U.S. Senator Kamala D. Harris spoke on the Senate floor this week to call on her colleagues to immediately take up bipartisan legislation to re-open the government and put federal employees in California and across the country back to work. In her remarks, she noted that before the holidays the Senate unanimously passed legislation to re-open the government and that the president has consistently stood in the way of ending the shutdown.
Key Points from Senator Harris’ Remarks:
- “The real obstacle to ending this shutdown is in the White House. The President is holding the American people hostage over his vanity project on the southern border—and he’s peddling his usual propaganda to distract from a crisis of his own making.”
- “Last week for example, I heard from a woman named Trisha. Trisha and her husband are both air traffic controllers with nearly 40 years of federal service combined. Trisha’s husband served in the Navy. He now has to work long hours of overtime to compensate for the workers who are absent because they’ve been furloughed. And he’s not being paid. Trisha’s job was deemed non-essential, so she’s also not being paid. “
- “Americans need their government to do its job. They don’t need a wall. They need a paycheck. Congress is a coequal branch of government. We don’t need a permission slip before we can vote on a bill. So on behalf of Trisha and hundreds of thousands of Americans like her, let’s take up the legislation that we already approved. Let’s send it to the President.”
