Political Quotes

“I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Oversight Committee Chairman Issa and the sponsor of H.R. 5169, the gentleman from Michigan, Tim Walberg, for working with my Democratic colleagues Representatives Lynch and Norton to address some of our concerns. Although much progress has been made in improving this legislation, I believe that there remains sufficient constitutional issues to cause concern, and, therefore, I must reluctantly oppose H.R. 5169, the Senior Executive Service Accountability Act. I understand that this legislation was meant to address recent allegations of misconduct and management failures by senior executives at various agencies. While the allegations are quite troubling, I don't believe they justify governmentwide changes to the Senior Executive Service that will bring senior executives much closer to becoming ``at- will'' employees. I am concerned that the provisions in this bill that would extend the probationary period for senior executives from 1 to 2 years and authorize suspensions for less than 14 days would give agency heads and political appointees the opportunity to terminate or suspend career senior executives for politically motivated reasons, and it is a very real possibility that this would go unchecked simply because there is no third-party review of an agency's actions under these circumstances.…”