Political Quotes

“I listened to the gentleman's comments. The gentleman is new to the Congress and probably doesn't have the background in terms of how this developed as to how we pay Federal employees. As the sponsor of the Federal Employee Pay Comparability Act in 1990, signed by George Bush who worked with President Bush's OMB and OPM on this legislation, obviously one of the things we did was to say if the private sector doesn't get an increase, the public sector won't get an increase. We keyed the increases to the economic cost index, which is all to say that we need to tighten our belts when the private sector tightens their belts. Which is why, as I think I caught the gentleman's reference, that over the last 2 years, Federal employees have in fact received cuts to existing law which will result in a $60 billion savings. I think the gentleman said that, but it bears repeating. It's not as if the Federal employees haven't tightened their belts. They have. In point of fact, the pay council to which he referred believes on average that Federal employees are in fact behind, not ahead. Now, I'm aware of the CBO report that was just issued. Mr. Cummings has responded to that. Clearly, what they said is there is a disparity. Those on the lower end of the scale are doing better. Those on the upper end of the scale aren't doing so well. None of them are getting paid as much as the gentleman is who made this speech or that I'm getting. None of them are making as much as we are.…”