Political Quotes

“I want to read part of a letter from Charles from Vermont: I am a Marine Corps veteran and have spent the last 15 years guarding the national borders as a CPB officer. The government shutdown is unacceptable. January in Vermont is pretty cold. As a furloughed government worker, I have to choose whether to pay for fuel oil to heat my home or to make child support payments to support my ex-wife and my children. And without work and without pay, I am unable to do that. He is one of 1,300 Vermont employees of the Federal Government who is working without pay. These include 900 employees at the Department of Homeland Security, 300 employees at the Department of Agriculture, and 100 employees of the Interior Department. Mr. Speaker, this Sunday, I went to the shift change at the Burlington International Airport and met with our TSA personnel. They asked me a question. They had missed a paycheck. They had been showing up for work every single day. They had been doing, in their professional and cheerful way, processing all of us through security, keeping us safe, and they are very proud of their work. But they asked me a question that I couldn't answer: Do you know of any other situation where an employer can require a person to work even when the employer has told that employee you are not getting paid? That is what is happening. That happens nowhere. Where in your experience can an employer, whatever kind, tell the worker to show up, but we are not going to pay you?…”