Political Quotes

“I want to thank the gentleman from Wisconsin for bringing forward this important bill. I want to refer to some facts here because we do have some good, hardworking Federal employees. Make no mistake about it: They're just as patriotic, if not more, than everybody else in our country. They work hard, and they deserve just compensation. But the compensation trajectory on which we're going forward in this country, Madam Speaker, is neither sustainable nor fair. I was hoping that when the majority leader was addressing us that he would yield to the question, because one of the stats he threw out is that none of these people are earning as much as Members of Congress. Yet I would point out, for instance, that at the end of 2009 in the Department of Transportation, there was one person earning a salary of $170,000. {time} 1300 And yet 18 months later, there were 1,690 employees in the Department of Transportation earning at least $170,000 in compensation. I would also point out that since President Barack Obama took office, until now, there are an additional 144,700 civilian Federal employees. These are new people added to the payroll, more than 144,000 new people on the payroll. In 2010, more than 50 percent of all General Schedule employees received a step increase or a promotion, hardly a pay freeze that President Obama would have led us to believe was happening. Also for 2010, 62.9 percent of all General Schedule employees received an award or bonus.…”