Political Quotes

“this has been a good team effort. I see the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran) is here, as well and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf), who has also been very active in this. Some Members oppose this because they think this is going to costs the Treasury $1.2 billion over 3 years. But I would remind my colleagues that this money is not the Government's money. It really belongs to Federal employees who worked and earned this money under a contract with the Government and then gave it up to help us balance the budget. We are simply returning to them their own money to allow them to spend it, the same thing that we are doing to American citizens when we give them tax cuts. This was promised to them to be restored at the time that we balanced the budget, and now we have done that. As I said before, this was originally slated to expire in 2003 because that was the year it was assumed that the Federal budget would be balanced. But our goals we have arrived at 3 years early. So let us return this money to the people from whom it was taken. Federal employees sacrificed over $180 billion in benefits to get us to our goal of a balanced Federal budget. Now it is time that we return to them what we roll back from them. This is our first opportunity to do that. This will help us recruit and retain the best and the brightest for Federal service. This is very important for the Federal Government to fulfill their mission.”