Political Quotes

“I rise in favor of H. Res. 581, which urges this administration to provide pay parity to civilian government workers and uniformed government workers. I was greatly disappointed at the President's meager pay raise for Federal workers and feel it should be closer in line to the raise our uniformed service members received. I represent the Rock Island Arsenal, which employs about 6,000 civilian Department of Defense workers. Many of these employees are directly supporting our uniformed personnel in the war on terror. This includes many working around the clock to produce an urgent order of armored kits for our Humvees and trucks being sent to Iraq. Hundreds of other workers are either deployed or recently deployed from service in the Middle East to support our service members. Yet, unlike their uniformed counterparts, they only received modest pay increases. Not only are Defense Department civilian workers serving in the war on terror, but Federal fire fighters, police, marshals, and armed agents of the FBI, DEA, ATF, Amtrak, Postal Service, and numerous other agents. This administration wants to outsource our Federal employees, rewrite their labor rules, and ask them to do more with less. And then they hit them in their pocket book. We need to support our Federal workers and this resolution sends a strong message. I urge my colleagues to support this bill and let the President know our Federal workers deserve his respect.”