New Haven — Decrying what she called the “performance theater” behind the federal government’s partial shutdown, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, called attention Monday to the plight of Connecticut’s Coast Guard families, highlighting state and federal efforts to keep them afloat.

As the shutdown entered its fourth week, Coast Guard members — military and civilian — are expected to miss paychecks due Tuesday.

“It is unconscionable,” DeLauro said. “Families are panicking, calling creditors to beg them to waive penalties or late fees, tapping into emergency savings to pay for regular expenses ...”

DeLauro, who spoke at a news conference at Sound School, a magnet school on New Haven’s waterfront, has co-sponsored a House version of the Pay Our Coast Guard Parity Act of 2019, which would provide funding for the Coast Guard whenever appropriations lapse because of congressional inaction. A Senate version of the bill also has been introduced.

The proposed legislation takes Coast Guard members' paychecks "out of the range of the president's shutdown" and guarantees back pay, DeLauro said.

Operating as part of the Department of Homeland Security, the Coast Guard is the only branch of the military affected by the shutdown. The other branches are part of the Department of Defense.

“This is a crisis that demands our attention,” DeLauro said. “Not the manufactured crisis that the president has constructed in Washington as part of his performance theater for conservative talk radio. This is the crisis for members of our Coast Guard and for our state.”

The Coast Guard’s Sector Long Island Sound, which patrols the Connecticut coastline from New York to Rhode Island, responds to thousands of marine distress cases and hundreds of accidents a year, conducts investigations and inspects vessels. In Connecticut, DeLauro said, the Coast Guard has 500 active-duty, 200 reserve, 16 civilian and more than 1,300 auxiliary members as well as about 400 faculty and staff at the Coast Guard Academy in New London.

Amid the shutdown, some 2,000 Coast Guard members in Connecticut are working without pay while at least 160 are furloughed, according to the congresswoman.

DeLauro was joined by two Coast Guard spouses who described the shutdown’s impact on their families, and by Russell Bonaccorso of the Connecticut Military Department, who outlined the department’s Military Relief Fund, which assists military families.

“It’s not just the active duty, it’s their whole families,” said one of the spouses, neither of whom gave her full name or identified her husband or hometown. “I’m the mother of three, two with special needs. We worry about how we’re going to get them back and forth (to medical appointments) because of the cost of gas. We worry about paying the mortgage, keeping food on the table, paying for heat. You can only lean on families for so long.”

The other spouse said she has "seen the light in her husband dim” during the shutdown.

“It’s ridiculous,” she said. “It’s very wrong and I’m very disappointed (in the government).”

Bonaccorso said the state has reached out to the Coast Guard to make it aware of the Military Relief Fund, which provides grants of up to $5,000 to struggling military families. The two Coast Guard spouses, who said they have turned to local food banks for help, only learned about the relief fund Monday.

Started in 2005, the fund is supported by state taxpayers who choose to contribute when filing their state income tax returns, Bonaccorso said. Applications are reviewed within seven business days of their receipt and a six-member board takes final action on them. 

“Once the board agrees, a check is in the mail the next day,” Bonaccorso said.

He stressed that there is no limit to the number of times a family can apply for assistance even after receiving a grant, though no individual grant can exceed $5,000. For more information about the program and to apply for a grant, visit www.ct.gov/mrf.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com