Commerce, Justice, Science, Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, Interior, Environment, Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act, 2020

Floor Speech

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Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, I thank my colleagues for their eloquent words on behalf of the Federal contractors.

If you are a Virginia Senator, and if you are a Maryland Senator, you meet Federal contractors on any occasion all around the State. We often think of the Federal contractors as significantly located in the DC- Metro area or in Hampton Roads, but some of the smallest counties in Virginia have significant Federal contractors. So I am very happy to join my colleagues and applaud Senator Smith's efforts in this regard.

All Americans were affected by the unnecessary shutdown at the end of last year--people trying to go to parks to enjoy time with their families or visiting other Federal installations that were down. We saw the lines of Federal employees waiting outside of Jose Andres's DC Central Kitchen in cold January weather. Federal employees, many in uniform, were trying to get free meals.

Some of the most affected, as my colleagues have explained, were workers who were suddenly without paychecks through no fault of their own. These workers--800,000 of them--worked directly for the Federal Government. We were able to secure backpay for those workers and in a very positive way. This is something that the body did together, which I think is important. We not only got a backpay bill for Federal workers for those affected by the last shutdown, but we put in a guarantee that in any future shutdown they would get their pay. Once you have done that as a guarantee, why have a shutdown? If you have guaranteed that people will be paid, why would you lock them out of their office and deprive them of the ability to serve their fellow Americans?

Hundreds of thousands of contract workers were not included in that backpay bill, and thus they have been left behind. Many of these Americans are paid on an hourly basis. They are not annual salary employees, and they do live paycheck to paycheck. When the shutdown hit, they went home without pay for weeks--5 weeks--and no word on when or whether their job would start back up again.

The people I meet who are in this category are very hard-working. They are security guards; they are cafeteria workers; they are cleaning staff; they are IT workers--people whose diligent functioning in their jobs sort of keep the lights on and the enterprise going.

Missing a whole month's pay is not a trivial thing for most American families, and many of the families had to borrow, rely on friends and families to get by, and used the services of soup kitchens or clothes closets. Many likely are still carrying debt incurred because of the shutdown. Some had to make withdrawals from their Federal Thrift Savings Plans, with penalty and interest because of that.

The individuals were affected, but it is also, bluntly, their families, and even the communities and local businesses in and around where there are these contracting employees.

During the shutdown, I asked Virginians to share stories with me, and many did. These are Federal employees who were affected by the shutdown, but it was not just the employees who shared it, it was also these contractors.

Of course, I did hear a number of stories of Virginians coming together. I had a chance to go work as a volunteer at the DC Central Kitchen, and what struck me is how many of the volunteers were people who had been furloughed. They weren't being paid, and they wanted to serve their fellow Americans, but because they were being locked out of their office, they decided to go to the Central Kitchen and work serving meals to their Federal colleagues.

Alongside some of the stories that were coming together, I did hear tough stories about people who ended up forgoing necessary expenses. I will just read a couple to you. These are all from Virginians who are Federal contractors.

Michael, from Herndon said:

Like many of your constituents, I work as a government contractor for a small business. My entire household income depends on serving government clients, which I am unable to do in light of the government shutdown. My company is losing revenue every day and has arrived at the point where we must force employees to use vacation, take leave without pay, or be furloughed. Unlike federal employees who will almost certainly receive back pay once the shutdown is resolved, my employees and I have no such recourse. I've lived in the Washington DC area for almost 25 years and worked exclusively in serving the government industry, and this is the first time I've been compelled to contact my elected officials.

Bottom line: I'm struggling. My employees are struggling. Our families are struggling. Small business[es] are the engine of economic growth and stability in our region and the shutdown is destroying us. Please work with all parties to reopen the government as soon as possible.

Sukumar, from Great Falls said:

I am the CEO of a small business in Virginia which is 100% focused on federal contracts. After two weeks of shutdown and no end in sight, we are nearing a point where were are losing revenue (because our people can't work), invoices are not getting paid by the Government and we are facing a dire cash flow situation. This will affect our ability to make payroll needing to borrow monies at higher interest rates and increase the perils of shutting down our business. Many of our furloughed employees are having a tough time paying bills and making ends meet. Some of them are contemplating a private sector career, leading to the loss of valuable talent to serve the government.

Virginia, from McLean said:

I am a federal contractor working in Washington D.C. and a lifelong Virginia resident. I have been furloughed due to the government shutdown, and because of my status as a contractor will not be receiving compensation after this is over. . . . This is not a vacation for me, nor is it a vacation for any federal worker. . . . It's impossible to plan for lost pay when you are unsure how much pay you might be losing, and it's impossible to amend deadlines when you aren't sure how many projects are going to go unattended to and for how long. Many argue that federal workers should have savings to prepare themselves for the shutdown but I am a young person, this is my first job.

A Washington Post article from January detailed the struggles of many low-wage workers, including one who lives in the District, Julia, a contracted janitor for the last 27 years, most recently at the Department of Agriculture, who cares for her elderly mother with dementia. She has had to use the last of her sick days to keep money coming in. All told, she lost $1,000 in savings, went into debt, and relied on the charity of churches for free meals.

Again, these are people who make the life choice--they could have made other choices, but they make the life choice to serve our government, meaning serving by, of, and for the people. They did that not for grand fame or glory or riches, but they do have an expectation that they will not be gratuitously kicked around--maybe a thank-you or maybe just being treated fairly.

I think we did take a step forward when we passed the backpay bill to guarantee that Federal workers would be treated fairly. I think Senator Smith's amendment, which I am proud to be an original cosponsor of, that I hope we will have a chance to take up, would remedy the situation with respect to these workers. This is not for every contractor. This is the Fair Compensation for Low-Wage Workers Act, so it is specifically focused on compensation for the contractors who receive low wages, those who are most vulnerable and were most affected by losing salary for 5 weeks.

Here is the good news: The House included this provision in its appropriations bill this past summer. It is not in the appropriations bill we are now considering in the Senate.

I implore the majority leader and all of my colleagues to do for these low-wage Federal contractors what we did for Federal employees: recognize the hardships the shutdown caused these workers and their families and add backpay for Federal contractors, which is the bill we are getting ready to vote on.

This would be a little step forward and a precedent. We haven't necessarily done this in the past, but just as the guarantee of backpay for Federal employees, I believe, starts to build in a little bit of firewall against a shutdown, I actually think having a rule, a norm, that we would provide backpay for low-wage Federal contractors also starts to provide a little bit of a firewall against a shutdown.

I think we should all be anti-shutdown, and having mechanisms that make it harder to shut the government down, or less likely that we would shut it down, is something we should all support.

Without us intervening and doing right by these workers, many of them will take years to recover from the financial hole the shutdown put them in.

I ask my colleagues to join together and support Senator Smith and her amendment.

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