Chris Van Hollen: “we are now in day 18 of an unnecessary and shameful government shutdown. I am proud to be joined on the floor by my…”

“we are now in day 18 of an unnecessary and shameful government shutdown. I am proud to be joined on the floor by my colleague and partner, the senior Senator from Maryland, Ben Cardin, Senator Tim Kaine and Senator Warner from Virginia, and many of my colleagues, to say loud and clear that the first order of business in this Senate should be to reopen the Federal Government because every day that goes by, more and more Americans are losing access to important government services, 800,000 hard-working Federal employees are going without pay and facing mounting monthly bills, 400,000-plus are working without pay to help protect our country, and over 300,000 are forcibly furloughed. Small businesses that do contract work for the government are getting clobbered, as are the employees who work for them. We have it within our power to vote tonight to end this shutdown by voting on the two bills that passed the House of Representatives last Thursday. They made it their first order of business, and so should we. I have copies of those bills. I have a copy of H.J. Res. 1 right here in my hand. It would reopen the Homeland Security Department at current levels until February 8, allowing us an opportunity to discuss with the President the best and most effective approach to border security. It is identical to what this Senate passed on a bipartisan basis just before Christmas.…”