Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 702, the Federal Employee Antidiscrimination Act of 2017, as amended. I thank all of the bill's co-sponsors, including Representatives Norton, Sensenbrenner and Jackson Lee, for working with me on this measure and for their commitment to strengthening federal Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) programs. I also thank Tanya Ward Jordan, Paulette Taylor, and all the members of the Coalition 4 Change (C4C) for their years of work on this measure and their perseverance. H.R. 702 is essentially identical to H.R. 1557, which was considered in the last Congress. That legislation passed the House by a vote of 403-0. However, the bill did not pass the Senate before the end of the 114th Congress. I am hopeful that this year, we can finally get this measure over the finish line and to the President's desk for signature. I authored H.R. 702 to make long-overdue reforms of federal EEO programs to ensure that they are better able to protect the rights of federal employees and applicants for federal employment. Federal EEO programs exist to uphold the guarantee of equal opportunity that is the right of every citizen in this nation and to ensure that any barriers impeding fairness in personnel decisions are identified and eliminated.…”