Tina Smith: “last night President Trump delivered the State of the Union Address, and he talked about a lot of issues, including…”

“last night President Trump delivered the State of the Union Address, and he talked about a lot of issues, including immigration and national security, healthcare, and prescription drugs. He talked about the need for bipartisanship. While I don't always agree with the President, I do agree that we should seek bipartisanship where we can, and today I would like to address one area that is ripe for bipartisan action. I am so pleased that Senator Brown, Senator Van Hollen, Senator Warner, Senator Cardin, and Senator Kaine have all played key roles in the effort I am going to talk about this afternoon, and many of them will be joining me today on the Senate floor. In addition, Senator Casey will be joining us, and I am so glad that he is adding his voice. So many Americans suffered during the wasteful and unnecessary government shutdown that recently ended, but for one group of Americans, the shutdown isn't over. These Americans are employees of Federal contractors. Now, in previous shutdowns, Federal contractors didn't receive backpay, and they haven't received backpay after this shutdown, either. Now, that is not fair, and several of my colleagues and I are determined to fix this. So over the next hour or so, my colleagues and I will come together on the Senate floor to talk about the importance of providing backpay to the employees of Federal contractors who lost over a month's worth of wages.…”