Darrell Issa: “I'd now like to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. DeSantis), a member of the committee and a newcomer…”

“I'd now like to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. DeSantis), a member of the committee and a newcomer, but not someone who hasn't watched this play out time and time again as people call $274 a catastrophe for the Federal workforce. Mr. DeSANTIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your leadership on this issue. Mr. Speaker, we must change the way this government spends money. We have to be responsible with the money that the government makes our citizens send to Washington, D.C. Taxpayers deserve our best efforts to put our Nation on a sustainable fiscal path. Now, this bill represents a small, but commonsense, measure that will save taxpayers $11 billion. It reverses the President's executive order at the end of last year which provides an automatic pay increase for nonmilitary Federal employees, the Vice President, and members of the President's Cabinet. {time} 1000 It also extends the freeze on pay for Members of Congress through the rest of the calendar year. This policy, as has been pointed out by some of my colleagues, implements one of the recommendations of the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles Commission. Many government employees do great work. Forestalling an automatic pay increase is not a reflection on their work, but simply recognizes our current fiscal reality and the fact that government salaries must bear some relationship to the private sector salaries that support them. It should be stressed that this is a modest measure.…”