Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend and colleague from Massachusetts (Mr. Lynch) for his outstanding leadership on this and so many other issues on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. I also thank the ranking member, Mr. Issa, for his friendship and his leadership on our committee as well. {time} 1430 I particularly want to thank my colleague from Virginia (Mr. Wolf) who's been a long-time leader in telework, and my colleague and friend from Maryland (Mr. Sarbanes) for his leadership on this legislation. Without that leadership, we wouldn't be here today and relief wouldn't be on the way to our Federal workforce and hard-pressed commuters in the national capital region. Mr. Speaker, before I came to Congress, I represented a major jurisdiction in the national capital region, Fairfax County, for 14 years, the last five being its chairman; and I, like Mr. Issa, came from the private sector. I spent the last 20 years of my career before coming here working for a number of information technology companies, and I saw firsthand the value of telework in the private sector. One of the major employers in my district, for example, is AT&T. I went and visited a major facility they have in my district. Thirty- three percent of their workforce teleworks regularly, 33 percent; and their estimated cost savings in terms of reduced absenteeism is $2,000 per employee.…”