Disapproving the President's Proposal to Take An Action Relating to the Application of Certain Sanctions with Respect to the Russian

Floor Speech

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Mr. KAINE. Madam President, I stand to tell the story of a great Virginian named Vidisha. This is a picture of Vidisha and her son Ayan, who came to a Federal employee roundtable that I did last Friday morning.

I have told stories on the floor about Virginians who are affected personally--worrying about missing mortgage payments, having to reschedule medical appointments, having to draw money out of an IRA and pay a tax penalty because of the shutdown. But I thought it was interesting that Vidisha came in and talked just a little bit about her own anxiety and the anxiety of everybody she works with. But what she really wanted to talk about was how the shutdown hurts the American public.

She works for probably the smallest Agency in the Federal Government, the Chemical Safety Board, with 40 employees and a budget of $11 million or $12 million. This is a small Agency, and they have one job: Investigate chemical spills--not to find fault, not to help a lawyer, but investigate chemical spills so that they can determine what went wrong, to prevent future chemical spills that are going to hurt Americans. Because of the shutdown, she and her colleagues--those 40-- are not doing that job.

President Trump tweeted last weekend that the reason he is forcing the shutdown is he promised to protect the safety and security of the American public. He is hurting the safety and security of the American public.

Vidisha said that during the shutdown there has been a major chemical spill in Houston, TX. Normally, the investigators would be on it immediately to do the investigation, to give recommendations, and to reduce the risk of a spill at that facility or any other. But because of the shutdown, Vidisha and her staff are not investigating. How does this protect the safety and security of the American public--by leaving a major chemical spill with potentially life-threatening consequences uninvestigated and unresponded to?

This President's claim that he is helping the safety and security of the American people is a flat-out lie. You are hurting the security of the American people when you disable people like Vidisha and her colleagues from investigating chemical spills, from interdicting drugs if you are a Coast Guard, ATF, or DEA agent, or from doing law enforcement investigations if you are an FBI agent.

The President is hurting the security of this country. It is time to reopen government and put the security of Americans first.

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