Benjamin Cardin

Mr. CARDIN

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, let me say to my friend that she is absolutely right. We have heard from a lot of contractors who employ individuals, from large contractors such as Lockheed to smaller companies that employ 30, 40, 50 people. The range is around 20 to 25 percent of their workforce has been laid off. There is no assurance whatsoever they will ever get paid. There are some contractors who don't know whether they are going to survive; it is that serious. So the private sector direct employment loss as a result of the shutdown is growing every day, and it is having an incredible impact throughout the country in every State. The Senator mentioned Maryland, which I have the honor of representing along with Senator Mikulski. Ten percent of our workforce works directly for the Federal Government. The overwhelming majority of them have been put on furlough. We have estimated the number to be in excess of 125,000 in our State of Maryland. Add the private contractors who are laying off workers as a result of the shutdown. Last week I stopped by a restaurant right off the Baltimore Beltway to get a sandwich. I know the owner. I asked him how things were going. He said: Terrible. He said: About half of my customers are not here because they are Federal employees that would normally come in during the workday and are not coming in. The margins are very small for these businesses to be able to remain open. So the direct impact on Federal workers and the direct impact on those who have contract work with the Federal Government and the impact on our economy--it is in every State of the country, but it is particularly in the State I represent--has been devastating. One more number. The Metro system depends upon the Federal workforce here. They need a fare-box revenue in order to keep the system operating in a moderate way. Their ridership is down 23 percent. Their revenues are down 23 percent. What is the Metro going to do? The impact of this shutdown has had an incredibly damaging impact on our economy and on families. We have a lot of two-parent households working for the Federal Government both on furlough. So many Federal workers live paycheck to paycheck, and they are now recognizing there might not be any paycheck. How are they supposed to pay their bills? I spoke to one of my constituents in Maryland who works for a Federal agency. He and his wife have both been furloughed. They just recently bought a home and have a mortgage payment to make. The mortgage company isn't going to say: Sorry the government is shut down; don't pay your mortgage. He has to pay his mortgage. How is he going to be able to do that? We have hurt people. This shutdown, which should never have happened, has had a huge impact on our economy. The tragedy is for the taxpayers. It is a waste of money, with over $2 billion wasted as a result of this shutdown. So I thank my colleague for allowing me to interject to underscore the point she has made. She has been on the floor just about every day, and I admire her very much for what she has been saying because she is absolutely right. The damage is clear. We never should have shut down government. We should pay our bills. It is difficult to understand the Republicans' original position that they want to negotiate the end of ObamaCare on a bill that just keeps the lights on in government. Now we are talking about paying our bills. They are talking again about dealing with some policy issues. If we are going to get into that discussion--which we should not unless we turn the lights on--let's open government and then turn the lights on and then sit down and negotiate. That is what we have to do. We have some major issues we need to deal with, including how we are going to grow the economy, create jobs, have a modern transportation infrastructure. As chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, my colleague fought so hard for a multiyear reauthorization of our surface transportation systems, for modern roads, well-maintained--a modern transportation system. To Chairman Boxer, we have three major transit initiatives in Maryland that need to move forward. We have to have funding for that. That is how our economy will grow. Yes, I look forward to sitting down with my Republican colleagues to negotiate a budget for next year but first open government and pay the bills.

Mr. CARDIN. I thank the Chair, and I thank Senator Boxer. She points out the hardship of people not getting a paycheck. Senator Boxer points it out very clearly. Some of these people are the same people who were just furloughed as a result of sequestration, so they already had smaller paychecks because of sequestration. Let me remind my colleagues that sequestration was put in 2 years ago as a placeholder. I don't know of a single Senator who wanted to see sequestration take effect. It was a placeholder to get to a budget negotiation. What did we do? We passed the budget. We passed the budget almost 7 months ago. We said: Let's negotiate. We knew it was not going to be our budget. We know we have to negotiate with the House to get a budget to get rid of sequestration. I mention that because once again we have a very simple request today: Open the government and pay our bills. Sit down and negotiate. It is pretty simple. We have not brought forward our policy objectives in this, which is to have a budget that makes sense for this country, that allows growth of employment, invests not only in roads and bridges but energy and research and education so we can build a competitive economy for the 21st century. We want a budget that is balanced on how we reduce spending--not just on what we call our discretionary spending accounts but also as we look at our entitlement spending. We want to see our health care system more efficient. We want to work to make it a more efficient system. We started that with passage of the Affordable Care Act. Now we want to implement that. That will bring about some additional savings. We believe we should pay our bills. We should have the necessary revenue. Our revenue code is full of inequities that hemorrhage revenue. My colleague from California is well aware of the fact that in our Tax Code--I serve on the Senate Finance Committee. I think my colleagues understand that we are now spending more money in our Tax Code than we do in appropriations bills. We spend more money in the Tax Code. That is tax breaks some people get--not everyone. We certainly can review those tax expenditures and close those that are inefficient, which will not only provide more equity in our Tax Code but will provide more revenue to pay our bills and reduce our deficit. It is that type of negotiation we want to get into, but we cannot do that when the Republicans have put a gun to the head of the U.S. economy. That is what they have done by shutting government and by threatening not to pay the bills. We say very simply, put down the gun. Let's negotiate these issues.

Mr. CARDIN. The Senator is absolutely right about the private contractor issue. When you look at 800,000 Federal workers who have been furloughed, that does not include the private contractors, which are clearly going to be an additional hundreds of thousands who are not working today, yes, it is a huge drain on our economy, and there is no reason for this. For all those reasons, we say very clearly on day 14, day 14 of this shutdown, let's open the government, let's pay our bills, and, yes, let's develop a sensible way to negotiate our budget. Let's not try to threaten the American people and then try to pass an extreme agenda as a result of that. Through the Chair, I thank Senator Boxer.

Mr. CARDIN. Through the Chair, I just have to say to my colleague that she is absolutely right. She is the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee Agency. She has given great examples that show how critically important the Environmental Protection Agency is in protecting public health and protecting our environment. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is important to protect the public safety. The Senator from California is absolutely right. I want to give another dynamic, and that is jobs. The fact that the EPA is not in full force is hurting economic growth. I will give one example: Harbor Point in downtown Baltimore, which is an RCRA site, which means it was an environmental cleanup site that has a court order on its development requiring the EPA to sign off to make sure the environmental issues are being protected in its development. Everything is fairly well understood here, and it has gone through a long process. We are now at the point where we are ready to develop this prime spot. It is the most iconic spot in downtown Baltimore. It is going to help our city grow. Our city needs economic growth. It is on hold. Why? Because the EPA does not have its people in the office to be able to review this application in a timely way. That is just one example. The Environmental Protection Agency is critically important for public health. It is critically important for our environment and also for economic growth. I will give another example: The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau is not at full complement either. We have microbreweries in Maryland that are doing very well. Every time they add a new product, they have to get approval from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. That is on hold. Their economic growth is on hold. I could give many more examples. Senator Boxer mentioned our refuges. The Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge is located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. It is one of the most beautiful spots in the world. This is hunting season. The Eastern Shore of Maryland depends upon the hunting season for its economy. I can't tell you how many hotel operators, restaurants, and shopowners depend upon the fall season being in full force with the hunting season, and now we put a real damper--not just the weather we had over the past weekend--but the fact that the government was closed has put a damper on the economy. Actually, it was good weather for hunting. They lost that. They are not going to be able to recover that. It is lost. As my friend pointed out, our request is pretty simple. Our request is to open the government, pay our bills, and let's sit down and negotiate. The point I hope everyone understands: The funding level we sent over to the House of Representatives is the Republican funding level. We didn't negotiate that number. That is the current fiscal year 2013 number. We didn't negotiate between that number and our budget number that this body passed. We gave up on that and said: Look, it is more important to keep the government open. We have already negotiated. Bear with me for one more minute. Senator Boxer has given the Baltimore Sun a lot of credit today, and I would like to quote from their editorial because I think it is important to point out. Passing a ``clean'' continuing resolution keeping government fully operating at funding levels the GOP has already endorsed is no compromise. It's the status quo. Raising the debt ceiling isn't a concession either--it allows the nation to pay the bills Congress has already incurred and prevents the possibility of a government default, which would hurt the economy, raise borrowing costs and increase the federal deficit. So when Speaker Boehner lashes out at President Obama for failing to negotiate, one has to ask, what is this thing he describes as negotiation? House Republicans are not merely leveraging their political position--as some dryly claim-- they are threatening to do grievous harm to the global economy and the American public. The gun isn't raised to President Obama's head or to the Senate. The Democrats have no particular stake in passing a continuing resolution or in raising the debt ceiling other than keeping public order and doing what any reasonable person expects Congress to do. No, the gun is raised at the nation as a whole. That's why descriptions like ``ransom'' and ``hostage'' are not mere hyperbole, they are as close as the English language gets to accurately describing the GOP strategy. I hope we are close to reaching an agreement to open the government. It should never have been closed. A lot of damage and harm has already been done. We are on a motion to proceed to the debt ceiling. If we were not to pay our bills, that would cause irreparable harm not just to our economy, but to the world economy. That is something we should not be playing around with waiting until the last public minute. I urge my colleagues to put the interest of this country first. This is a serious matter that affects our economy, America's future, and the global economy. If we turn the global economy into further economic disorder, it is going to have a major impact on the United States, and it will be our fault. I urge my colleagues to immediately cease this strategy of threatening our economy. Let's open the government, pay our bills, and sit down and negotiate, as we should, a budget agreement which will not be what the Democrats want or the Republicans want, but it will be a compromise, as it should be, between the parties. We owe that to the American people. Through the Chair, I thank Senator Boxer again for underscoring these points and pointing out the wide impact this has on all parts of our country. We have to end it. I hope we can end it tonight.

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, once again I wish to thank Senator Boxer for her comments and for her strength in coming to the floor and pointing out the danger and harm caused by the government shutdown and the risk of defaulting on our debt. Let me make it clear: Open government. Keep it open at the level the Republicans had in their budget as we continue to negotiate. We want to negotiate a budget for fiscal year 2014. We want that budget to be fair. We have been trying to do that for 7 months. We are not going to negotiate a budget in the next 48 hours. It is going to take more time than that. We need to extend the ability to pay our bills. That should be done for a long time--for a longer period of time--because of the predictability here. We don't want to go from crisis to crisis. There should be no concessions for either one of those two issues; that is, opening government or paying our bills. Let's work back and forth, Democrats and Republicans, on a budget in which there will be give and take. That is what we are encouraging our colleagues to do. I join Senator Boxer in hoping there is a productive meeting at the White House today. I hope we find a game plan that will allow us to open government and pay our bills in a way in which we can sit down and negotiate the fiscal year 2014 budget, respecting each other's views and doing what our political system always envisioned; that is, true compromise, particularly when we have a House of Representatives controlled by Republicans and a Senate controlled by Democrats. With that, I yield the floor.

Mr. CARDIN. Could I ask my colleague to yield?

Mr. CARDIN

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senators be permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, we are in the 11th day of the government shutdown. We have caused great harm to the people of this country. We have already caused harm. We have hurt the United States on the international front. The President, as I mentioned previously, was absent at the Asian economic summit. The Asian economic summit was the opportunity for America, the President of the United States, to be the headliner. Instead, the President of China, President Xi, became the headliner. There were questions asked about whether America is ``open for business'' with our trading partners. We have been hurt by this shutdown, make no mistake about it. Our economy has suffered. Just the threat of defaulting--of not paying our bills--has hurt consumer confidence. Consumer confidence measures whether consumers are ready to go out and buy that car, buy that home, go on vacation. After the terrorist attacks on the country on September 11, 2001, consumer confidence dropped by about 8.8 percent. I could go over other calamitous moments in history, but the debt ceiling debate today is about twice as damaging to consumer confidence as the 9/11 attack. We are talking about paying our bills when we talk about raising the debt ceiling--bills that have already been incurred. We are just paying the bills. Mr. President, we are hurting our country. We are hurting our economy. We are wasting taxpayer dollars. We all talk about dealing with the debt. But in the government shutdown, we have wasted over $2 billion of taxpayer money as a result of it. As the Presiding Officer knows, in this region--Maryland, Virginia, the District--we have over 300,000 Federal workers who are on furlough of the 800,000 who are furloughed nationwide. That has a direct impact on families as well as our economy. These Federal workers are not buying in their local shops, they are not eating in the local restaurants. I stopped into a restaurant for a sandwich over the last weekend. I said: How are things going? The shopowner said: Terrible. Social Security employees are not here. I cannot keep my business open without their business. We have seen the direct impact. I have tried to put faces on these numbers. We could talk about the statistics and the numbers. Let's talk about people, the individual people I hear from--I know the Presiding Officer has received calls from constituents in Virginia. It is the same story. Over a week ago we brought in Amy Fritz who works at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Adminstration (NOAA). She is a Federal worker who is furloughed. She tracks weather conditions and works on the computer models to predict how storms will behave. It is a pretty important position she has. She was telling of the hardship to her family. The Baltimore Sun reported today that at NOAA it is not just the Federal workers, it is the contract workers who are suffering. The Sun cited the example of Tiffany House, a person who lives in Hyattsville, MD. She is a single mom, a contract employee of NOAA, who has been laid off as a result of the shutdown. It is more than just 800,000 Federal workers; we have the contract workers who have been laid off as a result of the shutdown. She said, ``Even though we're furloughed and we are not getting paid, the bills keep coming.'' There are a lot of hard-working families who live paycheck to paycheck. We are 11 days into this government shutdown. Families are wondering what they are going to do when it comes to paying their bills. The Sun reported about Keith Tate from Hyattsville. He works for FM Talent Source in Silver Spring. Almost 30 percent of their contract employees, 92 people in total, have been laid off. He was starting work on October 1--his luck. He was looking forward to it. He went to work on October 1 but then was furloughed as a result of the government shutdown. The effect goes well beyond individual people that you would expect, like Federal employees and contractors. I have a friend, Hugh Sisson, who started Heavy Seas Brewery in Baltimore. It is one of America's great craft breweries. He is doing a great job and hiring people. You may say, ``How does this affect him? He sells beer.'' Well, beer sales are affected by furloughs and a drop in consumer confidence, but it's worse than that. The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) employees at the Department of the Treasury have been furloughed. They're the people who review and approve new breweries, recipes, and labels. Hugh told me, ``We have eight labels waiting for approval and 10 formulas we would like to start the process on but can't at this time.'' Craft brewers like Hugh Sisson are innovators, constantly introducing new beers and seasonal beers, fresh products. They are being hurt all over the Nation as a result of the TTB staff being furloughed. They don't just hire their own staff; they support jobs in agriculture for barley and hops and other ingredients; in manufacturing for stainless steel kettles and fermenters and bottling and canning lines; and in distribution and retail. These are blue collar jobs and white collar jobs. All across America. These are jobs that won't be outsourced overseas. And this shutdown is hurting America's craft brewers. This shutdown is hurting our economy, hurting our country, hurting individuals, hurting taxpayers, hurting businesses. We can do much better. In my State of Maryland 10 percent of our workforce works for the Federal Government. The dedicated employees at these agencies do work that's important to all Americans, not just Marylanders. As I pointed out previously, Harbor Point is one of the most important economic developments in downtown Baltimore, but it's RCRA site--that stands for the Resource Conservation & Recovery Act--which means it requires the consent of government, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), before this enormous economic development project can move forward. The people at EPA who would approve this project have been furloughed. This economic project now is on hold. I could mention other examples of agencies that are critically important. I could also talk a lot more about private employment. It is not just government employment, it is private employment. Convergence Technology Consulting, located in Glen Burnie, MD, does cloud computing services for the Department of Defense. Twenty percent of the firm's 65 employees have been laid off. TW Corporation in Hanover does cyber security work, and one-third of its 700 employees were furloughed. The list of the damages caused by the government shutdown goes on and on. My message is pretty simple. We have to make sure government is open. We have to make sure we open government, and we have to pay our bills. I understand we would like to have an agreement on a budget. I would like to have an agreement on the budget. For 6 months we have been trying to go to conference. The Senate passed a budget, the House passed a budget. They are different. The Senate budget, one that I supported, the Presiding Officer supported, would provide more resources for job growth by investing in infrastructure, by investing in education, by investing in research. Yes, we do provide more revenues by closing tax loopholes. We also start to rein in government spending and continue to do that. The House-passed budget has fewer of those investments. It does not close the loopholes in our Tax Code. That is what we have to negotiate between Democrats and Republicans. That is what we need to do. But the first order of business is to reopen government--all of it--and pay our bills, and then let's sit down and negotiate. We cannot wait. We must have government open. I quoted before from the Baltimore Sun and the paper's analogy of negotiations. It is difficult when this is all one-sided. As Sunpapers said: So when Speaker Boehner lashes out at President Obama for failing to negotiate, one has to ask, what is this thing he describes as negotiation? House Republicans are not merely leveraging their political position--as some dryly claim-- they are threatening to do grievous harm to the global economy and the American public. The gun isn't raised to Mr. Obama's head or to the Senate's. The Democrats have no particular stake in passing a continuing resolution or in raising the debt ceiling other than keeping public order and doing what any reasonable person expects Congress to do. No, the gun is raised at the nation as a whole. That's why descriptions like ``ransom'' and ``hostage'' are not mere hyperbole, they are as close as the English language gets to accurately describing the GOP strategy. Our message is clear to House Speaker Boehner: Put down the gun. Put it down. Open government. Allow us to pay our bills. And, yes, we want to sit down and work out our differences. Let the democratic process proceed. Open government, pay our bills, and then let's negotiate a fair and comprehensive agreement on the budget. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CARDIN

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, on October 13, 1775, Congress enacted legislation providing for the outfitting of America's first two warships, manned by crews of 80, to be sent out on a 3-month cruise. Their mission was to intercept transports carrying munitions and supplies to the British army in America. Navy missions have evolved significantly over the last 238 years; however, the essential role America's maritime forces play in defending our Nation and allowing prosperity to flourish is unchanged. The United States Navy has the finest men and women in uniform on, above, and below the high seas safeguarding America's interests at home and around the globe. This Sunday we celebrate the U.S. Navy's 238th birthday. We remember the great sacrifices made by sailors who came before, we mourn those we lost along the way, we celebrate their successes and we applaud the new generation of sailors serving our great Nation today. The United States Navy is comprised of over 323,000 active duty sailors, over 109,000 on ready reserve, and a civilian force around 201,000. The United States Navy cannot exist without the commitment of its active duty, reserve and civilian forces, in addition to the support of Navy families. The sacrifices made by over 630,000 proud men and women serving the Navy provide the freedoms all Americans enjoy daily; freedoms paid for by those in uniform, many who are aboard the 102 ships deployed around the world as I speak right now, serving on the front lines in defense of freedom. There are no finer men and women in uniform anywhere in the world than those who serve the United States Navy. Today, the value of having a strong naval power cannot be underestimated; 70 percent of the Earth's surface is covered by water and 90 percent of international trade travels by the sea, which means our sailors need to be 100 percent on watch. No other branch of the military conducts missions on all fronts like the Navy does. The seas are America's lifeline; our Navy protects vital shipping lanes ensuring prosperity and free trade for our Nation and our friends abroad. The Navy is essential in protecting our Nation's cyber security at a time when, according to former Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead, 95 percent of digital information is traveling on cables at the bottom of the seas. Our national security is ever-dependent on our Nation's sea power. For each of these reasons and more, the United States Navy deserves our thanks and admiration. I must also pay tribute as today marks the 168th anniversary of the United States Naval Academy. When Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft founded the Academy in Annapolis, MD, I think he could only dream that it would continue to inspire and help create the high caliber graduates it does today. I truly must commend those graduates and their brothers and sisters serving in arms. The incredible flexibility and can-do attitude of the Navy were instrumental to the withdrawal of military forces in Iraq and the drawdown of military forces in Afghanistan. From the Seabees to the Navy Seals, the entirety of the Department of the Navy is integral to securing our national defense around the world. Artfully inscribed above the chapel doors at the Naval Academy are the Latin words ``non sibi sed patriae.'' Though the Navy has no official motto, these words, translated as ``not for self but country,'' encapsulate the sacrifice and dedication of our amazing Navy Men and Women serving across the globe today so that our society may be free. The real strength of our Navy is not the ships or weapons or technology at our disposal, but the highly trained, motivated, and professional sailors who make our Navy the envy of the world. For 238 years, the U.S. Navy has witnessed many changes in missions, in geopolitics, and in technology. But in all that time, the one thing that has not changed is the importance of quality people, for it is the sailors who make it all happen, and who make the real difference in a Navy's effectiveness. To all who serve: thank you for your continued vigilance. Let us remember our Navy sailors and Naval Academy midshipmen for their historic achievements in defense of our Nation and in defense of freedom, and wish them a happy birthday.

Mr. CARDIN

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I join my colleagues in taking the floor to stress the urgency of action. I agree with my colleague from Massachusetts and her comments about the devastating impact the failure to pay our bills would have on our economy, on our Nation's reputation, and on the worldwide economy. That would make absolutely no sense at all and would put our Nation at great risk. I thank the Senator for taking the time to explain the specific consequences if we were to allow the U.S. Treasury to be put in the position where it could not honor all of the obligations that have already been incurred. This is not about increasing spending. This is about paying the bills we have already incurred. Whether it is for those who hold our bonds, those who are entitled to a payroll check or those who are entitled to a contractor's check, we have to honor our bills. That is what America's great reputation is all about. I thank the Senator for bringing that up. The combination of a government shutdown combined with not paying our bills will have an impact on our economy that will be very hard for us to overcome. We have already been harmed. This government shutdown has already hurt America. It has hurt us internationally. This past week President Obama was supposed to be at the Asian economic summit. The Presiding Officer--the Senator from Delaware who serves on the Foreign Relations Committee--knows very well the importance of that particular conference. The headliner of that conference should have been President Obama pointing out how important the rebalanced Asia is to America's economy and that we are open for business; instead, America was closed for business. The headliner at that economic summit was President Xi of China. That is not what this Nation needed. We were harmed by that government shutdown and the President's inability to travel to Asia. Make no mistake about it, it hurt America. Our economy has already been hurt by the shutdown. Every day that the government is shut down, it hurts our economy. I can give a lot of specific examples. For instance, there was a report in this morning's paper about the State of Colorado and how it recently experienced one of the worst floods in its history which caused a devastating impact on its economy. They are now telling us that this shutdown is approaching the economic damage to Colorado that nature did to it a couple of weeks ago by the floods. However, there is a major difference: We can't stop what nature does--we can try to mitigate it--but we can stop this government shutdown. This is a government problem that we have imposed on the people of Colorado, the people of Maryland, the people of Delaware, and the people of our entire country. This shutdown has hurt the taxpayers of this country. I have heard my conservative friends say that we want to make sure we don't spend so much money. We want to help the taxpayers. In this short period of time already the shutdown has cost the taxpayers of this country a reported $2 billion. That is just wasted taxpayer dollars. We have a responsibility to care for the public funds. The way to do that right now is to open government and stop wasting taxpayer dollars. I have been on this floor many times to talk about the harm we are doing to the Federal workforce. Yes, we are harming the Federal workforce; there is no question about it. I am particularly sensitive because this region has more Federal workers--of the 800,000 who have been furloughed, over 300,000 come from this region. By the way, 30 percent are veterans. The people who have served our Nation are now being furloughed because of this government shutdown. Maryland's workforce is about 10 percent of Federal workers. So this has had a real impact on the State I have the honor of representing in the Senate. Each one of those 800,000 people whom we represent is real. They are not just numbers. These are real people who have been harmed by the closing of the Federal Government. Let me speak about a couple of people whom I have heard about or who have called me. Kayla is a 15-year-old who I spoke to on the telephone. She told me about how her parents are worried. Both of her parents are Federal workers, and she, a 15-year-old, sensed the fear in her parents as to whether they will be able to pay their bills. We put that family at risk by failing to keep government open. Melissa Ayres is a furloughed Federal worker at the Social Security Administration. Her husband was unemployed for 2\1/2\ years as a result of our economic downturn. Now his company is recovering, but Melissa was the principal wage earner. She stated: I have always been the primary earner until Monday. Now I think: What do I do to support my family? The government shutdown has hurt Melissa Ayres and her family. I heard from a farmer on the eastern shore of Maryland's Cecil County. He is part of the conservation stewardship program. I know the Presiding Officer, the Senator from Delaware, is well aware of that. But what this person has done is taken some income away from his farming activities by planting buffer crops. Those buffer crops help with reducing the amount of pollutants that run off into the Chester River, in this case, which will flow into the Chesapeake Bay. So he is being a good steward of the environment, and he enrolled in the conservation stewardship program. As part of that, he gets a payment from that fund, because he is giving up some of the income of his farming activities in order to help us preserve the Chesapeake Bay. During this shutdown, that payment is not being made. He has put himself in a tough position. He did the right thing. He has put his family at risk. He told me he has a young child who is undergoing certain treatment for his eye. He doesn't know whether he has the money for his child to continue in that medical treatment. He needs the check for his participation in this program. This government shutdown has had a real impact on real people. Johnny Zuagar who works at the Census Bureau--I should say used to work at the Census Bureau because he has been furloughed. Of the 5,000 employees at the Census Bureau, less than 40 are currently working-- forty out of 5,000. The budget he has for his family is based upon his paycheck. If he doesn't get his full paycheck, he can't pay his bills. So his question is which bills should he pay and which not pay. That is the situation we are putting people in as a result of this government shutdown. Marcelo Del Canto was here earlier this week. He works with helping in the fight against substance abuse. He has been a Federal worker for 8 years. He is in the unenviable position that he and his wife both work for the Federal Government, and they have both been furloughed. He is a Marylander and just recently bought a home in Maryland. He has a mortgage. If he doesn't get a paycheck, how does he pay his mortgage? The mortgage company is not going to say: Oh, government shutdown. You don't have to pay your mortgage payments. This shutdown is having a real impact on real families in my State of Maryland and in every State in this Nation. Then there are agencies that just can't do their work that will hurt our country. The Environmental Protection Agency currently has 93 percent of its workforce on furlough. That means we are at risk with our public health--clean air, clean water. Our environment is at risk. The Chesapeake Bay is at greater risk because the people out there doing the monitoring and doing the enforcement are not there. Scientists are not doing what they need to be doing in order to help us with public health and to deal with our environment. Let me tell my colleagues that it is also directly hurting our economy. In Baltimore, one of the most important economic development sites, Harbor Point, in downtown Baltimore, which is being developed is a RCRA site, which requires the approval of the Environmental Protection Agency in order to move forward with the economic development plan. The people who would do that approval process are on furlough. That project is now on hold and the economic development that would help Baltimore and our State economy is now on hold. The shutdown is having a real effect on real people. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST, which is located in the State of Maryland, does work that is so important for innovation, for science, and technology. They do work to help us have a competitive edge internationally. Ninety-one percent of their workforce is on furlough. How do we expect to be competitive? This year, the SAMMI Awards were recently given out. The SAMMI Awards are given to Federal workers who excel in public service. These are our frontliners. These are the people who are serving their nation, and we want to honor them. I want to recognize some of the people who were being honored at the SAMMI Awards this year. One is Daniel Madrzykowski. He works at NIST. I mention him because he has been there for 28 years. The work he does is to figure out how he can keep our first responders who fight fires safe. He does the research as to how they can go into a building in a safer way. Well, he is furloughed, and our first responders are at a little bit greater risk today as a result of the government shutdown. The shutdown is having an effect on real people. I read with interest how we celebrated the Nobel Prize in medicine going to James Rothman and Randy Schekman for the incredible work they did. I don't know if I can explain what they did, but I will tell my colleagues that it is incredible. They were able to reach that pinnacle in their careers and reach their accomplishments because during their career they were supported by the National Institutes of Health. NIH does basic research which is so important--the building blocks for discovery in America. It provides incentives for young people to go into science and to go into research. Will we have the next group of Nobel laureates? Today it is less certain than it was a week ago. NIH cannot support those types of research grants today. Their people are on furlough. America is not open for business. Real people are being hurt by what is happening. It is not just in government employment. I can talk about private sector employment. It was just reported today that Lockheed will be laying off 400 Maryland workers as a result of the shutdown. I can give many more examples of private companies that are laying off people as a result of this shutdown. The bottom line is this: We hear from some of our Republican colleagues in the House that we have to negotiate, we have to pick winners and losers; we have to wait for a crisis to occur in a particular agency before they will consider a special bill to open some of those agencies. So let me just conclude by the quote I cited once before on the floor of the Senate from the Baltimore Sunpapers. It says, in regards to negotiations and what we should do: The gun isn't raised to Mr. Obama's head or to the Senate's. The Democrats have no particular stake in passing a continuing resolution or in raising the debt ceiling other than keeping public order and doing what any reasonable person expects Congress to do. No, the gun is raised at the nation as a whole. That's why descriptions like ``ransom'' and ``hostage'' are not mere hyperbole, they are as close as the English language gets to accurately describing the GOP strategy. It is time for Speaker Boehner to put down the gun. It is time for us to open government and to make sure we pay our bills, and then, yes, we want to negotiate. For 6 months, we have been trying to negotiate a budget. Open government, pay our bills, and then let's negotiate a responsible budget for this Nation. With that, I yield the floor.

Mr. CARDIN

Mr. CARDIN. I want to join with most of my colleagues who have talked about the urgency of us getting the government open. It is causing great harm to our country. Make no mistake about it, it is hurting our economy. I could talk about my own State of Maryland. Our Governor has estimated that we are losing $15 million every day. So every day is precious. I could talk about over 100,000 Federal workers in Maryland who are furloughed out of the 800,000 nationally, having a huge impact on our economy. This morning Senator Boxer held a news briefing where we talked about the impact on the Environmental Protection Agency where 93 percent of its employees have been furloughed. We can talk about the direct impact of those employees not being there. There was a representative from the Ding Darling Refuge in Florida saying not only did it hurt the local economy directly, but she talked about one of the contract services that provided the touring service to the refuge had to lay off 20-some employees. There are private sector jobs that are directly being lost as a result of this furlough. It is going to be very difficult to get back that loss in our economy the longer the government shutdown lasts. It is wasteful to the taxpayer. The last shutdown cost the taxpayers $2 billion. Here we talk about conservatives who want to do something about the national debt and they are wasting taxpayer dollars by keeping government closed. Yes, it is hurting our Federal workforce. I joined with Senator Mikulski in the comments she made a little bit earlier. Our Federal workforce has had to endure freezes in salaries, furloughs as a result of sequestration, freezes in the number of employees who can be hired, doing more work with less, and now furloughs again under a government shutdown. Those who are working do not know when they are going to get paid. It is not what we should be doing to our Federal workforce. They have suffered. This is wrong. It is totally avoidable. The furloughs at the Environmental Protection Agency are jeopardizing our public health. We had experts come in today and talk about the fact that we do not have the people on guard to protect our waters, to protect our air, to protect our environment. It is jeopardizing public health. It is jeopardizing our environment. I mentioned this morning, and let me mention again, the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, in Cambridge. This is a community in which that refuge is a huge part of their economy. This is a popular month for visitors to visit Blackwater. Well, the local businesses are hurting. The restaurants have less customers; the hotels, less rooms are being rented. It goes on and on and on, the damage to our economy. Harbor Point is one of the most important economic developments in downtown Baltimore. It is an RCRA site, which means it is under court order requiring the Environmental Protection Agency to sign off on the development plan. Well, we have a development plan. The city council is acting. We are ready to move forward. But guess what. We cannot get EPA to sign off on it because the people responsible are now on furlough. That is holding up economic growth and economic development in Baltimore. That is what this is doing. It is harming us. Maryland farmers on the Chesapeake Bay are doing what is right to try to help our bay. They depend upon the protections of the programs that are out there on soil conservation. The Senator from Michigan knows through how hard she has been working on the agriculture bill to provide the tools that are necessary to help our farmers be responsible farmers on land conservation. I received a call from a farmer near Centerville, MD, on Monday that sums up pretty well how important the Natural Resources Conservation Service is to their work. This person is enrolled in the Conservation Stewardship Program, the CSP. That means he is planting bumper crops in an effort to help us deal with the runoff issues of pesticides and insecticides into the bay, helping us in helping the bay. He receives certain payments as a result of participation in the program. He is no longer getting those payments. We are asking him to make sacrifices, but we are not giving him the Federal partnership. That is not right. He is hurt. He said: What am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to continue to do this? He told me he has a son with a medical condition that requires regular clinical eye treatment. He does not know whether he can afford that this month. He was helping us with the environment. Now what do we do? We back off of what is necessary. I could give you many more examples. There is no piecemeal way you can correct each one of those. On our foreign policy issues, I have the honor of chairing the East Asia and Pacific Subcommittee of the Foreign Relations Committee. President Obama was supposed to be the headliner at the East Asia Economic Summit this past week. Guess who stole the headline. President Xi of China rather than our President. Asia is wondering whether America is open for business. We were missing at the table. That is no way for America to be conducting its business. We need to be open. We need to get government open. I hear my colleagues who want to negotiate budget deals. I am all for that. I think I have a reputation around here and people know I am interested in getting Democrats and Republicans together and getting a budget that makes sense for our country. But let me quote from the Baltimore Sun from this morning, because I think they say it better than I could say it. This is an exact quote from the Baltimore Sun about negotiations and how we have to go through negotiations. Passing a ``clean'' continuing resolution keeping government fully operating at funding levels that GOP has already endorsed is no compromise. It's status quo. Raising the debt ceiling isn't a concession either--it allows the nation to pay the bills Congress has already incurred and prevents the possibility of a government default, which would hurt the economy, raise borrowing costs and increase the Federal deficit. So when Speaker Boehner lashes out at President Obama for failing to negotiate, one has to ask, what is this thing he describes as negotiation? House Republicans are not merely leveraging their political position--as some dryly claim-- they are threatening to do grievous harm to the global economy and the American public. The gun isn't raised to Mr. Obama's head or to the Senate's. The Democrats have no particular stake in passing a continuing resolution or in raising the debt ceiling other than keeping public order and doing what any reasonable person expects Congress to do. No, the gun is raised at the nation as a whole. That's why descriptions like ``ransom'' and ``hostage'' are not mere hyperbole, they are as close as the English language gets to accurately describing the GOP strategy. The editorial ends by saying: It's time for Mr. Boehner to put down the gun and put more faith in the democratic process. We need to negotiate a budget for next year. We absolutely need to do it. We tried to go to budget conference many times. The majority leader has repeated that request today. The formula of what is right for this country to do--and it is not one side getting advantage over another-- the right thing to do is open government, pay our bills, and, yes, let's negotiate a budget that will not be what the Democrats want, will not be what the Republicans want. We are going to have to compromise as the Framers of our Constitution envisioned that we would do. That is what we should have done months ago. We passed our budget in March. We should have been negotiating months ago. But what we need to do right now is open government, pay our bills, and, yes, then it is ripe for us to sit down and negotiate. I can tell you, we are ready to do that. But it is up to Speaker Boehner now to vote, to vote on the resolution that will keep government open, to vote on a way we can make sure that we will continue to pay our bills, and then accept our offer to sit down and negotiate a budget for the coming year. That would be the best thing we can do for the American people. I urge my colleagues with a sense of urgency that we move this immediately because of the damage we are causing to our country. I yield the floor.

Mr. CARDIN

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, yesterday we had a hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as the Presiding Officer knows. We had testimony by Secretary Sherman as to the enforcement of sanctions against Iran in order to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear weapon state, which would be a game changer. During the course of that hearing, it came out that as a result of the government shutdown, we are not as effective as we could be. There is always more that can be done in working with other countries, and the shutdown is affecting our full preparedness for enforcing the sanctions internationally against Iran. One of my colleagues started to challenge the representative from the State Department as to why they couldn't do more. Of course, it was the Treasury Department's budget that was primarily affecting the attention to this. The Secretary assured us that we are enforcing our sanctions. Senator Kaine made the observation--and the right observation--don't blame the administration; blame the Congress. It is the Congress that has the responsibility to make sure the government is functioning with all cylinders. This tea party shutdown is jeopardizing our national security. It is not putting us where we should be as far as taking care of the needs of the people of this country. I was on the floor a couple of days ago, and I quoted from the Baltimore Sun as to the responsibility for the shutdown, and I'm going to quote a little bit more from that article. It said: It would be tempting, of course, to write that this impasse--the inability to agree on the continuing resolution to fund government past the end of the fiscal year--was the fault of Democrats and Republicans alike. But that would be like blaming the hostages for causing the perpetrator to put a gun to their heads. As President Obama noted, he and congressional Democrats put forward no agenda other than keeping government operating temporarily at the current levels. I want to review how we got here on October 1. It was 6 months ago that the Senate passed the budget. It was different than the House budget. Then, we, the Democrats said: Let's go to conference. That is what we should do, negotiate a budget, so that when it comes to October 1, we have a budget in place to fund government at the levels we agreed to--Democrats and Republicans. The Republicans refused to go to conference. Fast forward to October 1. We didn't have a budget, and, therefore, it was necessary to pass a continuing resolution. That is what you do. When we can't pass a budget, we keep government operating at the current levels until we can agree on a budget. So that is what we decided to do, but we went further. The majority leader met with the Speaker of the House, and rather than negotiating about what level we thought should be in the continuing resolution--what the Democrats and the Republicans thought--we went along with the lower number. We negotiated the continuing resolution at the lower level, and that is what we passed. The Republicans in the House decided they would not go for that, and they attached their changes in the health care system as a condition to passing a continuing resolution. Make no mistake about it; it is a tea party shutdown. Now the Republicans are saying to us: Why aren't we negotiating? Well, let me quote from this morning's editorial in the Baltimore Sun. I think this morning's editorial really captures where we are as far as negotiations. The headline says: There is no room to ``negotiate'' when extremists take the federal government hostage--and threaten to do the same to the economy. How can the tea partiers in the House expect to be offered anything for doing the equivalent of strapping C-4 and a detonator to their chests and holding the government hostage? The editorial goes on to say: Reward these tactics and you'll only see more of it in Congress. And that's critically important given that the stakes are about to rise. Should Republicans engage in similar behavior with the debt ceiling, they risk not only the health of the U.S. economy but the global economy. To default on the debt--to refuse to pay bills already incurred by the federal government--has the potential to pull the nation back into recession and put thousands, if not millions, of people out of work. It is very clear: We have compromised, and the tea party Republicans have shut down government. We can't negotiate with a gun to our head. It reminds me of a football team that played a game and didn't like the results, so they say: Let's just play that game all over. Last Sunday the Baltimore Ravens didn't play a very good game. They lost. They didn't say: Let's play that game over. They are going to be here this weekend playing again and trying to improve their record. I heard one of my colleagues use another sports analogy. He said we could do a mulligan on ObamaCare. We are the big leagues. There are no mulligans at the U.S. Open. There are no mulligans in golf. Let's use the regular order. Yes, we want to negotiate a budget for the next year, but we can't do it with a gun at our head and say: Open government and pay our bills. Then the Republicans are saying: Well, let's do this piecemeal. Why don't we just take up small provisions. This is another quote from this morning's Baltimore Sun: Even the little fixes the GOP is offering is outrageous if they slow down the return of a fully-funded government. Reopening parks would be great, but what about cancer patients denied treatment? And for every National Institutes of Health reopened, what about the funding for inspectors that are making sure our food isn't tainted, or intelligence officers monitoring the next al-Qaida attack, or FDA scientists reviewing the next miracle drug? It's impossible to even keep track of all of the hardships the shutdown has created, and why do so when the solution is at hand? This shutdown is hard on our country. My colleagues have talked about it. It has affected our welfare, it has put our Nation at risk, and it has hurt our economy--including my own State of Maryland. Senator Mikulski is here, and she will be speaking as chairman of the Appropriations Committee. The State of Maryland loses $15 million every day in our State economy. We literally have over 100,000 workers who are on furlough and not getting paid, and it is costing the taxpayers money. The last shutdown in 1995 cost $2 billion. What a waste of taxpayers' resources. Let us put an end to this tea party shutdown. Let us also assure those who are on furlough that they will get paid. I have introduced legislation in this regard. I believe the House is going to be passing that legislation. Let's make it clear that our Federal workers--who have endured 3 years of pay freezes, furloughs under sequestration, and have been asked to do more with less--will be made whole when this shutdown ends. Let's put an end to the shutdown and make sure we pay our bills. Let's meet together to work out a budget for the coming year, as we should. The tragedy here is that the votes are in the House of Representatives to pass the Senate continuing resolution. If Speaker Boehner would just vote on the resolution we sent over, the shutdown would end and we could get on with the business of this Nation. I yield the floor

Mr. CARDIN

Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that after the quorum call I be recognized.

Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CARDIN

Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in recess subject to the call of the Chair.

Mr. CARDIN

Mr. CARDIN. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that morning business be extended until 5 p.m., and that all provisions under the previous order remain in effect, and that Senator Reid be recognized following morning business and that all time spent in quorum calls be equally divided.

Mr. CARDIN

Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, let me review where we are. Listening to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle talk about the effects of a government shutdown, I will admit I am pretty sensitive about this. My State of Maryland that I have the honor of representing is home to 286,000 Federal workers--124,000 furloughed today. We have 172,000 Federal workers who work in the State of Maryland. So I am very much aware of what the consequences of this government shutdown have been to our local economy. But let me review where we are, because I am one who wants to get together and get government open as quickly as possible. I hope we can reach agreements and move forward, pay our bills, get rid of sequestration, and get a budget that makes sense. But let me just review how we got to this point, because it has been 6 months since the Senate passed a budget. That is the blueprint for our committees to work. The House passed a budget, which was different than the Senate budget. Then it was important for both sides to negotiate well before October 1 to get a budget we could agree on so we could pass the appropriations bills. But one party--and one party alone--refused to meet. That was the Republican Party. They refused to meet. Then we got to October 1. This is not the first time in American history that Congress hasn't been able to pass appropriations bills by October 1. It happens too frequently. But what we do if we can't reach agreement is that we keep government open while we continue at last year's funding level. That is called a continuing resolution. That is what this body did. We passed a continuing resolution so the government would stay open at the funding level the Republicans wanted. We didn't want to get into that fight because of the importance of keeping government open. Then we had the votes to pass that. We passed it here. We had the votes in the other body. But for one person--the Speaker of the House-- not bringing that up for a vote in the House of Representatives where we could have had a bipartisan majority--the government shut down at midnight on September 30. I know people say it is a Democrat speaking or a Republican speaking. So let me read from the Baltimore Sun today and what they said about the negotiations. It would be tempting, of course, to write that this impasse--the inability to agree on a continuing resolution to fund government past the end of the fiscal year--was the fault of Democrats and Republicans alike. But that would be like blaming the hostages for causing the perpetrator to put a gun to their heads. As President Barack Obama noted, he and Congressional Democrats put forward no agenda other than keeping the government operating temporarily at current levels. House Republicans set conditions, not Senate Democrats. It's not even clear how many in the GOP truly wanted this to happen. Conventional wisdom is that a so-called ``clean'' resolution funding government would have passed on a bipartisan vote if it had been allowed on the floor by House Speaker John Boehner-- The editorial goes on and I continue to quote. Do House leaders think they can push the blame on President Obama? Some have already tried, but it sounds suspiciously like shoplifters blaming store owners for having so much tempting merchandise lying about. National polls show the public isn't buying it--most Americans didn't want the government to shutter over ObamaCare, and Congressional Republicans have a double-digit lead over the White House when it comes to the public's choice for who most deserves the most blame. Even the unusual anti-government crowd can't find much comfort in this, as sending federal workers home isn't saving anybody any money. The last time the federal government had an extended shutdown--for 21 days in late 1995 to early 1996--it cost something on the order of $2 billion. What an extraordinary waste of money, particularly at a time when conservatives claim to be worried about the deficit. So it is hard to negotiate when one side has put on the table where we should be--allowing government to stay open using last year's numbers--and the other side brings in issues that are totally unrelated to the continuation of government. Having said that, we have got to find a way to get government open. I am pleased the President is meeting with the leaders this afternoon. I am pleased they are also talking about making sure we pay our bills, which is at jeopardy in just 2 weeks. I mentioned earlier that I am a little sensitive about this because of the impact it has on the economy of my State. It has an impact on the entire country. In my State, it is $15 million a day in revenue that we lose directly as a result of the government shutdown. It has been estimated by Moody's Brian Kessler that if the shutdown went 3-4 weeks, it would cost our economy $55 billion. This is no small impact on our economy. It is a major impact on our economy. It is not just Federal workers who aren't going to get paychecks. It is the shop owners who depend on business that is going to be cut back. It is contractors who depend on the contracts being honored by the Federal Government, and the list goes on and on of the impact it has on our economy. As I quoted from the Sun paper, it is the taxpayers who will pick up the tab. They are not going to save any money. It is going to cost them money--not a few bucks. It is going to cost a lot of money. And every day we wait, it costs the taxpayers of this country more money. So we are interested in dealing with the deficit and keeping government operating. It is a huge waste of resources to shut down the government. We are going to lose some vital services. Earlier today I held a conference with Senator Mikulski, Senator Warren, and Senator Boxer where we went over some of the real impacts that occur, and we were joined by Federal workers that wanted to be at work, doing service to this country, but because of the government shutdown they were furloughed. This is not the first attack against Federal workers we have seen. We have seen freezes on their budgets in the last couple of years. We have seen them furloughed as a result of sequestration. We have seen freezes on hiring so they are asked to do more with less. We have the fewest workers per capita in modern history, asked to do more work. Let me relate some of the stories, some of the accounts by people who came to Washington today so their stories can be told. Marcelo Del Canto works for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. He works in Rockville. He lives in Poolesville, MD. He has been a Federal employee for 8 years. He does vital work to help prevent substance abuse. He has work on his desk that he could do today to help keep people healthier. Instead, he is furloughed, sitting at home--can't go in to work. We heard from Amy Fritz, a meteorologist and physical oceanographer at the National Weather Service. She works in Silver Spring, MD. I have been there. This is the agency that tracks the storms. Thank goodness we had reliable information about Hurricane Sandy. That work was done not on the weather channel, it was done by Federal public servants. Amy has a double degree. She is a national expert in this area. Do you know what she said today? ``How do I know we should not be tracking a storm right now, getting additional information to keep our country safe?'' That is what is at stake. We have seen incredible weather episodes of late. Every person should be on board, doing their work. NOAA had to furlough, same as a layoff, 55 percent of their workforce, 6,633 employees furloughed as a result of the government shutdown. We heard from Carter Kimsey. She works for the National Science Foundation. She has been there since 1976. She works with young people, getting them involved with science, awarding grants for the basic research that is critically important for economic growth and this country's competitiveness. She tells us she has work on her desk that is critically important to young people continuing in science. She can't work today because of the government shutdown. That is going to affect America's competitiveness. We are going to lose scientists. We are going to lose a great deal as a result of government being shut down. I heard from Steve Hopkins, Office of Pesticide Programs at the Environmental Protection Agency. EPA had to furlough 94 percent of their workers; 15,181 workers were furloughed at EPA. What is he not doing today that he could have been doing? Helping keep our environment safe from the overuse of pesticides, making it a little bit safer for our children as they breathe the air and drink the water of this country. That is what is at jeopardy here. I could tell you about their individual stories. When I talked to Marcelo Del Canto, he told me he recently purchased a home in Poolesville, MD. We are happy about that. But he has a mortgage payment. He is married. I asked how is his spouse doing? She is also furloughed. How are they going to make their mortgage payment? Carter Kimsey was telling us about the ethics they use in scientific experiments. She talked about how they treat the animals they use. She said: You know, we make sure they get the resources necessary. They are fed, they are taken care of. How about our Federal workers? Shouldn't they have their paycheck to pay their food bills? This is outrageous as far as being wasteful, as far as being against economic growth in this country, but it is also wrong. It is wrong to the people who have been victimized by this, who do not know if they are going to get a paycheck. We have people working who do not know if they are going to get paid. We have people who are not working who do not know they are going to get the money to pay their bills. Where is the empathy here for what you are doing? This is outrageous. My colleagues already talked about the National Institutes of Health located in Maryland; 73 percent of their employees are furloughed. Do you know what they do? Just the most incredible research in the world so we can stay healthy, we can find out the mysteries of incredible diseases. They are working on a vaccine now to deal with influenza to save millions of lives, and what do we do? Tell them to go home and not work? This is not a game. We are affecting people's lives by what we are doing here. Two hundred patients will be denied care this week at NIH as a result of the shutdown. Who knows for one of those individuals whether it is a question of life or death? That is what is involved. At the FDA, 45 percent of their employees are furloughed. They will not be able to conduct the inspections for the compliance and enforcement of our food laws, our food safety laws. At the Department of Interior, 81 percent of their employees are furloughed. What an embarrassment. I was talking to a reporter from another country. What an embarrassment, the iconic national parks of America are closed, but it also affects the businesses all around those parks as well as inconveniencing the public. At the Small Business Administration, two-thirds of their employees are furloughed. Suppose you are a small business person depending on a loan. You do not have the officer there to process that loan. What do you do? The list goes on and on. I could go through every agency. There is only one answer to this: Keep government--not one agency, two agencies, three agencies--keep every agency open. That is the responsible thing for us to do. We should do that. We should make sure we pay our bills, and yes, we should negotiate a balanced way to move forward with a budget. I have been talking on the floor many times about that. There is a give and take that we have to make on the budget moving forward. We have to balance our books. We need the revenues necessary to do it. We have to look at all spending, not just discretionary domestic spending. We have to look at all spending. We have to do that in a bipartisan manner because, guess what, the Republicans do not control the House, the Senate, and the White House, and the Democrats do not control the House. The public expects us to work together on a budget. That is not what this debate is about. This debate is about whether we are going to keep government open, whether we are going to pay our bills. We must do that for the sake of the people of this country. I want to mention one other issue. I filed yesterday legislation with many of my colleagues to make it clear that those Federal workers who are furloughed, we are going to fight to do what we did in the 1990s when we went on government shutdown, and pay all Federal workers. They are innocent. They should be made whole. My legislation is cosponsored by many of my colleagues. We have bipartisan support in the House of Representatives. We have to make sure we get that bill passed so every Federal worker is made whole as a result of this shutdown that is not their fault. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. CARDIN

Mr. CARDIN. I ask unanimous consent to be able to speak as in morning business for up to 10 minutes.

Mr. CARDIN. I yield first to the majority leader.

Mr. CARDIN

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the Federal Employee Retroactive Pay Fairness Act. I am pleased to have Senators Boxer, Brown, Carper, Feinstein, Harkin, Heinrich, Hirono, Kaine, Leahy, Mikulski, Sanders, Schumer, Udall (NM), and Warner as original co- sponsors. This bill is a companion bill to legislation Representative Jim Moran introduced in the House of Representatives, H.R. 3223. The bill is simple and straightforward. It requires that all Federal workers furloughed as a result of the lapse in appropriations that began last night at midnight receive their pay retroactively as soon as is practicable. It is the right thing to do. It is the fair thing to do. Federal workers didn't cause this shutdown. Federal workers don't want this shutdown. They are dedicated public servants who simply want to do their jobs on behalf of the American people. They shouldn't suffer because so-called Tea Party Republicans, mostly in the House of Representatives, suffer from the delusion that shutting down the Federal Government will somehow prevent the Affordable Care Act from being implemented. As the Congressional Research Service has reported, in ``historical practice'', Federal workers who have been furloughed as a result of a shutdown have received their pay retroactively ``as a result of legislation to that effect''. The language in our bill is the language used to provide pay retroactively to workers furloughed in the Newt Gingrich-led shutdowns in 1995 and 1996; that language was contained as part of section 124 of P.L. 104-56 (109 STAT. 553). Mr. President, Federal workers already have endured a 3-year pay freeze and ``contributed'' over $90 billion to deficit reduction. That was before sequestration hit. On top of the pay freeze, hundreds of thousands of Federal workers have been furloughed because of sequestration. Their pay hasn't just been frozen; it has been cut. They have had fewer resources to carry out their missions and administer the programs they are responsible for. Now, upwards of 800,000 Federal workers are being furloughed, again, and the rest of federal workforce is being compelled to work without pay. And Republicans are threatening that there won't be any retroactive pay. This is happening to hardworking, patriotic public servants, mostly middle class and struggling to get by like so many other Americans. Enough is enough. Increasingly, Federal workers are asked to do more with less. According to the Office of Management & Budget, the size of the Federal civilian workforce relative to the country's population has declined dramatically over the last several decades. In the 1950s and 1960s, there were, on average, 92 Americans for every Federal worker. In the 1980s and 1990s, there were 106 Americans for every Federal worker. By 2011, the ratio had increased to 145 Americans for every Federal worker. Since the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S. population has increased by 76 percent and the private sector workforce has surged 133 percent, but the size of the Federal workforce has risen just 11 percent. Relative to the private sector, the Federal workforce is less than half the size it was back in the 1950s and 1960s. Now it just got smaller by another 800,000 workers overnight because of Republican action regarding the fiscal year 2014 continuing resolution. The picture that emerges is one of a Federal civilian workforce whose size has significantly shrunk compared to the size of the U.S. population it serves, the private sector workforce, and the magnitude of Federal expenditures. Yet Republicans are intent on making things even more difficult for Federal workers and their families across the United States. Preventing Federal workers from doing their jobs doesn't just harm Federal workers; it harms all Americans because Federal workers patrol our borders, make sure our air and water are clean and our food and drugs are safe, support our men and women in uniform and care for our wounded warriors, help our manufacturers compete abroad, discover cures for life-threatening diseases, prosecute criminals and terrorists, maintain and protect critical infrastructure, explore the universe, and make sure Social Security, Medicare, and other social safety-net programs are functioning properly. When Federal workers do their jobs, they are helping each and every American live a safer and more prosperous life. And I would argue that what Federal workers are able to do on behalf of the American people often redounds to the benefit of all humankind, whether we are talking about conducting ground-breaking basic scientific research or establishing the rule of law. Our tasks here in Congress are simple--not easy, perhaps, but simple: we need to end the shutdown and put federal workers back on the job; we need to raise the debt ceiling so we can continue to pay our bills and maintain the full faith and credit of the U.S. Government; we need to return to regular order around here and negotiate a comprehensive budget deal that spreads the burden of deficit reduction in a fair way; and we need to hold Federal workers and their families harmless after subjecting them to so much harm over the past several weeks and months. We need to stop demonizing and scape-goating and punishing Federal workers. We need to re-open the government, continue paying our bills, and replace the sequester with a rational budget. One of the greatest attributes of the American character is pragmatism. Unlike what some other Federal workers are actually doing, here in Congress, balancing the budget is not ``rocket science''. We know the various options. Former President Lyndon Johnson was fond of quoting the prophet Isaiah: ``Come, let us reason together'' That is what we need to do. We can acknowledge and respect our differences but at the end of the day, the American people have entrusted us with governing, with being pragmatic. Let us do our job so Federal workers can get back to their jobs.

Mr. CARDIN

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the Federal Employee Retroactive Pay Fairness Act. I am pleased to have Senators Boxer, Brown, Carper, Feinstein, Harkin, Heinrich, Hirono, Kaine, Leahy, Mikulski, Sanders, Schumer, Udall (NM), and Warner as original co- sponsors. This bill is a companion bill to legislation Representative Jim Moran introduced in the House of Representatives, H.R. 3223. The bill is simple and straightforward. It requires that all Federal workers furloughed as a result of the lapse in appropriations that began last night at midnight receive their pay retroactively as soon as is practicable. It is the right thing to do. It is the fair thing to do. Federal workers didn't cause this shutdown. Federal workers don't want this shutdown. They are dedicated public servants who simply want to do their jobs on behalf of the American people. They shouldn't suffer because so-called Tea Party Republicans, mostly in the House of Representatives, suffer from the delusion that shutting down the Federal Government will somehow prevent the Affordable Care Act from being implemented. As the Congressional Research Service has reported, in ``historical practice'', Federal workers who have been furloughed as a result of a shutdown have received their pay retroactively ``as a result of legislation to that effect''. The language in our bill is the language used to provide pay retroactively to workers furloughed in the Newt Gingrich-led shutdowns in 1995 and 1996; that language was contained as part of section 124 of P.L. 104-56 (109 STAT. 553). Mr. President, Federal workers already have endured a 3-year pay freeze and ``contributed'' over $90 billion to deficit reduction. That was before sequestration hit. On top of the pay freeze, hundreds of thousands of Federal workers have been furloughed because of sequestration. Their pay hasn't just been frozen; it has been cut. They have had fewer resources to carry out their missions and administer the programs they are responsible for. Now, upwards of 800,000 Federal workers are being furloughed, again, and the rest of federal workforce is being compelled to work without pay. And Republicans are threatening that there won't be any retroactive pay. This is happening to hardworking, patriotic public servants, mostly middle class and struggling to get by like so many other Americans. Enough is enough. Increasingly, Federal workers are asked to do more with less. According to the Office of Management & Budget, the size of the Federal civilian workforce relative to the country's population has declined dramatically over the last several decades. In the 1950s and 1960s, there were, on average, 92 Americans for every Federal worker. In the 1980s and 1990s, there were 106 Americans for every Federal worker. By 2011, the ratio had increased to 145 Americans for every Federal worker. Since the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S. population has increased by 76 percent and the private sector workforce has surged 133 percent, but the size of the Federal workforce has risen just 11 percent. Relative to the private sector, the Federal workforce is less than half the size it was back in the 1950s and 1960s. Now it just got smaller by another 800,000 workers overnight because of Republican action regarding the fiscal year 2014 continuing resolution. The picture that emerges is one of a Federal civilian workforce whose size has significantly shrunk compared to the size of the U.S. population it serves, the private sector workforce, and the magnitude of Federal expenditures. Yet Republicans are intent on making things even more difficult for Federal workers and their families across the United States. Preventing Federal workers from doing their jobs doesn't just harm Federal workers; it harms all Americans because Federal workers patrol our borders, make sure our air and water are clean and our food and drugs are safe, support our men and women in uniform and care for our wounded warriors, help our manufacturers compete abroad, discover cures for life-threatening diseases, prosecute criminals and terrorists, maintain and protect critical infrastructure, explore the universe, and make sure Social Security, Medicare, and other social safety-net programs are functioning properly. When Federal workers do their jobs, they are helping each and every American live a safer and more prosperous life. And I would argue that what Federal workers are able to do on behalf of the American people often redounds to the benefit of all humankind, whether we are talking about conducting ground-breaking basic scientific research or establishing the rule of law. Our tasks here in Congress are simple--not easy, perhaps, but simple: we need to end the shutdown and put federal workers back on the job; we need to raise the debt ceiling so we can continue to pay our bills and maintain the full faith and credit of the U.S. Government; we need to return to regular order around here and negotiate a comprehensive budget deal that spreads the burden of deficit reduction in a fair way; and we need to hold Federal workers and their families harmless after subjecting them to so much harm over the past several weeks and months. We need to stop demonizing and scape-goating and punishing Federal workers. We need to re-open the government, continue paying our bills, and replace the sequester with a rational budget. One of the greatest attributes of the American character is pragmatism. Unlike what some other Federal workers are actually doing, here in Congress, balancing the budget is not ``rocket science''. We know the various options. Former President Lyndon Johnson was fond of quoting the prophet Isaiah: ``Come, let us reason together'' That is what we need to do. We can acknowledge and respect our differences but at the end of the day, the American people have entrusted us with governing, with being pragmatic. Let us do our job so Federal workers can get back to their jobs.

Mr. CARDIN

Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I see my colleague from Tennessee just left the floor, and I was listening to his comments. I know he is having a hard time--as many of our Senate colleagues are--understanding or justifying the actions of the Republicans in the House. Make no mistake about it, this is a House Republican shutdown of the government. The majority leader was talking about the consequences. The House Republicans have tried to hold all of us hostage, but it is not going to work. When they talk about negotiating, the majority leader is absolutely right: We have tried on numerous occasions to get to a conference on the budget only to find objections from the Republicans to sit around the table to talk about the budget of the country. We are not going to yield to extreme measures. We should have the government open, and then we should be negotiating the issues that are important. I take this time to talk about our Federal workforce and to talk about the impact this shutdown will have on Federal workers and the people of Maryland and the people of our Nation. I am proud to represent Maryland in the Senate. Once again Federal workers are going to be asked to make sacrifices on behalf of their country, but this time they don't understand it. This shutdown will have a negative impact on them and on our country. For 3 years Federal workers have been working without a pay increase or an adjustment of salary. I had my staff check some of the statistics on the number of Federal workers we have today compared to the historic numbers. We actually have fewer workers per capita today than we did in the 1950s. We are asking our Federal workforce to do more with less, and we are asking them to continue to work under sequestration when many have been furloughed. Now our Federal workforce has been furloughed in great numbers and are uncertain as to whether they will receive a paycheck. There are Federal workers who are working today and they don't know when they are going to get their paychecks. It is wrong, and it is going to hurt families. They are going to have to try to figure out how to pay their bills without getting a paycheck. This goes well beyond the Federal workers themselves. Look at the reductions we see in the Federal workforce here in the Washington area. What do you think is happening to the retail establishments, the small businesses, and our economy? We estimated in Maryland that we would lose $15 million a day for every day the Federal Government is closed. Mark Zandi said the impact of a Federal shutdown will increase unemployment by half a percent. In 1995 to 1996, the last time we had a shutdown, OMB estimated it cost the taxpayers $1.4 billion. This is wasting taxpayers' money, and it is putting people under incredible stress as to how they are going to pay their bills. For what? To move an extreme agenda, to try to see if hostage-taking works in the Congress? This will have a major negative impact on our economy. The private sector has recently created 7.5 million jobs over the last 42 months. There are more people on private nonfarm payrolls than at any time since September 2008. Jobless claims are close to a 5-year low. The second quarter of 2013 marked nine consecutive quarters of economic growth, the longest stretch since before 2008. And now because of the House Republican shutdown, we want to reverse that? Do we want to go back to a failing economy? That is what is at stake here. Do we want to cost our taxpayers money with the inconvenience we are causing the people of this country by a government shutdown? Talk about life- threatening delays. The researchers at NIH are being compromised. The inability of NIH to take on new patients as a result of a shutdown absolutely affects the welfare of the people of our country. Small businesses are unable to get SBA loans. How do they run their businesses during this shutdown? In my State of Maryland--and I know this is true around the country-- the backlog on veterans getting their disability claims heard is tremendous. That will now grow as a result of this government shutdown. The FDA is responsible for food safety. I could talk about a lot of different agencies. Forty-five percent of the FDA's workforce, or 6,620 employees, will be furloughed. The FDA will be unable to support the majority of its food safety nutrition and cosmetic activities. The FDA will also have to cease safety activities such as routine establishment inspections, some compliance and enforcement activities, monitoring imports, notification programs, et cetera. That is what this shutdown will cause. Do we want to make sure we have a safe food supply? Well, today it is not quite as clear as it was yesterday. We know about the national parks and the zoo being closed. That makes no sense at all. People will be inconvenienced, but people's health will be put in jeopardy because of this House Republican shutdown. It is totally illogical. We have tried to go to conference on the budget. There are three problems we have before we get a workable budget for this fiscal year. First, we have to keep government open; second, we have to make sure we pay our bills; and third, we have to get rid of sequestration. That is what we have to get done. And, yes, we have to sit down, Democrats and Republicans, to work out a budget for this fiscal year, but we can't do it while the government is closed. When we fail to pass a budget--and quite frankly, it is the Republicans who have been unwilling to sit at a table to come up with a budget. The regular order is to pass a continuing resolution that continues the budget so the government can operate until we have a budget. We have always done that at the current level. Well, the Democrats are willing to go even further. We are willing to take the Republicans' reduced budget number because of sequestration, and they can't even accept that because, quite frankly, there are too many on the other side of the aisle in the House who want a government shutdown. That is not the way we should be operating. I am proud to represent so many Federal workers. I am proud to represent the people of Maryland, and we are going to continue to fight on behalf of the right policies. We are going to fight to make sure Federal workers are made whole when this is over, and that they are able to get their paychecks with full pay. It is going to be a struggle because of the attitude--particularly from the Republicans--in the House, but we are going to continue to fight for what is right for our Federal workforce and for the American people. Let us pass a resolution to keep government open. Let us sit down and work out a budget for this coming year. Let's do what is right for the American people. With that, I yield the floor.