The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Senate section on pages S17500-S17501 on Nov. 20, 1995.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I will speak of other Government employees now. I strongly support the agreement's commitment to provide back pay for the thousands of employees and their families who were forced off the job last week through no fault of their own. It was an insult to these households held hostage through our inability to agree on a workable Government budget for all Americans. I regret that the shutdown punished hard-working families, not some faceless bureaucrats as some would have you believe.
I know an awful lot of men and women in Vermont who work very hard at keeping the Government of this great country running, from the Immigration and Naturalization Service to the Justice Department and Agriculture, food service, on and on. These are hard-working people. They are the Cal Ripkens of the Government who show up for work every single day, do their job, do it the very best they can, and suddenly are told they are not essential, we do not believe in what they have been doing, and they are sent home through no fault of their own.
They just want to work. I had so many call my home, call my office, and say: We are ready to come to work. We will volunteer. There are things that have to be done. Passports have to be issued; social welfare claims have to be heard; and so on. It is the same throughout this country.
Remember these same Government employees who died for this country in Oklahoma, these same Government employees who make the greatest democracy on Earth operate with a quarter of a billion people. They should not become pawns in a budget chess match.
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