E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 116 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION Vol. 165 WASHINGTON, FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 2019 No. 15 Senate (Legislative day of Thursday, January 24, 2019) The Senate met at 12 noon on the ex- GOVERNMENT FUNDING them, it has gotten down to the basics. piration of the recess and was called to Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, the an- In the St. Louis area, one of the air order by the President pro tempore nouncement this morning that air op- traffic controllers has to drive a long (Mr. GRASSLEY). erations in major cities in this country distance each day. They didn’t have f on the east coast and other places the cash for gasoline. He sold his plas- could be delayed or are interrupted ma in order to fill the tank to go to PRAYER comes as no surprise. work. The Chaplain, Dr. Barry C. Black, of- This last week, I met with air traffic At another air traffic control meet- fered the following prayer: controllers in St. Louis and in Aurora, ing in Aurora, one of the controllers Let us pray. IL. We have over 600 air traffic control- came to me and said that one of his Eternal God, You stand behind life’s lers in Northern Illinois because of colleagues, who had been working for shadows, keeping watch over those who O’Hare, Midway, and so many other some time, came to him and said that call on Your sacred Name. important airports in that region, and, he only had 5 days left that he could Lord, our help comes from You, and of course, in St. Louis, with Lambert continue doing this—working for noth- we need Your sufficient grace to bring airfield and others. They have quite ex- ing—and then he would have to go look an end to this partial government shut- tensive air operations. for other jobs and possibly jeopardize down. They explained to me what is going his future in air traffic control. Lord, don’t permit the weapons on with air traffic controllers. It The stories came to me one after an- formed against America to prosper, for shouldn’t have worried us before the other. There was a young family where You remain our refuge and fortress. shutdown. It should frighten us at this a little child of the family is suffering May our lawmakers not be found want- moment. from medical illnesses of a serious na- ing in this challenging hour of national Currently, air traffic controllers ture. Luckily, they still have health in- turmoil. Help them to courageously work 10-hour shifts. It is a stressful surance when they are not being paid. contend for what is right, as You give job—an important, stressful job. There When it comes to the out-of-pocket ex- them the ability to understand Your is hardly any person more on the front- penses and copayments, they don’t unfolding providence. line of public safety than an air traffic have money for it. We pray in Your strong Name. Amen. controller. They are expected to con- Those are the realities these men and The PRESIDENT pro tempore. centrate—to concentrate exclusively— women face. They are the realities that Please, God, help us. for 10 straight hours on each shift. Be- have to be on their minds every waking f cause of a shortage of air traffic con- moment. We pray, as passengers in trollers, they now are working 6 days a these aircraft, that the only thing on PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE week. their mind is their job. Instead, for The President pro tempore led the If you can only imagine for a mo- many of these people, it is just basi- Pledge of Allegiance, as follows: ment what it is like, and, if you have cally getting by, keeping their family I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the been to an air traffic control tower, together. United States of America, and to the Repub- you know what it is like—at least from A lady came up to me at the airport lic for which it stands, one nation under God, an outside observer’s point of view. at O’Hare and told me that she and a indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. There they are, with a screen full of lot of friends run a food pantry in Oak f dots. In each one of them is an air- Park, which is west of the city of Chi- plane, and in each airplane tens, maybe cago, and she said to me: We have prob- STRENGTHENING AMERICA’S SE- even hundreds of lives, and they are lems. The Federal employees who are CURITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST trying to make certain that nothing coming around now are in desperate ACT OF 2019—MOTION TO PRO- terrible occurs. need of help, and we are running out of CEED—Continued Imagine the added burden they face supplies at our food pantries. RESERVATION OF LEADER TIME now on the 35th day of this government Has it come to that in America, The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. shutdown. As of today, they will have where we have to rely on food pantries BOOZMAN). Under the previous order, missed two pay periods. The last pay- and charity for men and women who the leadership time is reserved. check came last year. I listened to are performing such a vital function as The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- these air traffic controllers explain air traffic control? That is the reality ator from Illinois. what it meant to them. For some of of the situation. ∑ This ‘‘bullet’’ symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. S667 . VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:26 Jan 26, 2019 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A25JA6.000 S25JAPT1 dlhill on DSK3GLQ082PROD with SENATE S668 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE January 25, 2019 Yesterday we had two votes on the world. So many children were going so hood restaurant. There were five of floor of the Senate. I know that every hungry while the government cronies them. They were on the opposition side Federal employee and their families were siphoning off millions of dollars from President Maduro. They were were tuned in, in the hopes that this from the state food aid program. It was careful not to meet or be seen too shutdown would end yesterday, that we infuriating and disgusting. much in public, and I sat and talked to would muster the courage and political I walked down the streets of Caracas them about why they were in politics. will to come together on a bipartisan and saw firsthand Venezuelans emaci- They weren’t even being paid. Maduro basis. We didn’t. We fell short of the 60 ated, waiting in long lines at ATM ma- had decided to stop paying them after votes needed on both of the measures chines, and I asked: Why is it every they were elected, and yet they contin- that were called. hour of the night and day there is a ued to try to serve. There is a ray of hope but only a long line at the ATM machine? Infla- At one point, one of them said to me: small one. The conversations at the tion was so bad in that country that Senator, if you come back next year, I highest level continued last night and people had to wait patiently in line to can tell you that of the five of us, two even into today. My only hope is that max out each day’s withdrawal from will likely be in prison, two will be ex- the President will decide that this their accounts so they would have iled, and one may have disappeared. shutdown has to come to an end. enough money for a roundtrip bus ride That is what happens when you oppose He alone stood in the beginning and the next day. the Maduro regime. said he was proud to claim that he was I walked through one of the private I thought to myself, there is a heavy the author of this shutdown. I don’t see hospitals, and I heard of unimaginable price to pay for politics in our country, how anyone can be proud of what has shortages of key medicines, shortages but it doesn’t get close to what these happened in this country. It is time to even worse in the state hospitals, young people were facing. put it behind us. It is time to move for- where simple blood tests were no Seated at that table that night was a ward with serious negotiations about longer possible. young 35-year-old man. His name was border security and other issues but In fact, just this week, a collabo- Juan Guaido—the same Juan Guaido not at the expense of 800,000 Federal rative and brave Venezuelan media ef- who was recently chosen as President employees. fort entitled ‘‘Petrofraude’’ released a of the Venezuela National Assembly. This last Wednesday, he did a coura- VENEZUELA devastating investigation. It details geous and dangerous thing. He an- Mr. President, last year, my staff how the Venezuelan Government deci- nounced that under the Constitution, prevailed on me to make a trip which I mated the nation’s oil supply to enrich he believed he had the power to take the cronies of President Maduro and really wasn’t sure I should do.