Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Protecting Employees Security Clearances Act of 2019 (PESCA). I am pleased to have Senators Leahy, Jones, Baldwin, Kaine, Feinstein, Hirono, Klobuchar, Durbin, Shaheen, Cortez Masto, Hassan, and Van Hollen as cosponsors. Our measure would protect federal employees and contractors from losing their security clearances due to financial reasons, such as poor credit scores, that are attributable to a lapse in federal appropriations. The bill directs the Security Executive Agent to ensure that a lapse in appropriations (including the one that ended last month) is considered as a mitigating factor for initial or continued security clearance eligibility during the adjudication process. More specifically, the bill states that ``No head of any agency may revoke the national security eligibility of a covered employee because of a reduction in the credit score or negative information in a consumer credit file of the covered employee that is attributable to disrupted income payments as a result of a lapse in appropriations.'' Nearly 80 percent of Americans live from one paycheck to the next. They cannot afford to miss even a single paycheck. Federal workers and contractors are no different. ``Excepted'' employees--those individuals who are compelled to work without pay during a shutdown--are guaranteed retroactive pay.…”