Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019
Floor Speech
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Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, just briefly, I also want to extend my gratitude to the majority leader for working with us on this matter. I alerted both caucuses yesterday that I planned to object to adjourning for the weekend on the grounds that tomorrow more than 800,000 Federal employees will stop getting paychecks. This has already started, according to the words of my colleague from Maryland.
Also, on Saturday the shutdown will achieve the dubious distinction of being the longest shutdown in the history of the United States. So yesterday I alerted both caucuses that my plan was to object to an adjournment. I filed that objection. The majority leader then engaged in discussion, together with the minority leader and others, about whether there is something we can do to send a message to these people, many of whom are under very dire circumstances. They have written me, too, about postponing medical procedures and not buying medication for their kids. Is there something we can do that can send them some message of comfort that they will receive their paychecks, if not tomorrow, but they will be made whole?
Over the course of the afternoon, as we have talked about it, we thought the best message we could send--and I am glad we are able to send it by voice vote unanimously from this body--is that they will be paid. When we reopen, they will be paid.
That is not the same comfort as getting the paycheck. It is not the same comfort as knowing when the shutdown will be over and when they can go back to try to keep serving American citizens, but having the certainty that it will be paid is something that we can do for these people. I appreciate the majority leader's working with us on the S. 24 bill that Senator Cardin is the sponsor of and I am a cosponsor of. It does good work in this regard, and I think we can send some people a little bit of a signal on what will be a tough day tomorrow. We can send them a little bit of a signal that we are going to be there, and they can count on the paycheck.
With that, I thank my colleagues for working together on this.
I yield floor.
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