On March 3, 2015 Rep Luis GUTIÉRREZ asked for and was granted permission to address the United States House of Representatives for one minute to warn Congress against playing politics with other government employee’s paychecks an threatening them with furloughs:
“Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the Speaker and the Republican majority for coming to their senses and allowing the House of Representatives to pass a bill funding the Department of Homeland Security for the rest of the fiscal year.
It seems odd that I would have to come to this well to congratulate the majority for funding one of the largest and most important departments in the U.S. Government. I cannot congratulate the majority alone because the bill funding the Department of Homeland Security was passed largely on the strength–yes–of Democratic votes.
The vote was strong, 257-167, but 182 of those votes came from Democrats. In fact, every Democrat who voted – voted to keep the Department of Homeland Security open and protecting America until the end of the fiscal year, 100 percent. Only 75 Republicans supported paying our border security and airport security professionals.
Mr. Speaker, it should never have come to this. On the one hand, it should never have come to this because Members of Congress should never play around with the paychecks of our fellow government employees and threaten them with furloughs in order to score cheap partisan political points.
The real people with real lives who work at O’Hare and Midway and at ports, airports, and border crossings, the real people with mortgages, car notes, and tuition bills who provide the security our democracy depends on do not deserve the way they are treated by this Congress. Lurching from funding crisis to shutdown showdown to last-minute votes is no way to run the greatest democracy the world has ever known.”
Source: Congressional Record
See video: DHS standoff https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAT4Fi8BIUo
See related video: DHS Leaders Urge Congress to Avoid Shutdown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFO9XtNQaVU