Political Quotes

“we are back today to reconsider a bill to improve our Civil Service system and help Federal employees cope with downsizing. This is the same bill that we considered yesterday, except without section 201, a controversial provision to enhance performance management. This provision should have been removed in the first place, but I appreciate the willingness of Civil Service Subcommittee Chairman Mica to take it out today. While I certainly believe that we should promote people based on merit and reward outstanding performers through enhanced performance management, we did not have time to work out a fair compromise to section 201. For that reason, it should not have been in the bill yesterday. Throughout this Congress, I have pursued a legislative strategy to help Federal employees and agencies cope with downsizing. We have the responsibility to help our dedicated civil servants through this difficult time, and although I think we should go much further, this bill is a good start. It provides important retraining provisions to equip Federal employees for private sector jobs, and it includes a soft-landings package to ease the pain of downsizing for Federal employees.”