Bill Pascrell: “there is much in this bill that I find to be particularly worthy. Unlike last year, when the Members of this House…”

“there is much in this bill that I find to be particularly worthy. Unlike last year, when the Members of this House fought for months over the details of this legislation, the conferees were able to return a final product to this House that a majority of people on both sides of the aisle could support. In particular, I am pleased that this Congress has finally provided our hard working federal employees a 4.8% pay raise. The pay gap between government workers that make this country function and white collar workers in the private sector grows every year. This situation, which failed to be redressed until this year, has negatively impacted the hundreds of thousands of households that are headed by government employees. As a result of the bipartisan agreement embodied by this conference report, thousands of government workers will have an easier time making ends meet. The Conference Report on H.R. 2490 also contains several other important provisions.”