Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, today is day 34 of the longest shutdown of government in United States history. We must end this shutdown. We must reopen government right away. Today, I want to talk about legislation that would provide some assistance to the Federal workers who are suffering from this unnecessary shutdown, the Emergency Relief for Federal Workers Act of 2019.

Tomorrow, 800,000 Federal workers who work hard and just want to serve their Nation will not receive a paycheck. They have not received a paycheck since December 28th, 2018. However, more than 400,000 hold positions so essential to our Nation that they must go to work regardless of their pay status.

Thus shutdown hurts these workers. I have talked about the personal stories of Virginians who serve our Nation in the Coast Guard, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Forest Service. This shutdown means families that have jobs cannot pay their mortgages or rent. They cannot buy food to feed their families. They cannot afford to refill prescriptions critical to the health of their children. This shutdown threatens Federal workers with financial ruin. Again, we must reopen the government immediately.

We have passed legislation to provide retroactive pay to these workers when the shutdown ends, but we do not know when that will happen. So today, I am pleased to be joined by my colleagues to introduce the Emergency Relief for Federal Workers Act. This legislation would allow federal employees who are in desperate financial straits directly because of this shutdown to borrow from what is, for many, their largest financial asset, their retirement account.

This legislation would allow Federal workers in the Thrift Savings Plan to access their savings without immediate penalty to meet the financial hardships caused by the government shutdown. It would allow them to pay for basic necessities during the shutdown and allow them to replenish their savings after the shutdown ends.

I do not know how much longer 800,000 families will have to wait to be made whole after this manufactured crisis. And I do not advocate irresponsibly borrowing from retirement savings. But I believe we must act to help the people who make our federal government function in this time of need they are in through no fault of their own.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. Thank you, Mr. President. ______

By Mr. THUNE (for himself, Mr. Alexander, Mr. Barrasso, Mrs. Blackburn, Mr. Blunt, Mr. Boozman, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Cramer, Mr. Crapo, Mr. Cruz, Mr. Daines, Ms. Ernst, Mrs. Fischer, Mr. Gardner, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Hoeven, Mrs. Hyde-Smith, Mr. Inhofe, Mr. Isakson, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. McConnell, Mr. Moran, Mr. Risch, Mr. Roberts, Mr. Rounds, Mr. Young, Mr. Cotton, Mr. Rubio, and Mr. Perdue):

S. 215. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Finance.

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