Press Release

Now is the time to come together and pass a comprehensive highway bill, not another temporary extension, as Speaker Boehner suggested today as a possibility. House Republicans should not walk away from their responsibilities and kick the can down the road, without offering solutions. We should be focused on giving businesses certainty and reaching a bipartisan, bicameral agreement to move forward on a highway bill, especially after the Senate passed an overwhelmingly bipartisan bill in March.

For over a quarter century, John Gage has dedicated his career to making sure that government employees can focus on working on behalf of Americans instead of having to worry about receiving the pay and benefits they have earned through their service.  As national president of the American Federation of Government Employees for the past nine years, John has been a tireless defender of our nation’s public servants during a time when they have been asked to do more with less.  Under his leadership, AFGE has continued to be a leading voice for the collective bargaining rights of all our workers in this country.  The son of a Pittsburgh steel worker and union member, John was raised among working families who saw organized labor not only as a means to defend rights but also to strengthen entire communities and help them achieve the American Dream. 

Today, Republicans choose once again to obstruct instead of make meaningful progress on an issue important to millions of American families.  By blocking the Paycheck Fairness Act, Senate Republicans followed their House colleagues, who unanimously rejected its consideration on the Floor last week.  

CBO’s Long-Term Budget Outlook makes it abundantly clear that our long-term structural problems should be just as concerning as the looming fiscal cliff, including the budget sequester, facing us at the end of this year.  CBO’s report is a warning that we must get our fiscal house in order by achieving big and balanced deficit reduction that includes both spending and revenues. Cutting domestic spending alone won’t work, and it will require both parties working together.  I still believe this is a goal we must pursue in Congress this year – and one that is achievable.   Doing so would provide certainty to businesses that have been holding back investment and could constitute the single greatest stimulus to our economy and job creation. 

I join in applauding Thursday's ruling striking down Florida’s onerous law that had severely hindered civic organizations, teachers, and other groups from conducting voter registration drives.  That law was an example of legislation currently on the books or proposed in a number of states to make it harder for eligible Americans to vote or register to vote – and which have disproportionately harmed minorities, the elderly, and young people. 

For LGBT Americans and their families, this year’s Pride Month comes at a particularly hopeful moment for LGBT equality in America.  From support for same-sex marriage growing across the country, to this week’s federal circuit court ruling that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional, to the end of the military’s discriminatory ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy last year, there is a real and tangible sense that our nation is moving closer to full equality.

I think [the Republican summer agenda] is spin but I don’t think it’s substantive. I don't think it really addresses the issues that are critical to the economy.

This morning’s jobs report shows that Congressional Republicans’ do-nothing, confrontation over compromise approach to jobs isn’t working.  While we continued to see the private sector add jobs for the twenty-seventh straight month, our unemployment rate has slipped back up to 8.2 percent from the three-year record low of 8.1 percent last month.  While the President and Democrats in Congress have been promoting a jobs-first agenda to provide certainty to American businesses and workers, Republicans continue to avoid addressing serious job creation in favor of ideological bills.