Sen. Warner: Dysfunction is having an impact

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) today used a Senate floor speech to tell personal stories of Virginians impacted by federal employee furloughs and spending cuts mandated by the sequester. Warner, a member of the Senate’s Budget Committee and a founding leader of the Gang of Six on deficits and debt, says the thousands of Virginians who work for the federal government are bearing a disproportionate impact of the furloughs.

“It has been 110 days since the Senate worked until five o’clock in the morning to adopt a budget.  As a member of this body who has the privilege of representing the Commonwealth of Virginia, I need to reiterate this point for my colleagues: every day that we  remain paralyzed by dysfunction, we’re asking our federal employees and their families to absorb most of the impact,” Sen. Warner said. He also said the budget sequester was intentionally designed to be “so stupid that no rational person would choose to go down that path.”

“Across the federal workforce today, many employees now are required to take one day off without pay every week until the end of the fiscal year,” Sen. Warner said. “If you think a net 20-percent reduction in salary has no impact, you would be mistaken. I hear from federal workers and their families every day – real people, facing real consequences.”

Sen. Warner highlighted the stories of three Virginians experiencing tough financial decisions due to furloughs:

• ·         A Defense Department employee from Fairfax says she faces a choice “between paying for groceries or paying for childcare.”
• ·         A shipyard worker from Portsmouth, Va., with a sick spouse says he is struggling to pay for medical treatments due to a reduction in insurance benefits triggered by the 11-week furlough.
• ·         And a military intelligence specialist from Charlottesville says she “is fed-up,” and is now looking for a job “with a more reliable employer” than the federal government.

The Senate adopted a budget 110 days ago. Today, for the 16^th time, Senate Republicans objected to a Democratic motion to appoint a committee of conference to negotiate a budget compromise with the U.S. House of Representatives.