Katie Porter

Ms. PORTER

Ms. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, I am here today to describe the enduring financial challenges that families are experiencing because of the President's government shutdown. I know how terrifying it is when your livelihood is suddenly taken away. I grew up during the 1980s farm crisis and watched as my neighborhood bank closed. Everyone in my town felt a real sense of panic and of loss. Farmers were being foreclosed on and losing farms that had been in their family for generations. There were suicides and the kind of social pain and personal pain that comes with economic hardship. While the town eventually recovered, the people and the community were changed forever. I understand how devastating a financial crisis can be, and I understand how one missed paycheck can spiral. I know this from my own childhood during the farm crisis and from the nearly two decades I have spent studying families on the brink of bankruptcy. Federal workers are now questioning whether working for the Federal Government is a stable paycheck. They are wondering if their family, if their kids can count on this administration. Families are wondering how long they can afford to wait for the shutdown to end, and they are having hard discussions at the dinner table about whether to leave the Federal workforce in search for a new job. Tomorrow, 800,000 Federal workers and their families will miss paychecks, plunging employees into uncertainty. About 42,000 of those Federal workers are in my home State of California. More than 5,000 of these unpaid workers live in my district, and many of them are hurting. With each missed paycheck comes missed payments on bills and missed payments on loans. Families will be hit with late fees and interest, often in the double or even triple digits. Despite having no paycheck, Federal workers still have urgent expenses--prescription drugs, gas, childcare, groceries--and those who are still required to report for work incur costs to get to and from their workplaces. This past spring, the Federal Reserve found that 40 percent of Americans don't have the cash to pay for an unexpected $400 expense without having to sell a belonging or borrowing money. Those families also don't have the cash to go without paychecks. Families may feel forced to consider taking out a payday loan to get quick cash to meet their expenses. In the past 2 years, more than 10 percent of Americans have gone to a payday lender, even though the interest rates are incredibly high and the national average is almost 400 percent interest. In California, the average rate is 460 percent. In Virginia, where even a larger percentage of Federal workers live, the average payday loan is over 600 percent. For workers living paycheck to paycheck, the shutdown and its missed paychecks can easily spiral into bankruptcy. Even if we provide Federal workers with backpay, which we should, it will not make those hurt by this shutdown whole. When the government reopens, it won't be able to help Federal workers who incur late fees or hits on credit reports during the shutdown. It won't pay interest on new loans taken out by Federal workers. One of my constituents in California's 45th Congressional District, Aubrey, told me that her family has filed paperwork to borrow against their 401(k) retirement. Borrowing against that 401(k) will come with large tax penalties, but she is part of a single-income household living on a Federal Government wage. She and her wife and their kids rely on a steady paycheck, and they are understandably concerned about the impact that the shutdown will have on their family. Another constituent in my district, Melinda, told me that she has been working for a government agency for over 30 years. She is debating taking out a loan. She is researching whether she can file for unemployment. She loves her job and wants to go to work but is prohibited from doing so. She just paid the tuition for one of her kids to go to college, and she does not have the means to live without a paycheck. This shutdown is a disaster for Federal workers who aren't getting paid, and it is a disaster for working families who deserve to get the tax refunds they are owed. Right now, families are denied tax refunds because of the government shutdown. Yesterday, my colleagues, Democrats, voted to reopen the Treasury Department, the IRS, and the Small Business Administration, and we were joined by several Republicans, but this administration won't even consider opening up the Treasury. Now this administration has said the IRS will service tax refunds even with the government shutdown, but before this announcement, the IRS was operating with a barebones staff. Only one out of every eight employees was in that office, and that has made it so much harder for Americans to prepare their tax returns. As we start filing for tax returns, American people need certainty from their government, not the chaos of a shutdown. And since this is the first year that the Republican tax law raised taxes for Orange County families, it is even more important that taxpayers get the refunds and the tax help that they deserve. As a professor of bankruptcy law, I also know that many families who struggle with overwhelming debt, often from unexpected medical bills, wait until this time of year to file for bankruptcy. That is because they have to use their own tax refunds to pay their attorney or filing fees. If the IRS does not get these families the refunds they are owed, they won't be able to get help in bankruptcy from their overwhelming debts or catch up on loan payments. And without the money to file for bankruptcy, families can lose parts of their paychecks to wage garnishment, squeezing families in this country even tighter. It is past time that we reopen the government. This is day 20 of the shutdown. This administration is recklessly hurting Federal families and workers who are counting on basic government services, including getting their own hard-earned money back from the IRS, and even backpay for these workers will not erase the harm of this shutdown. Those families will still have $30 late fees on credit card payments. They will still have to pay interest on their mortgages that could run into hundreds of dollars. If they are 2 weeks late in paying their credit card bills or mortgage payments, they can be hit with negative credit reporting, which can drop their credit scores, and those negative reports stay on their records for up to 7 years. Simply reopening the government won't make these families whole, but it is a necessary start. That is why I am sending letters to the leading banks and credit card companies asking them to offer relief to families. These letters ask the banks and credit card companies to waive fees, to pause debt repayment timelines, to freeze eviction and foreclosure proceedings until 2 weeks after our Federal workers receive their next paycheck. They should also freeze the reporting of negative information to credit reporting agencies during this difficult time. Many of our country's credit unions have already offered their customers such relief. For example, Orange County's Credit Union is providing furloughed workers 2 weeks of pay, up to $5,000, at 0 percent interest for 60 days, and they are offering these furloughed workers 90-day waivers on payments for existing loans. Another credit union in my district, Kinecta Federal Credit Union, is offering unpaid workers $2,000 at 0 percent for 12 months. That 12- month loan period recognizes how long it will take unpaid workers to right themselves from the harm of this missed paycheck. These efforts by these credit unions will go a long ways to mitigating the real consequences of this shutdown for American families, and I hope other financial institutions and lenders join and engage in similar efforts. President Trump has the power to reopen the government and stop hurting families, especially unpaid workers. Orange County, California, and this Nation deserve a government at work. I yield to my colleague from Michigan (Ms. Tlaib).

Ms. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.

Ms. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

Ms. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman very much. I appreciate her sharing their stories and adding the stories of Edith and Carol to those that I shared of my constituents. Mr. Speaker, I think this really shows that the harms of the shutdown are being felt in communities around the country, including from her home State in Texas and mine in California. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for being here tonight.