this is not enough for sherry and thomas leif to pay their bills. so they've already discussed what this government shutdown means to their family. step one for them, if the paycheck doesn't come, is they will tap into their reserves, into their savings. step two if it leads to that, they will have to go into further credit card debt. this is not what we should be doing to people like sherry and thomas leif. this is not what we should be doing to the hardworking federal employees who want nothing more than to do a good job, go to work and receive fair pay. but this is the way it's been for nine days now. heard our congressman steny hoyer speak a half an hour ago now talking about we have an answer to this right now. we have enough republican votes and we have enough democratic votes today, within the hour, as he explained it, to get the government up and running again. we could immediately, immediately today provide relief for people like sherry and thomas leif, by reopening the government right here and right now. we have a bipartisan path to do th