Effects of the Shutdown

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. PINGREE. Madam Speaker, I am pleased we are able to be here tonight to have an hour with some of my colleagues to continue this conversation about the hardships people are facing due to this shutdown and the impact it is having on our country.

We have had so many interesting stories and tragic recollections of exactly what people are going through. As our Speaker, Speaker Pelosi, just said, we are holding Federal employees hostage; we are holding the safety of our country hostage; we are holding the American people hostage; and it is time to get the government going again and resolve our differences. General Leave
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. PINGREE. So today is the 34th day of the longest government shutdown in history. It is a shutdown that has no excuse, and it has taken a great toll on dedicated public servants and their families across America.

Americans who have jobs are actually standing in line at food pantries here in Washington and back home in my State of Maine.

This Chamber, as of today, has voted 11 times to fund the government, to pay 800,000 workers, and to restart essential services.

President Trump's unwillingness to reopen the government is tone deaf to the financial circumstances of working Americans. Most are living paycheck to paycheck, pay mortgages and healthcare premiums, and need to keep food on the table. Government workers and contractors cannot afford these weeks being held hostage.

People who rely on government programs like SNAP and housing vouchers are feeling the stress. They cannot afford these weeks of being held hostage.

Businesses that are losing opportunities to expand and grow their businesses cannot afford these 3 weeks of being held hostage.

The consequences of this shutdown have rippled through our State and national economies. Members of Maine's Coast Guard, who protect us every single day, are about to miss their second paycheck while actively serving to protect our working waterfronts.

The USDA's partial closure in Maine has put Maine farmers in financial limbo, and SNAP benefits for Maine's most vulnerable are on the verge of a lapse. Many of Maine's craft brewers, who added $260 million to our State economy last year, have had to put new products and their businesses on hold.

At this time, I will share a few of the stories about what is happening and what we are hearing from our constituents in Maine as a result of this shutdown. I will read just a few clips from letters I received and the stories Mainers have shared with the local news, and I will outline some of the broader problems this historic shutdown has created for real people.

We heard from a brewery in the process of expanding to a second location. They had all their paperwork in with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau in the Department of the Treasury when the shutdown began, but now that brewer is waiting with an empty storefront.

Another brewery is just waiting for approval to open six new types of beer, all sitting and ready to be sold. As the owner says:

January is already a tough time in Maine, as I hope you know, and to lose out on weeks of sales because of the shutdown may cause us to close our doors. Please, I implore you, do what you can to get the shutdown over with.

We hear from a lot of Federal employees in our State. Here is one that says:

Please do whatever you can to reopen the government. I have 28 years of Federal service and do not appreciate my financial security being jeopardized by the President.

Another says:

Please do everything you can to help end the government shutdown. As a furloughed Federal employee, the anxiety of not knowing when or if I will be paid grows with every day of the shutdown. I have savings to cover a few months of living expenses, but I know many in this situation don't. We just want to get back to work, and we don't want to be used as pawns.

Another says:

I am exempted from furlough, and I am mandated to work without pay. This shutdown is crushing me. I am a single father of three who just went from a one-income household to a no-income household. I keep hearing the President insist that Federal workers support this. I must have missed that poll. No one has asked me for my input. Please help end this shutdown soon. This is not sustainable for me.

Another says:

This shutdown is the worst one that I have been involved with since joining the Federal Government decades ago. Earlier this week, I went to my credit union to take out a personal loan to pay my bills. It is the first time ever in my life I have had to do that.

Another says:

I work under a government contract, and I have just been informed that I cannot come back to work until this government shutdown is over. This is a terrible time of year for myself and my fellow coworkers to not know when we can continue our work, not that there is ever a good time for a shutdown.

Well, the good news is, I have a lot more stories like this, but I want to share some of the time with my colleagues, and I will get back to reading them more.

So I now yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Underwood).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. PINGREE. I thank the gentlewoman very much for her thoughts.

I am now happy to yield to my friend from Colorado (Mr. Perlmutter).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. PINGREE. I thank the gentleman for taking the time to share those stories with us. It is so important that everybody understand the impact this is having in many areas that most people don't know anything about.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. McCollum).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. PINGREE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for sharing those stories.

I yield to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Perlmutter).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. PINGREE. Madam Speaker, I thank everyone here tonight for providing the diversity of stories that are really coming from States across the country which we all represent. And I know it is just a small bit of what we are all hearing every day in our offices.

I yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Raskin).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. PINGREE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Maryland for his comments.

I know it is particularly challenging in a district where so many people are close to Washington and so many Federal employees have a multitude of challenges. So I appreciate the gentleman's good work and his thoughts.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Alabama (Ms. Sewell), my friend and colleague.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. PINGREE. Madam Speaker, I thank Ms. Sewell from Alabama for being here tonight.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. PINGREE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman so much for sharing that and for hosting a roundtable in her district.

Madam Speaker, I think every time we have a chance to have people gather to talk about this, at least they know we are listening to them, even if we haven't fixed the problem.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Soto).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. PINGREE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida for reminding us of some important compromises. Some I liked, some I didn't. But were it not for the Missouri Compromise, we wouldn't have Maine, so I am glad about that one anyway.

Also, as you said, we can compromise without holding hostage all of these workers we have been talking about tonight, without shutting down the government, and without shaking up people's lives. This is our challenge, to work it out as Members of Congress, as members of the executive branch. We can't ask our hardworking Federal employees to bear the brunt of all this.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Massachusetts (Ms. Clark), who is also the vice chair of our Caucus. I thank her for being here tonight and for fitting us into her busy schedule.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. PINGREE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Massachusetts for sharing those stories, which we are hearing throughout New England, and are so challenging and meaningful to all of us.

We have heard tonight from all regions of the country: north, south, east, and west, and so many of the stories are the same. We heard from families affected by the fact that our Coast Guard personnel are not being paid, the only branch of the military that doesn't get paid.

This is a hardship not only on them, but on their families as well who are home trying to make ends meet when they are off deployed; the TSA and the FAA, which we depend on every single day in our airports across the country for our safety, for our security; people who work in the Federal courts; people who are not working, but are government employees. They are not essential, so they are furloughed, but they can't go out and get another job in the middle of all of this. They just have to wait until it is all over to collect that back pay.

There are so many contractors I hear from who can't continue with their contracts, because maybe they work with the Coast Guard or other Federal agencies, and they can't keep the funding going, and they can't give any certainty to when jobs will be completed or to their own employees.

I have a couple of minutes left and I am going to read a long story, but it might just take up exactly the right amount of time.

We talk so much about all of the employees, but there are so many others who are impacted by this, and, particularly, in the agriculture sector in Maine. We are very proud of our farmers. We are very proud of seeing new, young farmers getting into the business, of farms being revived and finding new markets.

This was a story from the Grace Pond Farm in Thomaston. They shared their story of how the USDA shutdown has impacted them. They said: ``We are often a little removed from the issues affecting others. We can sigh and rejoice, cry and shake our fists at the air with just a little bit of safe distance from way up here; but not this time. This shutdown affects everyone and that everyone includes us.

``We have planned, schemed and dreamed our way onto this historic farm property in Thomaston. Gregg and I have spent countless late nights, after catching chickens and milking cows, staring at screens and numbers, and putting together business plans and spreadsheets to grow sustainably.

``Our goal--to be able to just milk cows, grow chickens and turkeys, feed our kids and neighbors, and drive a car that runs. Gregg grew up learning how to enjoy dark mornings, working on a dairy farm in rural Pennsylvania. I grew up in central Maine, spending mornings waiting for the Skehan's dairy truck and learning how to beat my brother to the cream on top of that glass bottle.

``We want to ensure that both of these experiences are available to our kids, and to everyone in Maine, for years to come.

``Our farm is financed the old-fashioned way--on a tightrope. We operate on a faith-based budget, and that keeps things exciting. The FSA and the USDA rural development loans are valuable resources for poor folks that want to work hard and eat well--and we make good use of them.

``About a year ago, with a shifting dairy market impacting our current situation, we poured ourselves into the process of financing the new farm we'd found to fit our needs.

``Utilizing a community lender, we managed to secure that property, and relying on our faith-based budget, we went for it. Thanks to CEI for taking that chance on us. We also began the laborious process of financing the dairy infrastructure at the new property using the FSA as our security lender, because that's what they do for us.

``This is all contingent on our selling the `old' farm property--we cannot in any way carry two farms. After gratefully securing a buyer for the `old' farm, we were moments away from closing when the government was shut down. Just like that, we lost access to our mortgage holder and all of the necessary documentation and signatures that they alone can provide.

``Not only that, we were just a few weeks away from the deadline for our Maine DACF-based dairy loan, and found ourselves suddenly without the proof of security necessary. No skin in the game equals no dairy loan.

``We are now weeks past our closing. We continue to accrue heating bills, taxes, and mortgage interest on the `old' farm property, while we pay all of the same on the `new' one. We had to scramble to find another bridge loan for the dairy infrastructure, and due to the lender being anyone but the USDA, the interest rate is more than 5 percentage points higher--this translates to an annual number that made our `numbers guy' take a few breaths before commenting when he heard the news. We are thousands of dollars into this shutdown now.

``We operate on razor-thin margins. We are not alone. The companies that sell us grain, and chicks, and poults, are all actual people, employing other actual people, all operating on a faith-based budget, trying to preserve a way of life that we believe has value and merit. We need an end to the shutdown before we have to shut down and the way life should be is that much more lost to us all.''

Madam Speaker, I thank all of my colleagues for being here tonight and thank everyone who shared their stories and allowed us to let you in on a little bit of how this tragedy proceeds. I encourage a negotiation and a settlement.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source