Barbara Boxer: “Through the Chair, I thank my friend. This contractor issue is a sleeper issue in a way, as this woman writes in the…”

“Through the Chair, I thank my friend. This contractor issue is a sleeper issue in a way, as this woman writes in the Baltimore Sun, because if you look at the numbers, you may see more contractor employees affected than Federal employees because even if you take--there are millions of them. Even if you take away, if you look at the statistics, the millions who work for the military and assume they are getting paid, there are still more than 2 million who are contractors to other arms of the government, such as homeland security or border patrol--you name it. It is a sleeper issue. This woman who is so articulate, Clarissa Olivarez--I hope she knows we are taking her words to heart and putting her words in the Record. She is explaining what it feels like to be scared. For what? For nothing. Because they did not like the Affordable Care Act--which they are not going to change. They tried to repeal it 43 times. Open the government. They are so afraid they will lose the vote, they are not even allowing a vote over there. They are coming back--my friends in the House--shortly. By the way, imagine, Speaker Boehner said go home over the weekend while all this is pending. They were not even in session. Outrageous. I am going to conclude in about 5 minutes by talking about some of the other impacts of the shutdown. Mr. President, 93 percent of the employees at the EPA have been furloughed. What do they do?…”