Political Quotes

“I thank my friend and the leader of our caucus for his statement. This is a very important issue, not just to those who represent large numbers of Federal employees but to the entire American people. We are talking about adequately compensating those who serve, who serve all of the interests of all of the American public. At no time when we introduced this resolution or in the budget resolution have we ever suggested that the military should only get their pay increase if civilians get their pay increase. That is a total mischaracterization by the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Buyer). That is not the case. But we do want to make the case that there are a great many civilian employees serving their country in a dedicated, brave way as well. Just a couple of weeks ago, two DOD civilian employees were killed in what the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad called 'a targeted act of terrorism.' There were hundreds of Federal civilian employees killed in a targeted act of terrorism in Oklahoma. The FBI, the CIA, the whole Department of Homeland Security, we can raise up the stature of people who are willing to put their lives on the line; but we can also point to all those clerks and managers and accountants and all the people who make the government run. It is so easy to take it for granted because we have always had the most professional civil service with the highest integrity of any civil service in the world, and we take it for granted.”