Barbara Mikulski: “I hope when we do another process such as this and enter into negotiations and when the negotiation is over we don't…”

“I hope when we do another process such as this and enter into negotiations and when the negotiation is over we don't come back and offer something that had been rejected as an amendment. I am disappointed that this amendment is being offered. That is politics. Everyone has a right to offer their amendments. I accept the offer of the Senator from Maine and the Senator from Ohio for the long haul and for discussion. This is very serious. We do know we need a modernized civil service. We do know we need to reform. But we do not need targets and quotas where OMB has said itself, get rid of 127,000, 500,000 jobs this year. So 127,000 people? Who are we going to get rid of? Let's start with the Nobel prize winners at NIH. Who needs them? They can go off to the private sector. Good-bye. Who needs a Nobel prize winner for finding the cure for Alzheimer's? Maybe we could contract out Customs officers. Maybe we could go to rent-a-cop agencies. Or what about those secretaries who keep the agencies going--like the one who went to my high school who has worked for the FBI for nearly 50 years in Baltimore, who has helped keep the FBI going, such as when the FBI was out trying to find the sniper who killed several Marylanders and people from Northern Virginia. I don't know what is so hostile about Federal employees. If we want to save money in pensions, and if we want to save money in health care, that is another issue. But bounty hunters? No.…”