Ed Perlmutter: “I want to talk about Tom, who is a 32- year Federal employee and works as an agricultural statistician. He calculates…”

“I want to talk about Tom, who is a 32- year Federal employee and works as an agricultural statistician. He calculates how many cattle are in the western United States and how many acres of hay and crop that we have. This is his fourth government shutdown. He loves his job and his work. He loves serving our country. But he feels like these political games have become an insult, and he is tired of being used as a pawn. I have many more stories, but I see that the gentleman from Maryland is ready to go and I yield back to the gentlewoman from Maine so that she can yield to the gentleman from Maryland.”