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“THIS IS ABOUT REAL PEOPLE” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H133 on Jan. 4, 1996.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
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THIS IS ABOUT REAL PEOPLE
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Metcalf). Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from North Carolina [Mrs. Clayton] is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, I agree with the last speaker, this is a great debate, this is a debate about who is important, who is not. It is a debate, I think, about the future, it is about the future we will allow all Americans to share in, hopefully. But I want to share with my colleagues a letter I received today from a mother of a 10-year-old girl. This letter is about a young girl that lives in Wilmington, my congressional district, with her mother and father. Her mother and father are musicians who have served as ambassadors for the U.S. Information Agency. On December 20 this little girl, 10 years old, traveled to Germany to visit her ailing stepmother, a stepmother who has cancer and is in treatment taking chemotherapy, but this is not where the story ends; it is really where it begins.
Let me read her mother's letter. It is self-explanatory. She writes: I hope you can help. We have a 10-year-old stranded in Germany who is supposed to return home by January 8 and whose passport expired January 2. This mother continued: She is flying Delta from Frankfort to Atlanta, and the Delta Airline international desk has told me that they will not let her board. This concerned mother goes on: The Hamburg consulate has told her father that they cannot issue a new passport due to the shutdown. Then she asks, could you please ask them to make an exception? She is an unaccompanied minor. Mr. Speaker, I enter this letter into the Record:
To Eva Clayton:
I have not been able to reach you by phone. I hope you can help. We have a 10 year old stranded in Germany who's supposed to return home Jan. 8th, but whose passport expired Jan. 2nd. She's flying Delta from Frankfort to Atlanta. Delta Airlines International Desk has told me they will not let her board. The Hamburg Consulate has told her father that they cannot issue a new passport due to the shut-down. Could you please ask them to make an exception since she is an unaccompanied minor? We appreciate your help! Thanks
Mr. Speaker, imagine a 10-year-old girl alone, away from her parents, away from school, in a foreign land, and she is told by her government she is not able to go home and she is not able to come to the United States to go back to school. Why? Because its government is closed.
On an average day the State Department processed some 23,000 applications for passports. On this day and each of the days this Government has been shut down no application for passports are being processed. On an average day the State Department issued some 20,000 visas to visitors who spent an average of $3,000 for a total of $60 million, but for this little girl who is 10 years old this is no average day.
They are not just numbers; they are people. When we talk about the common good for the multitude, we must remember those multitudes are made up of individual people who make up this great America.
I intend to do all in my power to help this little girl get home, but I cannot do it alone. We need reasonable people on both sides to understand what we are doing to this Government is foolishness and this needs to stop. But a simple act by this House following the responsible bipartisan act of the Senate where both Republicans and Democrats unanimously say that this Government should be open while we have this great debate. We should do that. All we need now is 20 reasonable Republicans to join with the Democrats on this side to follow the example that the Senate has done. Both Republicans and Democrats have come together to say the Government should go on while we have this great debate.
Do not hold this little girl in hostage. What will we tell her when we come home? What lessons are we teaching her as we do this? What lessons are we exemplifying to the rest of the world, that we cannot have a serious debate unless we hold people who are innocent as leverage, as hostage?
This is no way for responsible people to govern their Nation. Yes, we are not being responsible, Mr. Speaker, because indeed we are making real people suffer, real people, not just some imaginative number of the future, but real people are suffering; senior citizens are suffering, and the prospect of their Meals on Wheels not being there to feed people who desperately need those. We certainly are making people suffer who are eligible for Social Security who cannot even process their application. Why? There is no one there to take the application.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, if that is not bad enough, in this bitter cold season we do not have heat. The heat program that we had made available for what we call the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program is no longer available. No one has that opportunity. In the bitter cold we will say no to those people. Why? Because we want to make them sacrificial lambs.
Mr. Speaker, on this 20th day we hope again we could find 20 reasonable Republicans to join and follow the exemplary bipartisan responsible act of the Senate and put this Government back to work while we have this great debate.
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