Congressional Record—House H4528
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H4528 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE July 17, 2013 better. We can make it more efficient. his family and friends and service to I am a Federal employee working on the We can ensure that even more people his community. Navy base in Groton. I am a GS–5 step 2, get the food they need to prevent hun- I believe that there is no greater ex- which means I make $17 an hour and am paid ample of commitment to one’s country biweekly. I am married with three children, ger in America. But we need to address ages 6, 4, and 1. My husband works part time, hunger in a holistic and comprehensive than the life of Admiral Frank Kelso. and is already capped at a salary range of way, including the role SNAP plays in His legacy of integrity and courage $16.54 an hour. It’s already hard enough to preventing and treating hunger. This is truly exemplify the best of the United make ends meet as it is, and now, with the why we need a White House Conference States Navy. To quote the celebrated furlough, I’m losing $226.44 every pay period. on Food and Nutrition if we are going song of our Navy, ‘‘Here’s wishing you Robert from North Stonington: to truly reduce hunger and improve nu- a happy voyage home.’’ As a member of DOD, specifically the De- trition in this country. We need a plan. f partment of the Navy, working in Groton, I am now in the second week of furloughs. As We need to get this right. We need GOVERNMENT FURLOUGHS some urgency and some leadership on a civilian employee for the past 39 years, I this issue. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The have never seen our government in such dis- array. My command, supervisor of ship- Mr. Speaker, attacking SNAP, and Chair recognizes the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. COURTNEY) for 5 min- building, performs extremely important jobs demonizing those who rely on it to of government oversight of the design, con- make ends meet isn’t just wrong, it’s utes. Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, on struction and repair of our country’s nuclear counterproductive. Arbitrarily cutting submarine fleet. July 1, the front page of The Wash- SNAP will only make hunger in Amer- ington Post had a headline which John from Groton: ica worse, and it certainly won’t reduce showed in many respects just, again, Furloughs will immediately manifest the rates of fraud, waste, and abuse. themselves in the local economies around the disconnect between this town and The SNAP program works. While it can every U.S. military base in the form of 20 the rest of the country. It said: ‘‘They always be improved, we can’t simply percent fewer goods, gas and groceries being said the sequester would be scary. cut our way to a hunger-free society. bought and in 20 percent fewer taxes being Mostly they were wrong.’’ We must work together if we are going paid into town and State coffers that are al- I would like those reporters to have ready at an all-time low. to end hunger now. joined me on July 3, 2 days later, when Lastly, Aurela from Gales Ferry, f I went to the Groton Navy Base in Connecticut, said: IN HONOR OF ADMIRAL FRANK southeastern Connecticut to talk to As a result of the civilian furloughs at the BENTON KELSO, II over 100 civilian DOD employees who Navy branch health clinic, I believe our pa- were on the verge of being furloughed tients’ access to care and continuity of qual- The SPEAKER pro tempore. The ity care will be severely hampered. Our mili- Chair recognizes the gentleman from because of sequestration. Again, under sequester, 650,000 civilian DOD employ- tary and their dependents don’t have the op- Tennessee (Mr. DESJARLAIS) for 5 min- ees, for 1 day a week for the next 11 tion to be sick or injured on a non-furlough utes. day. Clinic staff has been trained to refer pa- weeks, will be furloughed, or lose 20 Mr. DESJARLAIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise tients to urgent care facilities and to emer- today to honor the extraordinary life percent of their paycheck, despite the gency rooms as a last resort, largely due to of Admiral Frank Benton Kelso, II, a fact that they contribute enormous the sequester. Where is the wisdom of forcing value to the military readiness of this the use of higher cost facilities in a fiscal great American and true son of Ten- crisis? nessee. On Sunday, June 23, Ten- country. Again, at that meeting, where I was Thank you, Aurela, because it shows nessee’s Fourth Congressional District joined by Captain Carl Lahti, who is that, in fact, these furloughs don’t and our country lost this great Amer- the commander of the sub base, he really save anything structurally or ican hero. talked about the fact that among the long term for government. What is To describe Admiral Kelso as honor- furloughed employees are crane opera- clearly needed is for Congress to re- able, principled, and dedicated would tors, folks who install torpedoes, spond to sequester based on what its be insufficient. His achievements and Tomahawk missiles, all the supplies to original intention was. If you go to individual character are matched only make sure that our attack sub fleet is Phil Gramm, the granddaddy of seques- by his patriotism and love of country. tration—the Gramm-Rudman sequester Admiral Kelso’s 79-year life included ready to go at any given time. Again, act of 1985, which today sequester is a gallant and decorated 42-year career losing them 1 day a week just pushes verbatim based on—he stated in a in the United States Navy. back the readiness of the submarine speech in Washington not too long ago: Admiral Kelso graduated from the fleet. I talked to Adam Puccino, who is the It was never the objective of Gramm-Rud- U.S. Naval Academy in 1956 and began head of the Metal Trades Council and man to trigger the sequester. The objective his illustrious career in the Navy by represents the maintenance crews on of Gramm-Rudman was to have the threat of joining the nuclear submarine pro- the base to make sure that the tip of the sequester force compromise and action. gram, where he would later command the spear of America’s Navy is ready to Again, that’s from the inventor of se- two nuclear submarines. go. Again, losing those folks 1 day a questration. In 1986, the Admiral commanded the Seven times, CHRIS VAN HOLLEN and Atlantic Fleet, planning military ac- week is going to slow down and retard the ability of that fleet to be ready. the House Democratic minority have tions against Libya that significantly tried to get the Rules Committee to curbed Muammar Qadhafi’s terrorist b 1030 allow a vote to be taken on a measure activities. Rob Faulise, who is the head of the to turn off sequester, replacing it with In 1990, he earned the position of NAGE force, talked about the staff smarter cuts and smarter revenue to Chief of Naval Operations, the Navy’s that provides critical services, whether achieve the goal of deficit reduction, top uniformed officer. During this it’s health care, firefighter services, but to do it without a chain saw that is time, he successfully led naval oper- clerical work, to make sure that that disrupting the lives of those individ- ations in the Persian Gulf War. subbase is ready to accomplish its mis- uals whose stories I just described. In In addition to his distinguished naval sion. every single instance, the Rules Com- career, Admiral Kelso was a family In every case, they all confirm the mittee denied the ability of this House man. He was happily married to fact that not only is this going to to vote on a commonsense measure to Landess McCown Kelso for 56 years cause personal hardship, but it’s also turn off sequester. until she passed away last year. To- going to harm the military capability Folks, we are now 41⁄2 months into se- gether, they had four children and of that base. quester. Its impact extends even be- eight grandchildren. I received a number of emails from yond the Department of Defense. In He retired from the Navy in 1994, and folks who were there that day or whose Head Start programs, kids are losing in 2003 he returned to his hometown of coworkers told them about that meet- slots, and NIH research grants are Fayetteville, Tennessee, where he ing. Here is what some of them said. being canceled. It is time for Congress would spend the last 10 years of his life. Kimberly from Ledyard, Connecticut, to listen to Phil Gramm, to com- These years were filled with love for said: promise, to act to turn off sequester, VerDate Mar 15 2010 00:35 Jul 18, 2013 Jkt 029060 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 7634 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\K17JY7.005 H17JYPT1 pwalker on DSK7TPTVN1PROD with HOUSE July 17, 2013 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H4529 and to represent these hardworking coverage, and that does not put the $350 million of cuts in the judicial Americans who every single day are government between patients and their branch. serving our Nation. doctors. Since July of 2011, spending cuts have f f forced the Federal court system to shed 10 percent of the total judicial THE REPEAL OF OBAMACARE EFFECTS OF SEQUESTRATION ON staff through layoffs.