Tom Udall: “let me say to Senator Warner, my good friend from Virginia, who has an incredible empathy for the Federal workforce, we…”

“let me say to Senator Warner, my good friend from Virginia, who has an incredible empathy for the Federal workforce, we have the same thing in New Mexico, and to our good friend Senator Bennet from Colorado, we have Federal employees throughout this Nation that really give the extra bit. They go the extra mile. I am going to talk a lot about that, the same way Senator Warner is and with the same kind of passion he has. Today is day 24 of the Trump shutdown. Federal Government employees are furloughed, and others are working but did not get paychecks. Federal contractors have already received stop work orders. Not only are they not getting paid, but they will never receive backpay for work lost. This Trump shutdown is now the longest shutdown in U.S. history. History will show this shutdown to be a political and financial fiasco of the President's making. You can see in this map, published by the New York Times--and I am sure our Presiding Officer will see--that as you get more green on this map, you are hurt more by this shutdown. You can see Alaska, Maryland, Virginia, New Mexico, Montana, and Colorado, and there are a lot of States that are really hurt. We have a large workforce in some of the Federal agencies that are currently shut down, including the Department of Interior, the Homeland Security Department, and the Department of Agriculture.…”