On the recordJuly 23, 2013
I am proud to represent Omaha and its surrounding areas. It has a magnificent base with extremely important missions. What that means is that I represent not only uniformed members who serve there, but civilian workers who work on that base also. Mr. Chairman, I can't go out in public without somebody coming up to me and saying, I'm one of the furloughed workers. I can't afford to lose those days. What are you going to do? Well, I think that's a legitimate ask of that person. Frankly, I can't go to a sporting event. Even in my own neighborhood there are people asking me what we're going to do to help them. Now, the answer here in this body has been, mostly, if the DOD really wanted to make their pay whole and not give them furlough dates, they could do that. This is a political move by the President. Well, Mr. Chairman, I'm not willing to play that level of politics with my constituents' pay. So what this amendment does is moves $2.6 billion out of the Afghan Security Forces account. It reduces that account from $7.7 billion to $5.1 billion, moving it to an account that can be used to supplement those wages and eliminate the furloughs of 55,000 civilian workers working on our bases across the country. Does this cure every furlough? No. But it does the vast majority, and it gives flexibility to the DOD to perhaps reduce the furloughs to the point where it is a negligible impact on 100 percent.…
