NJ Senator Shares Local Woman's Plight During Shutdown Debate

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — Senator Bob Menendez is putting a face to those federal employees affected by the government shutdown. Among those he is spotlighting is a Basking Ridge local "who needs to pay her rent and bills."

Emily Nering of Basking Ridge has been working at the Environmental Protection Agency's Edison field office for eight years. During her time there she has helped to bring clean drinking water to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands following Hurricane Maria, Senator Bob Menendez stated.

Nering had saved up money for her IRA and a down payment on a home, but now that money will be used to help pay her rent and other bills pushing her financial and life goals further back due to the government shutdown, Menendez said in a video he shared on Twitter.

Around 800,000 federal employees have been furloughed or working without pay since Dec. 21 and won't receive their next paychecks until the government reopens.

"I took an oath of office too. I want to get back to doing the important work that the EPA conducts and continue to serve this great nation," Nering wrote to Menendez.

Menendez held a round-table discussion with federal workers in New Jersey at the Montclair Bread Company on Friday afternoon. The Montclair Bread Company is among local businesses in the state offering help to unpaid federal workers.

"We've long known that something is broken inside this President that makes him incapable of caring about anyone other than himself," Menendez said.

See Menendez's statements and round-table below:

(Image via Senator Bob Menendez and Senator Bob Menendez‏)

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