Federal Employees
For federal employees and their families enduring years of frozen pay, a new proposal to cut their pay could not come at a worse time. Those who serve at federal agencies are middle-class workers who never see salaries or bonuses like those on Wall Street. Federal employees have been hurt by the recession just like the rest of America's middle class. They work hard each day in jobs that are frequently high in stress and responsibility but low in pay and benefits. But they know they are making a difference and serving their country.
This week, Republicans will continue to outline additional details of their extreme budget that ends the Medicare guarantee, destroys jobs, and cuts taxes for the wealthy. In Committee hearings this week, Republicans are expected to lay out cuts that undermine health care coverage and target our federal employees in order to preserve tax cuts for the wealthy.
“I was pleased to see so many federal employees at today’s event. These are public servants who perform important work on behalf of this nation, from keeping our homeland safe to ensuring the food we eat is safe and making certain our seniors get their Social Security checks on time. Federal employees are a living example of government ‘for the people, by the people.'
House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) will deliver remarks in support of federal workers at a rally hosted by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today, February 29 at 12:30 p.m. in the Congressional Auditorium in the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC-200). The rally is part of NTEU’s week-long 2012 legislative conference.
I know that everybody on my side would have supported the agreement that Mr. Van Hollen and I put forward. That agreement would, as the current agreement would say, that the only individuals paying for this bill out of 315 million Americans are the two million civilian workers who work for us, who work for all of us, who day after day, week after week, month after month make sure we give the services to the people of the United States, protect the United states, ensure that our food is safe, ensure that we have FBI agents on the job, make sure at the Defense Intelligence Agency we know what other people are doing, these are all civilian employees. Highly skilled, highly trained, highly educated and, yes, highly motivated. And every day they give outstanding service to the people of the United States. We talk here and we pass laws here but none of that talk and none of those laws make a difference unless somebody implements what we say and the policies that we set. This Congress is on the path to be the most anti-federal worker Congress that I have served in.
I am very disappointed that the proposed UI extension will be paid for by increasing the retirement contributions made by new federal workers. When we work to protect the middle class, it is only right to protect them all, and federal workers are hardworking Americans who have already contributed $60 billion to deficit reduction over the next decade. Our deficit problems were not created by these men and women, and they will not be solved by only asking them to contribute. If we are going to address our deficit in a big, bold and balanced way, we must look beyond just federal workers and ask others to share in the contributions our deficit problems demand.
We ought to have a bill, we ought to pass Mr. Van Hollen's bill, we ought to take this out of the politics and then I tell my friends what we ought to do is pass the big deal. We ought to pass a $4 trillion to $6 trillion big deal to get the fiscal house in order of the United States of America. And it ought to include all things on the table, including federal employee pay and benefits, including the military pay and benefits and expenditures, and domestic expenditures as well as entitlements. I've said that. We ought not to do it piecemeal as this bill reflects.
I rise out of deep concern that this Congress continues to ask one group to sacrifice to bring down our nation's deficit while not asking others to contribute. With all of the challenges we face today on a national scale, we ought to ensure that those who help devise solutions and carry them out receive the recognition they are due. They should not be constantly subjected to the kind of verbal attacks and legislative assaults we have seen over the past couple of years.
Wanted to be sure you saw these op-eds and editorials after House Republicans backed away from negotiating a larger, comprehensive agreement to reduce the deficit and ensure America pays its bills. While Republicans have said they agree that we must pay our nation’s bills and argue that deficit reduction is critical to boosting the economy and creating jobs, they continue to fight for tax breaks for the wealthy while ending Medicare, rather than compromising on a balanced agreement.
Democrats have offered on the House Floor five times a clean continuing resolution to keep the government open as negotiations on a full year continuing resolution continue. So far, even though Democrats have gone 70 percent of the way to Republicans’ position, Republicans refuse to compromise over their divisive social agenda. As a result, Republicans are risking a shutdown that will harm the economy and negatively impact Americans.