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“PROVIDING RELIEF FOR AMERICANS AFFECTED BY SHUTDOWN” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H6419 on Oct. 9, 2013.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
PROVIDING RELIEF FOR AMERICANS AFFECTED BY SHUTDOWN
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Bustos) for 5 minutes.
Mrs. BUSTOS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to once again speak out about the human consequences and the reckless and irresponsible government shutdown. Today it is day 9 into this needless swirl of frustration and madness.
Yesterday I spent time on the telephone talking with a woman whom I am here to represent. She lives in a small town called Roseville, Illinois. It is in the southern part of my congressional district. Her name is Sherri Leath.
Sherri is a decades-long employee of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and she serves as a food inspector. She spent the first 4 years of her employment in a slaughterhouse, a beef slaughterhouse. The last 6 years, she is in the inspection area of a poultry and a pork processing plant. This is not a glamorous job, she is the first to admit that, but she works very hard every day, and she takes great pride in the fact that she is making sure that our food is safe and wholesome.
She has four children and six grandchildren, and she says she keeps them in mind and she keeps all the children in mind throughout this country as she is inspecting in these plants and makes sure, again, that this meat goes out safe and wholesome.
So today she will drive. She has a very long commute. She will spend most of that time in a cooler that is at most 45 degrees. And I would call someone like Sherri Leath an unsung hero, because without people like Sherri, who, again, are not receiving their pay right now, our food supply would be in jeopardy.
So she is going into work every day, not taking home a paycheck, and she is worried at a deep level about her family's future. She has a husband named Thomas, who is a school bus driver and brings home $800 a month. This is not enough for Sherri and Thomas Leath to pay their bills.
So they have already discussed what this government shutdown means to their family. Step one for them, if the paycheck doesn't come, is they will tap into their reserves, into their savings. Step two, if it leads to that, they will have to go into further credit card debt. This is not what we should be doing to people like Sherri and Thomas Leath. This is not what we should be doing to the hardworking Federal employees who want nothing more than to do a good job, go to work, and receive fair pay. But this is the way it has been for 9 days now.
We heard Congressman Steny Hoyer speak half an hour ago now, talking about that we have an answer to this right now. We have enough Republican votes and we have enough Democratic votes today, within the hour, as he explained it, to get the government up and running again. We could immediately--immediately, today--provide relief for people like Sherri and Thomas Leath by reopening the government right here and right now. We have a bipartisan path to do that.
I would say let's do it. Let's get at it today and put these good, hardworking people back to work and receiving fair pay.
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