On the recordJanuary 28, 2019
as the dust settles from the longest shutdown in American history, we have work to do to get our country back on track. Hundreds of thousands of Federal workers who endured a month without compensation need to get their paychecks and backpay as soon as possible. So I have written a letter to President Trump urging him to expedite the delivery of those paychecks. At the same time, we must be mindful of the hardships that persist for Federal contractors, who may not receive the backpay they have missed and who may have lost health insurance during the shutdown. We need to find a solution as well for those contractors. Senator Smith of Minnesota is working on that, and I hope we can do something to help them. It is of no fault of their own that they lost pay. But there are some costs from the Trump shutdown that cannot be recouped. The CBO today released a report about the lasting damage that the Trump shutdown has done to the American economy. According to the CBO, the 5-week shutdown cost the U.S. economy $11 billion overall, including $3 billion in economic activity that can never be recovered. Let me repeat that. The Trump shutdown has cost the U.S. economy $11 billion. What a devastating and pointless exercise this has been. If President Trump didn't appreciate the error of his ways already, his CBO ought to set him straight--no more shutdowns. They accomplish nothing.…
