James Moran: “I wanted to refer to three of them in particular: the effect on the Federal workforce; gender parity in terms of health…”

“I wanted to refer to three of them in particular: the effect on the Federal workforce; gender parity in terms of health insurance; and the money for the Customs modernization that is in this bill. In terms of the Federal workforce, this includes an amendment that the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf), and I put in the full committee markup. It also reflects an amendment that I had added to this year's budget resolution that we should be providing the same pay raises for Federal civilian employees as we do for military employees. President Bush's budget includes a 4.6 to 5 percent increase for military employees and, in some cases, up to 10 percent. We think that civilian employees who work side-by-side with military personnel should get the same pay raise. We have a crisis developing in the Federal workforce. Over the next 5 years, up to half of our Federal workforce will retire or at least be eligible for retirement. There are a number of things we can do to address this crisis.”