George Voinovich

One of the problems I think we have in government, and I have talked to one person after another who have left the Federal service, is they say, I go to work for an agency, I work my butt off, and I do not get recognized for it.

It is discouraging that they are available and they are not being used. That is where OPM should be out there talking to folks about why agencies are not using these flexibilities.

What I am really interested in is the method that you would go about to review and improve OPM as the new boss.

As Chairman and now Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia since 1999, I have worked hard to enact flexibilities to ensure the Federal Government has…

I believe training can go a long way to support this goal.

I believe that this will go a long way toward rebuilding a collaborative relationship with employee unions and managers.

You are going to have to spend the next couple of years really shaping up OPM.

We must do more to make the Federal Government the employer of choice.

The current process is too confusing, too complicated, and too long.

I am concerned about that because the best way I think that you can help other agencies is to get your agency working the way it should in terms of management and in terms of employee satisfaction so that you can use your agency as a role…

The only way the Federal Government will succeed in accomplishing its many missions is if we improve our ability to recruit and retain a world class workforce.

I want to echo the thanks of this Committee and others for your service to our country and for the service of your husband to our country.

There is no way that we will be ever able to afford to really secure the border without immigration reform in this country.

The transformation of the Department is on the High-Risk List, and one of the things that we have been trying to do is to get an agreement on the metrics that we would use to determine whether transformation actually is taking place.

If the Governors got together... you could have a major, major impact on what we are doing.

A gas tax increase on the Federal level would help, but it is not in and of itself the long-term answer.

Then what you tell them is, I am sorry, folks, we are not going to be able to do the job that needs to be done in our Country.

We have a really awful infrastructure problem in this Country, and you have heard the other Senators talk about other countries.

I think it is important that we get this done on time, because even though we have the stimulus bill, we need to know where we are going, not only in terms of our infrastructure, but also in terms of the economy.

You can't do it. You know it and everybody else knows it and it is about time we leveled with people.

It is going to take a gas tax increase and it is going to take public-private partnerships and it is going to take a whole lot of other stuff to get the job done.

I experienced two of the transportation bills while I was Governor of the State of Ohio, and I am glad that Governor Rendell is here and Mayor Novak.

I think it is important that we decide what the number is, what we are capable of doing, so that there is a consensus there.

I want to publicly thank you for your leadership in getting our staffs together to begin to try to make sure that we get this transportation bill done on time.

They have had an application pending in your Department since last year.