On the recordJanuary 11, 2019
I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this bill, which will restore funding for the Department of the Interior, for the Forest Service, and for the Environmental Protection Agency, because it is simply wrong for Federal workers to be held hostage. It is wrong for people who depend on these agencies to be held hostage as a negotiating tactic on a completely unrelated policy issue. The region I represent has more than 600,000 acres of Federal forests. It is the home to Olympic National Park, one of the crown jewels of the National Park System. And it overlooks the iconic Puget Sound. So I am speaking today on behalf of the hundreds of Federal workers who protect and manage these natural resources, from park rangers to timber sale specialists to water quality monitors, who have gone unpaid for almost 3 weeks. But this isn't just about those Federal workers who have lost their pay.…





