WASHINGTON, DC - House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (MD) spoke on the House Floor today in support of legisation to ensure the 800,000 federal employees furloughed or working without pay due to the Trump shutdown receive the pay they are due. Below is a link to the video and excerpts from his remarks:     “No one should have to go without a paycheck.  No one should have to go without a paycheck just because the President thinks he can bully Congress into giving him what he wants – taking them hostage in return for a ransom of agreeing with him.  The American people and the hardworking federal employees who serve them should not be held hostage until they give their hard-earned tax dollars to pay for an expensive and ineffective border wall for which the President promised Mexico would pay.” 

"So here we are, Madam Speaker, twenty-one days into what is now the longest shutdown in our history.  With 800,000 Americans missing their paychecks today because of Donald Trump. How shameful.  How sad.  I hope all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will join me in supporting this bill.” 

“I am proud, Madam Speaker, to represent 62,000 federal employees.  I am proud to represent them, and I am proud of the work they do.  They deserve better, frankly, than what they've gotten from the Congress over the last eight years of the Republican Majority.”

“They deserve better than this shutdown, as do the millions of Americans impacted by the lack of services provided by these federal employees.”

“This bill would provide a permanent solution to this problem, not only providing for back-pay during this shutdown but guaranteeing that federal employees will get paid if any future shutdowns occur.  I might also observe, although it is not in this bill, it will be our intention… that there are state, county, and municipal employees also impacted, which rely on the flow of federal funds to pay their salaries, that we will address, hopefully, in the future.”