David Weldon: “I had legal counsel review the legislation we are debating right now at the Subcommittee on Civil Service. The way this…”

“I had legal counsel review the legislation we are debating right now at the Subcommittee on Civil Service. The way this amendment is drafted it exempts these new Federal employees from the Veterans Preference Act, the civil rights laws, the Rehabilitation Act, the Age Discrimination Act, merit principles, family and medical leave, Federal labor-management relations statutes, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the whistleblower protections. If a Republican brought an amendment calling for the creation of a new Federal workforce that is going to be larger than the workforce at the Department of Labor, larger than the workforce at three other Cabinet level agencies and tried to exempt them from all these Federal laws, my Democrat colleagues would be up in arms. The unions would be going berserk. I am amazed that this amendment has been crafted this way. Now, I assume my colleagues are expecting the Attorney General to voluntarily apply all these protections. I would just like to point out that the debate is not between doing nothing and my colleagues' proposal. The debate is between the Oberstar amendment and I think a very, very good proposal that is modeled on the European experience, where they have tried to federalize their workforce.”