Political Quotes

“I thank Congressman Connolly. I rise today coming in saying I would support this bill. Many people know I served 30 years as a Federal employee working in HR, understanding labor relations, safety issues, environmental issues, diversity issues, and knowing clear well that the official time that is allotted to employees to sit down with their representative of the union to talk about if they feel like they are being sexually harassed, if they feel like they are in an environment that is not safe for them, official time is extremely necessary. What happens in official time? It allows a lot of grievances to be processed and resolved through communication between union and management. There have been several legislative reform proposals introduced to address the way union representatives are allowed to utilize official time. Now, I was taken back when my colleague said ``criminal activities.'' Mr. Speaker, criminal activity is something that is in a whole different venue. If you are a Federal employee and you create an illegal activity, you do not need official time to do that. I have never known, in the time that I served in HR, in labor relations, and served in all of the different capacities, have I seen someone doing criminal activity on official time. It would be a different thing if we were clear that this bill was about reporting the time, which I would not oppose.…”