Murkowski Calls on Colleagues to Stay in DC, Work to End Shutdown

Murkowski Calls on Colleagues to Stay in DC, Work to End Shutdown

Washington, DC - Today, on day 27 of the federal shutdown, U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) called for the Senate to remain in Washington, DC for as long as it takes to reach agreement to reopen the government. During her remarks on the Senate floor, Murkowski read messages she has received from Alaskans impacted by the shutdown and expressed her frustration with the lack of progress being made on both sides of the aisle to end the stalemate.

Watch Senator Murkowski's full remarks here.

Rough Transcript

Murkowski: Madam President, we are in day 27 of a government shutdown. 27 days where the government is shutdown.

Yet, we are here, you are presiding, there are pages on the floor, there are people in the gallery, there are people coming and going, we've got Capitol Hill Police in the area, and it just feels like business as usual. We're going to have committee hearings this week, we're going to be voting on judges and some CRAs, and it just kind of feels like business as usual.

And yet it is so not business as usual. We're pretending that everything is okay.

We're pretending that people are not being impacted by this shutdown.

I'm looking at the people that are here recording this, that will be working to process this vote. None of them are getting paid.

The Capitol Hill Police, that I visit with on a daily basis outside and inside, are not getting paid.

And they share with me, "Well, I still had to drive in, I've got a forty-minute drive to get here, so I've got to fill up my car. I have kids at home, young kids, and so they go to childcare… so I've still got to pay the childcare provider… my expenses are not going away."

And yet every single one of them says, "I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. I've signed up for this, this is my mission, and I will be here."

And they're proud to be here.

But what is wrong is that their families are stressed.

I was talking with one Capitol Hill police officer on Thursday of last week, and he said, "Every day I go home, and my wife says, 'So? Did they open it up? Are we going to be paid?'"

And he said, "And I tell her nope, no progress today."

And so, we're starting to feel that. Because people who would otherwise be saying "I signed up for this, I'm not going to complain, I'm just going to what I'm going to do."

But we're starting to feel this in real time. It's having an impact, not only financially, but I fear from a mental health perspective.

We had a call come in yesterday…actually today. And this is a person calling in from Fairbanks. And she said, "It's getting chilly in Fairbanks. I woke up to a $2,500 bill for heating oil. Normally, this wouldn't be that big of a problem for me, but I'm a federal employee. I love my job, but it's been very frustrating to have constant threats of shutdowns and RIFs looming over my head. I work hard. I'm so tired of being labeled as one who's not working hard. I'd first like to propose that Congress doesn't get paid while we aren't getting paid, and maybe take fewer long weekends."

Well, I would let her know that for many of us, we have deferred our pay. It's not right that our staff should not get paid and yet we get paid.

But she raises a good point. She says, "Maybe, we in Congress should take fewer long weekends."

I think she is right.

We left here Thursday afternoon, members are just now coming back, we'll have our first vote here at 5:30pm.

And in the meantime, people have done important stuff. We have important jobs. We go home; we do important things. And maybe we are able to carve out a little time to be with our families as well and try to have that balance.

But for some, they still had to come in this weekend. Some of those Capitol Hill Police Officers had to come in this weekend to keep this place moving.

Some of the folks who are here to provide services to the building had to come in this weekend, and they weren't getting paid.

And so, I think the suggestion about us, maybe taking fewer long weekends, is something that not only we should consider, but I'm going to challenge this body.

I got a long commute home, folks. I'm not begrudging that. But I don't think we should be going home and just behaving as if this was another week in the United States Senate. Not when we have a government shutdown.

There is so much that is coming at us like a freight train.

Little kids are excited because Friday is going to be Halloween. Let me tell you, the scary costumes on Halloween night are going to be the scariest thing. It's going to be what is delivered, what's left on the doorstep the next morning, November 1, when it then becomes official SNAP payments will not be processed. Will not be available for the 66,000 in Alaska who rely on those food benefits.

The WIC payments - the Women, Infant, and Children payments, those too will be impacted.

It is a reality for us that we are seeing an impact across our society in ways that are not only scary, but overwhelming, for some.

We had a pretty tough week-and-a-half with a major disaster - thank you to the President for declaring that Presidential disaster following ex-Typhoon Halong.

But I can tell you that those that are reliant on SNAP benefits are increasingly stressed because of what they have just gone through with displacement within their homes. And now, it's across the whole state. And our food banks are stressed. We were stressed going into the beginning of winter already, we keep in close touch with our food banks.

But what I'm hearing is that we are already hearing the lines at the food bank growing longer. And, what is hard to hard to see, is knowing how many military families are part of those lines.

Now, Madam President, this is simply not right.

Now we may have what we call a "rifle-shot" votes this week, maybe we will take up again that will pay all the federal workers.

Maybe there will be a way that the military, who has been paid up until the end of this month, we will be able to make that next pay increment. I certainly hope so.

And not just our military, but our U.S. Coast Guard, and those that are in law enforcement.

Maybe there is going to be a vote that will allow us to pay our Capitol Police, I've signed on to that bipartisan measure.

Maybe there is going to be a vote for us to pay out the SNAP benefits, I've signed on to that legislation as well.

Maybe, but maybe not.

And again, if we do take the rifle-shot approach, who else are we leaving behind. What have we done for the men and women who make sure when we go through those airports [we're safe], the TSA, what have we done to make sure that our air traffic controllers that are keeping us safe in the skies, that their wives aren't yelling at the end of the long, stressful day, saying, "When is this going to end!"

So, we have got to figure this out.

And I know that we have our positions.

And if people don't know what the Republican positions are and what the Democrat positions are, they haven't been listening to this discussion for the past twenty-seven days. We know what it is.

We have got to come together, which means we've got to talk to one another.

And it can't be about Republicans winning and Democrats losing. Or Democrats winning and Republicans losing.

Because right now, right now, those that are losing are the American people.

Those that are calling us up and saying, "Social Security hasn't released my survivors benefit after my husband's death." Sorry, you're just going to have to wait.

A fellow in Petersburg was told that his telehealth appointment with his cardiologist was cancelled because of the lapse in the authorization in telehealth benefits.

And so, they basically said, "If you want to keep this appointment, you're going to have to fly to Seattle."

Those of you know that know Alaska know that Petersburg and Seattle are not connected by a road and it's not cheap.

A couple in Anchorage said they've been waiting on an approval from the FDA on a compassion-use exception for a medication to treat Stage IV Ovarian Cancer. And now, they're told, "Just hold on, the government's not operational right now."

We have a lot in our maritime community, and in order for them to be lawfully on the water, they need have to have their licensed renewed through the new Merchant Mariner Credentialing. That's on hold.

We've got a housing situation in Sitka, and we've got an Army Corps permit for the Housing Authority that's been delayed. We can't figure that one out.

We're talking to people trying to get an SBA loan, a local business owner in downtown [Anchorage].

The school district in Sleetmute, they have been waiting to get the Impact Aid emergency construction dollars so that they can repair this roof that is literally falling down in the back of the school. And they're told, "There's nobody here to take your call, because the government is not open."

So, for those that think this is not that big of a deal, they need to start asking people. Not only people who are federal employees. Not only people who are SNAP recipients.

They need to be asking people about some of the day-to-day, matter of fact things that happen when you have a small business, or you're trying to get your fishing vessel out in the water.

Real Alaskans are being impacted. And real Alabamans are being impacted. Americans are being impacted when we don't do our job.

And maybe this idea that we don't go home this weekend until we resolve this, maybe it doesn't work. Maybe we just look at each other and say, "I'm not going to talk to you."

Maybe we just continue on with multiple rounds of the same vote we've been taking for the last twenty-seven days and see if we get a different result.

Now, some say that's the definition of insanity. I don't know.

But what I do know is that when we leave and we assume that things are fine, or we send that message that things are fine because we've just gone home, and it's just business as usual here, then people whose lives are really being impacted right now, they think we don't get it.

We do get it, we need to act to end the shutdown, and I'm going to call on all of my colleagues to stay here until we get it done.

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