Political Quotes

“My district lies just outside of Washington, D.C., in northern Virginia, and is home to tens of thousands of Federal workers and contractors. Since I was sworn in on Thursday, I have received hundreds of calls, emails, and social media outreach from my constituents whose lives are upended. I would like to read one of those messages now. I am a Federal employee who used the last of his discretionary funds this week to attend his grandfather's funeral. Now I'm preparing to file for unemployment. My wife has to try to get a job despite her severe and crippling disability, and we've had to return some of the Christmas presents for ourselves, our four-year-old son, and our six- year-old daughter. We've always lived paycheck to paycheck because of the high cost of living in northern Virginia, and we don't have the option to take out loans because we incurred so much debt moving to the area and dealing with our family's medical bills. Right now I am contacting our utilities and mortgage company to see if we can push out the deadlines for bills. I gave up military service to join the civil service and have been so disheartened to see the lack of respect for our Federal employees. Mr. Speaker, we owe our Federal employees better than this. I call on the Senate and the President to do the right thing and end this shutdown now. ____________________”