Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Speaker, let's not complicate things. There is nothing in the transportation bill or the housing budget that has anything to do with the border wall.

Instead, these agencies keep us safe when we fly and keep the planes, trains, and buses running on time. They keep Americans housed and warm on frigid January days like today in Chicago. They provide the support necessary to invest in our communities and ensure that our citizens can get to work and school, and can rebuild after natural disasters.

Shuttering the Departments of Transportation and of Housing and Urban Development over an unrelated fight about a wall on the southern border is the height of administrative malpractice and the reason I am proud to support this bill to reopen these vital agencies immediately.

This shutdown is endangering the well-being of the American public. For example, at air traffic control facilities all over the country, including Chicago Center, one of the busiest control centers in the Nation, staff ID badges, which are needed to get into the control rooms and operate equipment, expire during the month of January. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be a problem, but the person in charge of issuing new ID badges for the 58 controllers at Chicago Center is furloughed, leaving the people responsible for ensuring that our air system runs safely and effectively in limbo and possibly preventing them from monitoring the skies as they should.

Worse yet, the Trump administration is unconscionably forcing these air traffic controllers, along with TSA agents and other crucial officials who are instrumental to the safety of the American public, to work long hours without pay, and treating them as pawns in a political chess match. It is dangerous; it is not right; and the people expect more of their government.

This President likes to tout himself as a builder and speaks frequently about infrastructure investment. Yet, he is singlehandedly standing in the way of any progress on addressing our Nation's infrastructure needs by shutting down the very agencies charged with addressing them. It seems, once again, he is all bluster and no substance.

I support this bill to reopen HUD and DOT, to get Federal employees back to work, and to support the millions of Americans who rely on the important work these agencies do. I urge my colleagues to do the same.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source