Political Quotes

“This morning about 800,000 Federal employees from the 25 percent of the government that had been shut down for the last 35 days finally were allowed to go back to work and perform the amazing service that they do for the American people in a whole host of different agencies. All of us heard from such great Americans coming from our districts, and certainly in the Second District of Connecticut, in eastern Connecticut, was no exception. So, for example, Clark Chapin, who is the head of the Farm Service Agency at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, who, again, for 35 days was unable to work on the different farm programs that are so important to eastern Connecticut farmers, particularly in the dairy sector with the new dairy insurance program, his frustration in terms of not being able to get that program up and running, again, was palpable when I talked to him about a week or so ago. We also have the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, where, again, that was the one branch of the military that was shut down because they don't reside in the Department of Defense. They are in the Department of Homeland Security. Even though, as Admiral Carl Schultz, who is the Commandant of the Coast Guard, pointed out on national television, there are Coast Guard cutters serving in Bahrain in the fifth fleet side by side with the U.S. Navy patrolling the territorial waters of the Persian Gulf in the Straits of Hormuz in about the most hazardous waters in the world.…”