January 14, 2019 Press Releases and Announcements

VA Congressional Dems: End the Trump Shutdown, Let Virginians Go Back to Work


by DPVA Press Office

VA Congressional Dems: End the Trump Shutdown, Let Virginians Go Back to Work

Senator Mark Warner: "The disregard [Trump] has paid to our federal workers, where he has been so cavalier, has never sat down, has never listened to them...it's been just awful." 

WATCH BELOW: Sen. Warner on CNN State of the Union

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Senator Tim Kaine: "We’ve got 13,000 FBI agents, more than 10,000 Bureau of Prisons prison guards, air traffic controllers, Coast Guard folks who intersect drugs – all of them working without pay because of this President’s shutdown...and he says he cares about national security?"

WATCH BELOW: Sen. Kaine on NBC Meet The Press

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Congressman Bobby Scott: "This Republican dysfunction will force government employees to pay the price. 800,000 of them will be forced to go without pay during the holidays – including 420,000 federal employees who will have to work without pay."

WATCH BELOW: Rep. Scott on Trump shutdown

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Congressman Gerry Connolly: "Let's be honest, this President has a habit of pathological dissembling, and that's being polite."

LISTEN BELOW: Rep. Connolly on CNN Outfront

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Congressman Don Beyer: "There is a crisis but it’s not the lack of a wall... (trading federal employees] service for a fifth century wall that can be overcome with a ladder" makes no sense.

READ BELOW: Rep. Beyer on Trump shutdown in The Washington Post

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Congressman Donald McEachin: Federal workers "don't have a mother or father they can ask for money...The President started it. The President has to come forward with a proposal to end it." 

WATCH BELOW: Rep. McEachin on MSNBC with Alex Witt

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Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton: "I have [federal employee] constituents who don't know how they’re going to pay their mortgage or pay for child care...my constituents are tired of being used as pawns in a political battle that has nothing to do with their day-to-day lives or their jobs."   

WATCH BELOW: Rep. Wexton on MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show

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Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger: "The idea that we would keep federal workers from getting their paycheck under the guise of trying to improve our security, it's just -- it's contradictory." 

WATCH BELOW: Rep. Spanberger on MSNBC News with Craig Melvin

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Congresswoman Elaine Luria: "These are people’s lives and livelihood, and we need to pay them for the work that they’re doing."

READ BELOW: Rep. Luria on Trump shutdown in The Washington Post