Financial Challenges Families Are Experiencing Because of the Government Shutdown

Floor Speech

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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Mr. Speaker, I want to first thank the gentlewoman and the Progressive Caucus for organizing this very important Special Order hour. It is an important opportunity for us to share stories about how the Trump shutdown is causing real damage in many of our communities and to remind the American people that President Trump is holding government hostage not for some noble cause, but for his petulant demand for an unnecessary and medieval border wall.

There are 14,000 Federal workers in New York State whose pay has been impacted by this Trump shutdown, but I will share the story of one of my constituents.

This is the reality of a constituent from the 13th Congressional District, someone I have the privilege to represent and know. That person is a NASA employee who, along with dozens of her colleagues, has been furloughed due to the Trump shutdown.

Most Americans are unaware that NASA operates and conducts some of the most important climate change research in New York City through NASA labs right in the heart of New York City.

My constituent's work is even more critical now than ever before, as our global climate is in its most fragile state, with record-shattering hurricanes pounding the Caribbean. We saw how Hurricane Maria ravaged through the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico and the Gulf Coast of our country, as well as the massive wildfires burning throughout California and other parts of the West Coast.

My constituent and her fellow workers, dedicated researchers, conduct observational-based climate assessment. Now, because of the Trump shutdown, these crucial studies will stop.

The intensive models they build explain past climate behavior and help us predict future climate conditions so we can be better prepared in the future.

This is not surprising, Mr. Speaker, because many of the folks around the White House believe that climate change is a hoax, that it doesn't exist at all.

These researchers that have been furloughed are so necessary for the future of our Nation and our planet. Their periodic reports are essential for understanding our climate and how it is changing.

In a response from agencies that seems almost like a cruel joke, furloughed Federal workers, like my constituent, have been encouraged to get creative, to budget closely. They have been asked that perhaps they could make ends meet if they baby-sit or if they have garage sales.

This is the message that these agencies have given to some of the furloughed workers across the country, but too many in our Federal workforce simply cannot afford to miss a loan payment, a utility bill, their rent, their mortgage.

This President simply doesn't understand just how hard it is for working class people and middle class people. As Speaker Pelosi aptly put it, President Trump doesn't understand that working people cannot ask their dad or their mom for money.

This whole situation is unacceptable. And just like President Trump said when he accepted the Republican nomination back in 2016, he alone can fix this. He created this crisis.

I bring this here to show the American people who is crossing the border. I went down to the border in New Mexico, and I saw moms and little children running away from violence, from hunger, running away from natural disasters, sleeping on a cold, dirty, dingy floor, packed like sardines.

We are a better country. We are a better America.

We ask you, Mr. President: Give up your wall. Give up your wall and reopen government. Free the 800,000 Federal workers you have held hostage in this manufactured, fictitious security crisis.

This is the moment, this is the time. Mr. Speaker, we must fight back, we must reopen government. We will not give in to the wall.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding to me.

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