Ernst Calls Out Impact of Schumer Shutdown on Iowans

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) delivered a floor speech detailing how Iowans are already facing dire consequences due to the Schumer Shutdown. She called out Senate Democrats for putting party over country while disregarding American families trying to put food on the table.

Watch Senator Ernst’s remarks here.

Ernst’s full remarks as delivered:

“It’s Day 23 of the Schumer Shutdown, making this the second longest shutdown in modern history.

“While Senator Schumer says ‘every day gets better’ for Democrats, the stunt is taking a real toll on real Americans.

“Closing the government may be a game for Washington politicians, but it’s not fun for the folks in Iowa who work hard and expect Congress to do the same.

“A social service provider in Sioux City is facing challenges providing shelter for the homeless because the Social Security Administration is closed.

“The wife of a civilian employee at the Rock Island Arsenal worries that if he doesn’t get paid, the family may have to dip into their daughter’s college funds to make ends meet.

“Another frustrated constituent in Council Bluffs says, ‘we have families here living paycheck to paycheck. They cannot afford food, much less health care.’

“An employee of the Farm Service Agency in Taylor County, which is a neighboring county to my county Montgomery in rural Southwest Iowa, says the shutdown is putting a strain on beginning farmers as well as the elderly producers in her community.

“And the closure of USDA Service Centers is financially impacting farmers, which will have ripple effects on everyone for months to come.

“Thousands of families in Iowa are already facing the real possibility of not being able to put food on the table.

“Recipients of SNAP will not receive benefits next month and WIC, women, infants, and children’s support, for mothers and babies will also run out very soon.

“And Iowans aren’t alone in this.

“If Democrats do not allow the government to re-open, half of our states will run out of money to provide SNAP benefits in November.

“That means millions of children across the country will have food taken away from them by the Schumer Shutdown.

“This is a particularly cruel way to make a political point, especially at Thanksgiving time.

“So most folks here in this body really understand that there are a lot of families that mean a lot to me.

“Not only my families in Iowa, but then also all of our military families across the United States.

“So, my daughter and my son in law serve on active duty Army.

“My daughter and I talk just about every day, by FaceTime or by phone.

“And the shutdown is really impacting her younger soldiers.

“So every day, my daughter and I go through the discussions of where will the soldiers find food?

“Her discussion with me today centered around a talk she had with their military chaplain yesterday.

“ She was typing a letter so her soldiers could receive gift cards before thanksgiving for the chaplain funds.

“Unfortunately, the chaplain said, ‘I don’t even know that we will have funds so that we can get the gift cards for the families because of the shutdown.’

“One of the military units has actually started its own internal food bank so that soldiers can go to that food bank and get food for their families.

“Anyone that has served in the military or knows someone that serves in the military, understands that already are military men and women many of them qualify for SNAP even though they're employed by the military.

“These are families that are currently serving every single day with the inability to get paid.

“Now, thankfully, the president was able to scratch together dollars from the Department of Defense to pay them their first check.

“But this is a long-term problem we're facing now, and the president won't be able to keep doing that.

“So we have all of our federal employees, our military men and women that are not getting paid.

“They can't literally put food on the table.

“One of my daughter's soldiers has had to drop out of college.

“This NCO works full time during the day and tries to do better by going to college at night, and she can't afford to pay the tuition now that's required, and there are no appropriated funds to move forward with her college.

“And so she had to pull her enrollment yesterday.

“So we're impacting families in all of our home states.

“We're impacting the men and women that are defending our nation.

“This standoff is a fight for survival.

“But what I’m doing here, I’m fighting for the folks who are continuing to work hard every single day without a paycheck or going without the help they need just simply to get by.

“But the Democrats are fighting for their own political survival.

“We witnessed here on this very floor earlier today.

“The majority of Democrats vote ‘no’ on paying these essential workers in the federal government.

“Air traffic controllers, our military men and women, the Capitol policemen that protect this complex, the staff that we see here sitting today.

“They voted ‘no.’

“One Democratic senator candidly confided to The Hill newspaper that if Democrats vote to reopen the government ‘people are going to get hammered’ by their liberal base.

“Another admits there are enough Democrats who would vote to re-open the government ‘if people were not terrified of getting the guillotine.’

“Apparently, the socialist uprising within the Democrat party is turning into a modern-day French Revolution, folks.

“And playing the role of Marie Antoinette, proclaiming ‘Let them eat cake,’ is Senator Schumer.

“The truth is Democrats are literally, I mean literally taking food out of the mouths of babes to save themselves from their own unhinged voters.

“Instead of bending to the loudmouth liberal lunatics and socialist sociopaths who make up their base, Democrats should listen to their colleague, Senator Fetterman of Pennsylvania.

“Senator Fetterman called the shutdown ‘bad political theater,’ adding, ‘There are no winners here. It’s not getting better every day here. People are going to start to get really hungry.’

“He’s absolutely right, folks.

“And the Democrats know it’s causing pain.

“In fact, that’s the whole point of this exercise.

“Congresswoman Katherine Clark, the second-in-line, the second in line in the House Democratic leadership, said the quiet part out loud, stating ‘families are going to suffer’ because of the shutdown.

“She calls that suffering ‘leverage.’

“Leverage. The American people and their suffering babies are leverage.

“Using the suffering of the very people we were elected to serve as political leverage is just plain sick.

“Mr. President, perhaps Republicans need to start using our own leverage—the Senate schedule.

“If Chuck Schumer cancels Thanksgiving for millions of families across America who can’t feed their children, the holiday should be canceled for the Senate as well.

“We should all be prepared to stay here until we re-open the government so no child will go to bed hungry because of Schumer’s Shutdown Shenanigans.”

“This is a serious jobs, folks.

“We need to take it seriously, we need to act seriously, and we need to ensure this shutdown ends.”

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