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Floor Speech
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Mr. SULLIVAN. I want to thank my colleague and friend Senator Cruz from Texas, who has presented our bill, the Pay Our Coast Guard Act, which he noted is a bipartisan bill in the Commerce Committee--the chairman, the ranking member. I am the ranking member on the subcommittee in charge of the Coast Guard. The chair of that committee, Senator Baldwin, is also a cosponsor of this bill.
Senator Cruz laid it out really well. This is a very simple bill. The men and women who protect our coastline, who protect our country, who are in the military, whom I see working so hard, risking their lives day in and day out in Alaska, where we have some of the most members of the Coast Guard stationed in our great State than in almost any other State--they need to be protected, and they need to know the U.S. Senate has their back.
Now, it is kind of hard to believe what Senator Cruz just mentioned, but let me repeat what happened in 2019. When there was a partial government shutdown, every branch of the U.S. military--the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Air Force--they all got paid. They all got paid, with one exception--the Coast Guard.
Imagine how you felt if you were in the Coast Guard, watching your brothers and sisters in the other services getting paid and you weren't. There were operations going on in the Persian Gulf where members of the Marine Corps, the Navy, and the Coast Guard were doing joint operations against Iranian aggression and one of those members on those ships and boats wasn't getting paid--the Coast Guard members.
So this happened in America. As a matter of fact, the Commandant of the Coast Guard, at the time, ADM Karl Schultz, said:
[T]his marks the first time in our Nation's history that servicemembers in a U.S. Armed Force have not been paid during a lapse in government appropriations.
So what are we doing on the floor today? We are saying: Let's not let this happen again.
In the event of a shutdown, which none of us want, let's make sure that what happened--and Senator Cruz just mentioned it. Coast Guard men and women across the country, including in Alaska, woke up for 34 days and did not know whether they were going to get a paycheck and, essentially, had to rely on donations from the communities in which they served to do their job.
Now, look, the communities came together, and that was a wonderful thing. But I have committed to my Coast Guard members in Alaska and throughout the country that this should never happen again. This is a no-brainer, and I certainly hope no Senator is going to come down here and object and say: Well, this is an appropriations issue.
Come on. This is a right or wrong issue. Fix it. We are trying to fix it--right now.
I was the one who came down during the last government shutdown and tried to get unanimous consent. I talked to the President of the United States. He said he was going to sign our bill to pay the Coast Guard, and the Democratic minority leader, at the time, blocked it. I certainly hope none of our colleagues, Democrat or Republican, are going to block it again.
This is a bipartisan bill. It makes sense, and the Coast Guard and their family members are watching. Does the U.S. Senate have their back or not?
I strongly encourage my colleagues to work with us to pass our Pay Our Coast Guard Act bill right now.
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Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I am shocked, disappointed, and, to be honest, stunned. I didn't think anyone was going to object to this bill. It makes no sense to do so. I didn't understand the Senator from Washington's explanation. Her colleague from Washington is actually the chairman of the Commerce Committee and a cosponsor of this bill.
So, again, this is a no-brainer. None of us want a government shutdown, but, if it happens, we can't let what happened in 2019 be repeated. And what happened in 2019 was that every member of the military services was paid, with the exception of the Coast Guard. And I have told them that we won't let that happen again.
So I am going to keep coming down to the floor with Senator Cruz, and we are going to get this bill passed.
And if you are watching and you are a Coast Guard member and you understand what happened, Democratic leadership in the U.S. Senate just blocked this bill--a bipartisan bill to make sure you get treated fairly in the event of a government shutdown.
It is the right thing to do. Senator Cruz and I will keep working it to make sure this happens.
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