Border Wall/Air Traffic Controller

Floor Speech

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Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, let's pay tribute to the thousands of America's patriots going to work with no pay. It is wrong for the President to use his authority to harm our Republic. Public service employees hold our country together.

Take this story shared by Micah Maziar, an air traffic controller from Toledo, Ohio, who told his account of a new trainee struggling to make ends meet. He is not being paid. After a full day's work, a full shift in a very stress-filled job, the trainee reports to his apartment complex to pick up trash as part of a deal with his landlord to offset rent during this Trump shutdown. This is unacceptable.

The Commander in Chief holds our entire government hostage to his harebrained notion that you can stop drug trafficking with a wall. The drug traffickers must be laughing up a storm. They already dig tunnels under the existing walls and fly over them, too.

To secure the border, our Nation needs thorough inspection of cargo. We need enhanced electronic surveillance through drones. Most of all, we need a President who understands you don't stop the drug trade by furloughing border agents without pay.

For the hundreds of thousands of America's hardworking Federal patriots and for the American people whom they serve, we must reopen the government immediately.

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