State Federation Officers to join with Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Senate President Stephen Sweeney for Trenton Press Conference on October 10, 2013
The New Jersey State AFL-CIO finds the behavior of far-right politicians in Washington, who have shut down the U.S. government, to be both reckless and irresponsible. These lawmakers, who were elected to represent the interests of their constituents, are instead holding the American people hostage to attract media attention, score cheap political points, and advance the narrow partisan goal of defunding the Affordable Care Act.
Therefore, the New Jersey State AFL-CIO will join tomorrow with Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Senate President Stephen Sweeney for a press conference in Trenton to call on lawmakers to pass a clean continuing resolution to fund the government and stop the senseless attacks on working families. Please join with us to show your support.
Date:
|
Thursday, October 10, 2013
|
Time:
|
10:00 a.m.
|
Place:
|
New Jersey State House
125 West State Street
Committee Room 103
Trenton, NJ 08611
|
Tea Party Republicans have tried to justify their extreme actions with unsubstantiated attacks against the costs of the Affordable Care Act. Yet, at the same time, these same lawmakers are blind to the very real cost this shutdown is having on working families across our state and nation. Nationally, more than 2 million federal workers will see their pay checks delayed and 800,000 of them may never get repaid. In New Jersey the shutdown is expected to result in unpaid furloughs for 31,000 federal employees. The shutdown threatens benefits for millions of veterans; disrupts nutritional assistance programs for women, infants, and children; and undermines the missions of various government agencies from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention. As a result of the shutdown, the National Institutes of Health will turn away roughly 200 patients each week from its clinical research center, potentially denying them lifesaving treatment
The government shutdown will also reverberate throughout our economy, jeopardizing a fragile economic recovery and further perpetuating unemployment. Ending the shutdown is not only the economically responsible thing to do, it is a moral imperative for our state and nation.