On the recordJanuary 19, 2018
Madam President, Senator Tillis and I have come to the floor today because we have just some incredible frustration and wanted to be able to bring some facts to this conversation. I absolutely grieve for the Federal workers in my State. I mean, there are some phenomenal people who do an amazing job. Most people will never know their names, but, every day, they are getting up to serve the American people. Every day, there are folks who are in our military who are serving the American people. The civilians who surround them, though they are not listed as Federal employees, are intimately connected to what we are doing for the Federal task--for people. They are trying to figure out this afternoon what is going to happen to them this weekend and next week. They are frantically getting together in offices all over Oklahoma and, quite frankly, all over America and are trying to piece together the ``now whats?'' of a government shutdown, which is distracting them from getting all of the things done that they already need to get done that they are backlogged on now. For what? The frustration of this whole focus on ``let's do a government shutdown over not having to have real discussions about DACA and immigration'' is not only not accurate, but it is also something that is already in the process that is somehow being short-circuited.…





