Political Quotes

“I am, of course, not shocked that those who wanted to shut down the government and keep it shut had Federal employees making nothing. I am not shocked that they don't want to give Federal employees a cost-of-living adjustment. Now, I could spend a lot of time responding to my friend from Ohio about the qualifications necessary to run NASA and to work at NASA, or the FBI, or the CDC, or the other agencies that require high levels of skill to work. I am sure my friend from Ohio has read the government reports from the council that is charged with the responsibility of determining whether we are paying comparable wages who say, no, we are not. As a matter of fact, we are substantially under, if you compare apples to apples, educational requirements, and skills requirements to the private sector, similar requirements. He doesn't mention that because the averages, they sound just much better. Now, of course, the average salary on the Washington National's team is a little higher than that. Why, because their skill levels are higher than almost anybody else in the country. Mr. Chair, I want to thank Representative Connolly and Representative Wexton for their hard work, and I want to thank my friend, the chairman of the committee. Representative Connolly, of course, has been a long- time advocate of the pay and benefits, and retaining, and being able to recruit people who have those kinds of skill levels.…”