Don Nickles: “I thank my friend, Senator Brownback. I am the third Senator squeezed in front of him, and he has shown great patience.…”

“I thank my friend, Senator Brownback. I am the third Senator squeezed in front of him, and he has shown great patience. I will be brief. My colleague from Massachusetts said President Clinton gave these protections to Federal employees because he couldn't wait for the Republican Congress to pass them. The facts are, Federal employees do not have patient protections that are nearly as expensive, as aggressive, as intrusive as we are getting ready to impose on the rest of the private sector. I may have an amendment tomorrow to address that so we can save that for tomorrow's debate. The patient protection that President Clinton passed is not nearly this big. Federal employees cannot sue their employer. When they have an appeal process, they do not go to an independent party; they go to OPM, Office of Personnel Management; they go to their employer. We do not do that in this bill. Maybe we will debate that tomorrow. Finally, he said in collective bargaining plans, they have to be covered when the plan terminates. My point is the plan can be renegotiated. You are talking years. Sixty-six percent of collective bargaining plans are 3 to 5 years. Then it says if they go ahead and implement it, it is not counted as a plan termination; therefore, it is not effective. Let's give union members the same protections we give all other private sector employees.”