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| Restoring Dignity to Public Service
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Dear Neighbor,
The recent government shutdown has affected everyone in Northern Virginia in some manner. The shutdown was reckless and it is unconscionable that the President held federal employees and contractors hostage for 35 days over a broken campaign promise to build a wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for. As Congress works to prevent another shutdown in the coming weeks, I am focused on making my constituents whole again, and putting an end to this type of impetuous and careless governance.
First and foremost, I oppose government shutdowns. I do not believe, as the President does, that there is such thing as a “good government shutdown.” Government shutdowns are irresponsible and a complete abrogation of the constitutional duty to provide a functioning government. I have voted repeatedly to reopen the government. During the shutdown, House Democrats passed appropriations bills to fund every single department shuttered by a lapse in appropriations. These funding bills would have provided a 1.9 percent pay increase for federal employees, fulfilled the federal commitment to Metro, and rejected Trump’s unilateral retreat from global leadership.
House Democrats are committed to governing and will work to keep the federal government open and mitigate the harm inflicted by the most recent shutdown. I helped lead the fight to enact guaranteed back pay for federal employees furloughed during any lapse in appropriations, including the more than 400,000 federal employees who went without a paycheck during this shutdown. I have also cosponsored similar legislation for federal contractors (H.R. 339, H.R. 678, H.R. 824), and I am a cosponsor of legislation to ensure that members of the Coast Guard and its civilian employees and contractors never miss a paycheck during a shutdown (H.R. 367, Pay Our Coast Guard Parity Act). Additionally, I helped introduce legislation to protect federal employees from foreclosure, evictions, loan defaults, and adverse credit actions during a government shutdown.
This week, the House of Representatives passed the Federal Civilian Workforce Pay Raise Fairness Act of 2019 (H.R. 790), which I introduced to give federal civilian employees a 2.6% pay raise, equal to the pay increase provided to members of the military for calendar year 2019.
Under current law, federal civilian employees should have received a 2.1 percent pay increase for 2019. Instead, the Administration issued a pay freeze halting not only the pay raise federal employees were expecting, but also any adjustments to locality pay for employees working in higher cost regions of the country like ours. The pay increase provided under my bill would help federal employees offset the cost of inflation and make up for years of pay freezes.
My bill is a first step towards restoring the dignity of public service. As Chairman of the Government Operations Subcommittee with jurisdiction over federal employee issues, I will continue to advance legislation championing federal employees and push back on this Administration’s attacks on the federal workforce. Public service should be honored.
Please know I will continue to fight attacks on our federal workforce and their contractor partners.
Sincerely,
Member of Congress |
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