.

Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen said:

We have a good recovery in place that's really making progress and to see Congress take actions that would endanger that progress, I think that would be more than unfortunate. So to me that's Congress' job.

The CEO of JPMorgan Chase, a man named Jamie Dimon, speaking of the last Republican government shutdown, said, ``Washington has really slowed American down.'' I agree. And if that were the only thing that was happening, it would be bad enough. But there is more.

Today I went to a neighborhood in Chicago, the All Saints Episcopal Church in Ravenswood. They are doing a restoration on this beautiful church built back in the 19th century. I met with the pastor there. We were at the food pantry of this church. This Episcopal Church tries to help neighborhood residents who are struggling to find enough to eat.

We had a little press conference with the local Congressman, Mike Quigley and Jan Schakowsky, and people who represented the food pantries of Chicago in that area. They are worried about a shutdown and what a shutdown means to them. How would it affect the All Saints Episcopal Church food pantry and the men and women who go in there on a regular basis to pick up some canned goods to get by? Here is what it means. Many of these people are on food stamps. We call it the SNAP program now. The SNAP program, on average, gives a person food worth $7 a day, so the notion that people are going out for steak dinners on food stamps is not quite accurate.

Sara--and I won't use her full name--who is 81 years old, came up to talk about what life is like for her. She was a hard-working person, stricken with cancer in 2002, which recurred in 2004, and she had to quit working. She has a walker now and she gets around, but all she has is her Social Security check and food stamps. That is how she survives from week to week and month to month.

What happens when there is a government shutdown? They cut off food stamps. Did that happen last time? No. The last time the Senator from Texas shut down the government, it didn't happen because President Obama had a surplus in his recovery fund and he took the surplus and put it in the food stamps so there would be no interruption of service. You see, most of the recipients of food stamps are children. Single moms raising kids and not making enough money supplement their income with food stamps and buy food for their kids. Food stamps are also used by elderly people like Sara who are struggling on a fixed income.

This time is different. If these Presidential wannabes who are determined to shut down the government this time are successful, we are going to have problems right away. It turns out the only surplus left in the food stamp or SNAP benefit fund is about $3 billion. That will keep the program going for 2 weeks. After 2 weeks, they cut off the food stamps. What does that mean? Well, for a lot of people it means a lot of suffering--primarily for the poorest people among us.

Did anyone notice last week what happened in Washington? The city was transformed by the visit of Pope Francis. Congress was in awe of this man who came and spoke to us in very human terms about what he thinks would be our obligation, not just as elected officials but as human beings. One of his highest priorities is that we have some caring and sensitivity for those who struggle--the poor, the people on food stamps.

So for all the applause and all of the posing for pictures that went on last week with the Pope, here we are this week discussing a government shutdown. Here we are this week discussing whether we are going to cut off food stamps for poor people in America.

It is a sad reality to think of what a government shutdown would do in human terms to those wonderful folks working at Scott Air Force Base in Belleville, IL, or to Sara who will go into the All Saints Episcopal Church food pantry and try to get by, as food stamps are cut off.

Why? Why would we do that? How can we possibly be serving this Nation--this great Nation--by stalling our economy and hurting innocent people and punishing those who are serving our country in uniform and otherwise?

Some think it is a grand strategy--a great political strategy. It may move them up from the smaller debate to the big-time debate when it comes to running for President. To me it is an indication we have lost our way.

In June, I joined with the other leaders on this side of the aisle in sending a letter to the Republican leader saying: Please, don't wait until the end of September to face this budget reality. Sit down now--back in June--with the President, with the leaders on the Republican side and the Democratic side. Let us compromise in good faith. Let us meet our responsibilities.

Well, that is what we face. As Senator Reid said a few minutes earlier, there is a suggestion that maybe as a parting gift to Speaker Boehner we will extend the budget temporarily until December 11, 2 weeks before Christmas, just days before the Hanukkah season--that we would extend the budget until then and then, once again, be up against the deadline and the prospect of shutting down our government.

We can do better. We should do better. We need to make certain we keep faith with the people who send us here. We need to make certain we do our job--not just to send a continuing resolution to the President but to resolve this issue. We should not be threatening a government shutdown now or in December when we know how devastating that can be.

I hope Congress gets busy taking care of the work we were sent here to do. I think it is time for those bipartisan budget negotiations. It is beyond time. Now is the time for Congress to act responsibly to develop a budget that allows America to thrive.

Madam President, I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I stand with the Senator from Mississippi. We may be from opposite political parties, but I certainly agree with him that the suggestion by the Senator from Ohio does not serve the best interests of this country.

Imagine if his proposal went through and we were faced with inadequate funding for medical care for our veterans. I am sorry to say the Senator from Ohio has suggested that we would have last year's level of funding with potentially a 4-percent cut. It would be the same for fighting fires and the National Institutes of Health. There would be a 4-percent cut in medical research.

I think what we are doing, if we accept this approach, is giving up our responsibility that the taxpayers sent us to carry out; that is, to make careful choices when it comes to budgets.

I just want to be on the record supporting my colleague from Mississippi.

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