Equality

Congressman Gerry Connolly, Chairman of the Government Operations subcommittee, released the following statement in advance of today’s House Oversight hearing on “H.R. 51: Making D.C. the 51st State.” Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding today’s hearing on H.R. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act. As a longtime supporter of D.C. statehood, I commend Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton for introducing this bill and for her tireless efforts to fight for the rights of District residents. Today’s ... Read more

Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Chairman of the House Government Operations subcommittee, released the following statement on today’s Supreme Court census decision: “Shortly before the Administration announced its plan to add a citizenship question to the decennial census, I spoke personally with Secretary Wilbur Ross to share my deep concerns about the harm such a question would do to the integrity and accuracy of the Census. What was clear at the time of the phone call, and has now been con... Read more

Adam Mazmanian The White House has threatened to start the ball rolling on layoffs at the Office of Personnel Management if a proposed merger to fold most of OPM into the General Services Administration isn't advanced with legislation. The Trump administration claims that a $70 million shortfall will result from the transfer of the National Background Investigation Bureau (NBIB) from OPM to the Department of Defense slated for the start of fiscal year 2020. The DOD was the biggest customer of t... Read more

Today, Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA) released the following statement after the House unanimously agreed to include in H.R. 3351 his amendment prohibiting President Trump from carrying out his threat to lay off hundreds of Office of Personnel Management (OPM) employees if Congress does not acquiesce to the Administration’s plan to abolish OPM altogether. “The federal government’s most essential resource is it’s 2.6 million employees, who make up the most professional, non-partisan civil serv... Read more

Mike Lillis House Democrats on Thursday introduced legislation to increase the number of refugees allowed into the United States, taking a direct shot at the Trump administration's move to cut the figure drastically. The legislation has little chance of passing through the Republican-controlled Senate, where GOP leaders have consistently backed President Trump's hardline positions on immigration, the central issue of his 2016 campaign and a major plank of his presidency. But it signals that Dem... Read more

Joe Davidson Key members of Congress want the Trump administration to address charges of a “secret” Veterans Affairs wait list that has a higher number of patients seeking medical care than information publicly available. Allegations about significantly different data regarding veterans awaiting treatment on internal and public records were made by Jereme P. Whiteman, VA’s national director of clinic practice management, in a Washington Post Federal Insider column published online Monday . The ... Read more

Today, Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) sent a bipartisan, bicameral letter to House and Senate Appropriators urging them to protect Coast Guard death gratuities in the event of another government shutdown. “The longstanding purpose of the death gratuity payment is to assist families of deceased servicemembers in meeting their financial needs during the period immediately following a loved one’s dea... Read more

Today, Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, reintroduced the National Security Diversity and Workforce Inclusion Act, legislation that would promote diversity in federal national security offices. Companion legislation has been introduced in the Senate by Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD). Connolly was joined by Representatives Meeks (D-NY), Hastings (D-FL) and Bass (D-CA). “Diversity is a unique source of strength for American society, our economy, ... Read more

Earlier this week, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Congressman Paul Mitchell (R-MI), Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) introduced H.R. 2847, the No Passport Fees for Heroes’ Families Act, which waives passport fees for family members obtaining a passport to visit an injured servicemember overseas. It mirrors a provision in existing law that waives passport fees for family members attending an overseas funeral or memorial service for a fallen servicemember. “No family should have... Read more

Andrea Worker Thousands of furloughed government employees suffered during the shutdown. Many were forced to seek public and and/or private assistance to meet basic needs and financial obligations. But during their ordeals, those government employees knew that when they returned to work they would eventually receive back pay. The same is not true for the businesses and employees who contract their services to the federal government. There is no provision for lost personal compensation or compan... Read more