Political Quotes

“Tonight, Mr. Speaker, I am extremely concerned about section 1616 of the conference report. I am putting down my marker now, and the committee's marker, I think. This section would initiate a pilot program at unspecified DOD facilities, privatized-in-place by BRAC 1995. It places no limit on how many pilot programs there will be. It allows Federal employees who work for the contractor to continue to accrue credit for years of Federal service in order to determine civil service retirement eligibility. I repeat again, working for the private contractor this would happen. Although the conference report specifies that these calculations will not be used to determine the amount of their retirement, I worry about what this may cost in the years to come. I know why this happened. It was not because of the House, the representatives. It was not our bill, and to a degree we were almost forced to accept this provision. Although everyone assumes it applies to Louisville, which was the Naval Surface Warfare Center, my concern is that it will be a very costly provision that will not stop with Louisville or Indianapolis.”