Political Quotes

“Preliminary, however, to my remarks, I want to say I thank the previous speaker for his remarks, and I would hope that with the Senate's having passed a budget, our having passed a budget, and the President submitting a budget that we will now, hopefully as soon as this week, go to conference so that we might discuss the differences and get that budget to which the gentleman addressed himself. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a wonderful individual who has served our country in government service for many years and has spent the last four in overseeing our Federal workforce as the Director of the Office of Personnel Management. I am speaking of my dear friend John Berry, who retired last week as Director of the Office of Personnel Management. America, Mr. Speaker, is blessed with a Federal workforce composed of hardworking, talented, and dedicated men and women. Too often, however, their contributions are overlooked or are even denigrated by those who would use our Federal employees as an easy target to attack the institution of government. John Berry made it one of his central missions at OPM to stand up for Federal workers' achievements and remind the American people of the true value we get from recruiting and retaining the best public workforce in the world. He came to OPM with plenty of experience in fighting for Federal employees and their families.…”