Mike Garcia: “I think it's important that we do get together and start bending the arc toward a reciprocal trade agreement.”

I thank the Congressman for yielding. I appreciate the gentleman having this opportunity for us to speak. Mr. Speaker, we all know that the Hatch Act is here to keep partisan politics out of our government. It has been in place to over 80…

Last year, we missed our recruitment numbers, retention numbers by a net 41,000 personnel, recruits across all the services.

We passed, out of HAC-D, a bill that took the starting salary for an E-1 from $22,000 to $31,000, which is the equivalent of $15 per hour.

An E-1 right now even with the 5 percent raise last year and the 4.5 percent increase in this President's budget request is still $22,000, $23,000 a year.