-9999

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, I rise to continue the discussion about Russell Vought, the President's nominee to be Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Before I do, I thought I would just share with my colleagues and all who are in the Chamber a vigil that I just attended.

There was a vigil at a riverfront park in Alexandria near the site where the flight went down a week ago, killing 67 people on the American Airlines flight and the Army helicopter that had deployed out of Fort Belvoir.

It was a simple, moving candlelight vigil that was organized by my friend Don Beyer in the House of Representatives. It was attended by a few hundred people, mostly residents of Alexandria and Arlington, nearby communities. There was a heavy representation of law enforcement there because the Alexandria Police and Fire Departments were very integral to the rescue and recovery operations that were ongoing.

It was somber. It was somber. You struggle for words at a time like that. I couldn't think of any of my own that really were that enlightening, so I fell back on Psalm 90:

Teach us how short our lives are, so that we may become wise.

Thinking about the children, the ice skaters and their friends and families who were killed, but, frankly, all of us have short lives, even the oldest of those who died that day. The mother who was celebrating her birthday, a wife who was on her way home whose husband was waiting for her in the airport, these coaches, folks who were in Wichita doing a pipefitter training program, and, frankly, all of the attendees--our lives are all short.

So what is the wisdom if you follow the logic in Psalm 90, ``Teach us how short our lives are, so that we may become wise''? What is the wisdom we are to gain if we understand our lives are short?

Well, the Psalm doesn't really say. The Psalm kind of leads us to conclude for ourselves what is the wisdom we are to gain out of such situations and out of the realization of the temporal nature of human life.

But what I said to people there is, if there is one bit of wisdom you should gain when you realize how mortal we all are, it is probably wisdom about the value of community, that we link arms and we support each other. Certainly, if we are celebrating positives, we ought to do that, but particularly when we are mourning and we are thinking about lives lost and lives and futures cut short, our wisdom should compel us to find solace and comfort in each other's company.

This vigil lasted about half an hour. We had candles. After Representative Beyer spoke and I spoke and the mayor of Alexandria, Alyia Gaskins, spoke, the chaplain of the Alexander Police Department gave a prayer, and the vigil was over. But we stayed. We stayed to visit each other and comfort one another.

I was struck because I was coming here to speak tonight. I met a guy from DHS who was involved in the recovery effort in frigid waters out on the Potomac. I met a key official from Fort Belvoir, where the three soldiers had deployed from in the training flight who were killed that night. I met other people who are part of the Federal family, you know, who work in air traffic control, who work in the FAA.

Alexandria is pretty close to the Pentagon. I met people who work at the Pentagon or whose family members do. I met some folks who weren't Federal employees, but they talked to me about--one woman talked about her son, who is a Federal employee currently stationed in Tennessee. I took that to mean a member of the armed services.

This was the random community that gathered to commemorate the 67 lost lives and comfort one another.

While we were there to focus on the tragic accident, most wanted to talk to me about their own fears for their careers and for their families and for others who are feeling confused and afraid right now because of actions that are being taken against Federal employees.

That brings me to Russell Vought. My colleagues have spoken on the floor about a particular statement of Mr. Vought's that I examined him about fairly aggressively during the Budget Committee hearing. In the course of a speech, he said: I want Federal employees to be traumatized. I want to put them in trauma. I want them to not want to come to work because they know that they are increasingly viewed as the villain.

Now, who talks like that? I mean, who talks like that? Is there a single manager or leader or organizational chief that we admire who believes that their mission, their happiness, their glee, their purpose is to make their workforce feel traumatized? No. We would never celebrate a leader of that kind. Yet that is precisely what Russell Vought said.

I asked him: Do you really mean that? Do you really want air traffic controllers to come to work traumatized?

Well, no, no, I didn't mean that.

Do you want people who inspect our food to come to work traumatized?

No, I didn't mean that.

Well, how about people at OMB? You ran it before, and you are running it again. A lot of folks might call OMB staffers--do you want them to come in to work traumatized?

No, I don't like that.

But that is what he said.

When he was not in front of the Senate Budget panel and he was speaking candidly--and there is a beautiful Biblical phrase that, I think, is from the Gospel of Luke that says: From the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks.

When he was speaking directly from the heart, what he said is, I want Federal employees to be traumatized.

What I want to do in my time on the floor tonight is talk a little bit about these Federal employees and what having a traumatized workforce means. Then, for a few minutes, I want to focus upon not the Federal workforce but on others who were affected by the Russell Vought strategy on the Federal budget.

This is what I have heard from Virginians just in the week since the funding pause order went into place, which I will agree was something that was masterminded by Russell Vought.

Federal employees: Yesterday, I decided, after hearing stories from Federal employees, to launch on the website a resource where Federal employees could share their stories if they chose to, with anonymity guaranteed, because so many are afraid.

Some will remember that I took to the floor yesterday, and I read an open letter to Federal employees. There are 140,000, give or take, in Virginia. I read an open letter, offering them a bit of a pep talk, encouraging them to keep doing what you are doing--serving your fellow Americans. Just do that. You signed up for the job to do that. Don't pay attention to all of these things and all of this trauma. I know that is such hard advice to give to somebody. Just keep serving your fellow Americans every day, and if you have a problem, call our office, and we will try to be helpful if we can. There is no guarantee that we will be able to avert this, but just do what you have a passion to do, and we will try to help you if we can.

But also, in delivering that letter to Federal employees, we launched a website in my office, and we encouraged people to share their stories. Within 3 hours, we had about 400 stories of Federal employees who had reached out and shared, and those stories keep coming in. Some are asking us to give them a call and probe further details. Some are giving us their names and the Agencies where they work, and some are too afraid to give us those.

What I thought I would do tonight is I would just take 18 of these stories from the Federal employees--that had just come in, in less than 24 hours--of the hundreds that have been submitted, and I just want to read some to you to tell you about who these people are who Mr. Vought believes need to be traumatized, who these people are that Mr. Vought wants to personally make feel as if they are the villains.

The first is a Federal employee who works at USAID:

After two extremely painful miscarriages, I am now 34-weeks pregnant with my first child. Since my husband works as a lawyer for the EPA, what should have been a joyful time in our life now feels like a dystopian hellscape, and we are very afraid for our future and our financial security. We are just hoping to have health insurance at this point for when I give birth, but . . . that feels uncertain. I swore an oath, and [I] believe in the work that USAID does. I believe that it makes America stronger, safer, and more prosperous [just] as Secretary Rubio is calling for, and I will support the Agency until they boot me from the system. God help us all.

She is 34-weeks pregnant after two extremely painful miscarriages and is just hoping that she will not lose her job and her health insurance.

The second story is of a Federal employee working for the National Science Foundation, headquartered in Virginia:

NSF funding supported my undergraduate summer research experiences, my Ph.D. project, and my previous job. The opportunity to give back and support the next generation of U.S.-based scientists was a dream fulfilled, and I am terrified that I will be fired as soon as Friday, with no protections or severance. The fair compensation and flexible schedule let's my spouse work as a teacher, and she is so great at her job. But that will not pay [our] mortgage. We simply never accounted for a scenario like this.

A third story from a Federal employee working at USAID:

I have worked for USAID for 12 years, including in Bosnia, Rwanda, and now Washington . . . Our work is and has always been critical to advancing democracy, American interests, and the prosperity, safety, and strength of Americans. We will continue this work. The attack on USAID lacks intelligence and foresight. China and Russia are filling the vacuum, outspending the U.S. and deepening partnerships with our allies, who feel abandoned. This is creating permanent damage and undoing decades of progress in a few days. This does the opposite of making America stronger, safer, and more prosperous.

These are the direct words of Virginians who have shared their stories with me.

A fourth story is of a Federal employee working at the U.S. Department of Agriculture:

I'm a young person working in the federal government. I graduated from college 4 years ago, and since then, I have committed my time to serving the public and helping the environment. I've served two AmeriCorps terms and worked two seasonal federal jobs before finally landing a permanent federal job last November. These last few weeks have been a hell for us federal workers. I come to work with a pit in my stomach. I am a probationary employee, so will probably be the first to go during a RIF. They have left us in the dark while constantly terrorizing us with threatening, passive- aggressive messages, and half legal deals to resign. I fear for my job, but I fear more for my country.

A Federal employee who works for the Department of Transportation:

I am frightened about my position. I'm a single-income household, and [I] am convinced no one has my back. Congress has been pretty much silent, and the news has gained very little traction nationwide. We need people to tell the story about what government workers do. Thank you for providing the platform to connect. We are [only] in this to serve the American public.

A Federal employee working for the Department of Defense:

It's hard to even know where to start. As soon as this administration took office, it felt like federal workers were under siege. They began with their flurry of executive orders and memos. They put Elon Musk (whom no one elected, who is not a Federal employee but yet has huge contracts for other areas with the government) in charge of ``handling'' the potential mass layoffs of federal workers. His fingerprints were all over these actions, from insecure servers being jammed into OPM to poorly crafted mass emails meant to stir chaos and bypass all chains of command, to then bragging about it on social media and insulting and belittling every one of the millions of federal workers as ``unproductive,'' also laughing at people in his giant social media platform who mock us and call us stupid. No one knows what their job security looks like. No one trusts anything these people are saying to us, especially with these ``deferred resignation'' mass emails. The entirety of OPM, once a solid standard for human resources in the United States, is now a total joke. Agencies are left scrambling because they've been given zero guidance and have no serious leadership coming from the administration. . . . All of this is frightening, anxiety-inducing, depressing, and wrong. It's so difficult to fight the misinformation because, if you ``out'' yourself as a fed, you'll be piled upon. . . . We're middle-class workers with burdens and families and debt just like everyone else. We need our jobs, and we will fight for them. I take my oath to the Constitution seriously. . . . Please, anyone with power, exercise [that power] and serve justice.

A Federal employee at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, headquartered in Alexandria:

I have served the American [public] for the last 10 years at different positions at the USPTO. The USPTO's mission is [actually] outlined in the Constitution: ``to promote the progress of science and the useful arts.'' To that end, the USPTO uses telework to attract and retain highly qualified people. These people work hard [every day in and out] to serve the American people. As a result, the United States has been the beacon of innovation for much of the world. In fact, so many inventors come to the U.S. to secure intellectual property. Let me be clear: The people at the USPTO are incredibly talented, hard-working people. They are not the ``opposing team'' or ``low productivity.'' The constant harassment from the current administration underscores the diligent efforts of over 14,000 people that keep this economy moving forward.

Another story from a Federal employee working for the General Services Administration:

[Thanks] for the opportunity to share my story. The ongoing threats of job losses due to a reduction in force have been deeply demoralizing. As you know, federal employees already earn, on average, 25 percent less than our private sector counterparts . . . The disregard for union contracts is deeply concerning and undermines the commitments made to the workforce.

Many of my talented and hard-working colleagues have been living in fear for weeks, facing uncertainty they [don't] deserve. This unlawful [treatment] not only undermines their dedication but also creates an environment of instability and anxiety that no employee should have to endure.

Here is a story from a Virginia Federal employee working for the Department of Homeland Security, and this is a pretty common one:

My husband and I are both federal employees, and we are both on probation.

Meaning they are relatively new employees.

We also have student loan debts and under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

If we lose our jobs because we are on probation, we will lose the ability to have our payments to Public Service Loan Forgiveness counted. We will not be able to pay for childcare, and we will lose our apartment. Furthermore, the [DC area] will be flooded with [fired] federal workers, and we won't be able to find jobs easily. Our future is [increasingly] bleak. Please [please] stop them.

Another employee working for the Department of Homeland Security:

I have worked for DHS for 15 years . . . I truly believe a strong, healthy workforce of civilian servants is vital for a strong, healthy America. Our government has a duty to protect its citizens. This, to me, includes making sure people's basic needs are met, be it healthcare, food, housing, education. . . . The private sector [isn't] taking on this obligation.

The federal government [isn't] profit-driven, which is partly why our jobs are . . . secure. . . . My worth as an employee is not tied up in how much product I sell. . . . My worth depends on doing my best to improve the lives of the American people.

A Federal employee who didn't feel comfortable even sharing the Agency that he or she works for:

[It is] impossible to get our . . . work done under these conditions. It has been a constant assault on us federal workers, who are all serving our country faithfully and to the best of our abilities. I've served under different administrations--Republican and Democrat--and [have] been proud to do so. As a family, we are canceling our vacations for the year, any unnecessary subscription or expense, and tightening [our] belt because I don't know if I will have a job by the end of the year. While I could be comfortably making double my salary in the private sector, I chose the federal service out of a sense of duty to my country and to use my skills to better the lives of my fellow Americans. Now it feels as if the federal government is not holding [its] end of the bargain. The last 2 weeks have been a nightmare.

A Federal employee who works for the Defense Health Agency:

Senator Kaine, I am a DHA healthcare civilian worker. I worked for 12 years for the Army at Keller Army Community Hospital at the U.S. [Military Academy] in New York, and for the last 4-plus years at the medical clinic on the Dahlgren Base in Virginia--

Which is a little bit east of Fredericksburg.

I am so upset. Our local commander, my supervising commander, and the lieutenant general heading DHA have all emailed us since the famous HR/OPM ``Fork in the Road'' email came out. They all said the same thing. They don't have any information or clarification for us but will reach out to us when they do. I check daily and, to date, no information.

Stop and think about that for a minute. This DHA employee received a ``Fork in the Road'' letter, drafted by Elon Musk. This is somebody who has worked for the DHA for many, many years.

The DHA employee reaches out to their own direct supervisor. ``We don't have any information for you. We can't clarify what this letter means.''

They reach out to the base commander. ``We don't have any information. We can't clarify what the letter means.''

He even reaches out to the very head--the lieutenant general, the head of the Defense Health Agency, asking: What does this mean?

``We don't have any information for you. We can't clarify what this letter means.''

Just imagine that. The entire chain of command in this Agency, responsible for providing healthcare to our troops, is unable to tell the medical professionals who are providing service to our Active-Duty military every day what this ``Fork in the Road'' letter even means. It is shocking.

I check daily and, to date, no information.

Another Federal employee who did not feel comfortable sharing the Agency where he or she works:

Since inauguration, times have been hell for us because every day is loaded with uncertainty regarding the future state of our contract work and our Federal counterparts we work with daily. To this day, every work day is filled with dread and anxiety. Our firm has begun cutting staff already because there is simply no funding. This is also becoming the norm across other areas within our company.

This, clearly, must be from an individual who works with a Federal contractor. I suspect probably with USAID.

It is unfortunate because many are new or young people just trying to earn a living--

And starting off public service careers and now-- Getting stuck dealing with the mess everything is in now.

Here is another letter from a Federal contractor working for USAID:

I work as a USAID contractor. In the past week, I have experienced near everyone in my company getting placed on furlough. Beyond the fact that we are all working to make international development more impactful, and the fact that the US Company we have invested so much time in may never come back from this, we are all without salary and uncertain for the future. We are applying for jobs but acknowledge that with so many also furloughed or terminated, there is extremely [challenging] competition. Do we move away from [our home in] DC? [Do we] leave the industry which we made our careers, [so] that we could see making the world a better place and the US a better place?

Here is a Federal employee working for a small independent Agency. Again, the employee didn't feel comfortable identifying it.

It has always been my dream to be a federal employee. Ever since civics class in grade school, I saw what the government and feds could do for people and realized I wanted to pour my heart and soul into doing just that.

But the wind has been taken out of my sails. I am a probationary employee, meaning my name is on the short list to fire. I was hired under Schedule A--persons with disabilities, so my name is on [that] list [too]. I feel like I am being threatened by the very institutions that were created to safeguard the principles of truth, compassion, and respect . . .

I have lived my life placing others' needs . . . in front of mine. Trying to practice what I preach, but I am being forced to remove protected classes from our website, take down reports on DEIA--

It is interesting. The Trump Executive order tried to kill DEI-- diversity, equity, inclusion--but in many of the documents that are being sent to Agencies, they are adding an ``A'' at the end. I never had seen that before, DEIA. What is the ``A''? ``Accessibility.'' Even though the Executive order signed by the President did not specifically attack accessibility programs for those with disabilities, the implementation documents that are going out from the administration are adding accessibility as a negative that needs to be rooted out of the Federal workplace. Could anybody be crueler than that?

Being forced to take down these reports on things, including accessibility, the writer says:

I feel as though there is blood on my hands [doing this]. It breaks my heart.

Finally, one last story, and then I will say a word about Federal funding to programs around Virginia, moving on from just sharing the stories of Federal employees.

This is another Federal employee who doesn't feel comfortable-- actually, not one less story. I have three more. This is from a Federal employee who doesn't feel comfortable revealing the Agency where he or she works.

Today, I woke up to an email saying we had a restraining order, tied to Trump's [Executive orders], that would limit how we'd disperse our grants. Since the EOs were [so] vaguely defined to begin with, this could be a witch hunt for all kinds of programs and grants we give out.

A Federal employee from an Agency:

I'm a senior human resource professional in the Department of the Interior. I'm on daily calls with Departmental HR leaders who receive direction from OPM. Today leadership mentioned that their coordination was with DOGE ``employees'' rather than with actual OPM employees. These DOGE employees have full access to our USA Staffing hiring system, which includes personally identifiable information for ALL applicants--

Not all employees, for all applicants-- To any position in the [Federal Government]. It is unclear what kind of clearance these individuals have, if any, and what authority they even have to access this system.

Finally, we are beginning to work on identifying employees for transfer to Schedule F with short response times of less than 90 days. STOPPING SCHEDULE F MUST BE YOUR TOP PRIORITY.

Finally, the last story I will read before saying a word about Federal funding, this is from a Federal employee who works for HHS, Health and Human Services.

After working first as a contractor, I transitioned to a Competitive Career Permanent Position [that has taken me] years to get to this point. After graduating with my bachelors and masters degree, I faced competition from people returning to work after having been laid off during the recession.

I am married and pregnant. I am the breadwinner. A woman. . . . a homeowner. I pay taxes. I took an oath and I love my job. The daily fear tactics and targeting of federal employees has uprooted my life. I no longer feel safe going on [a] vacation, making . . . big purchases or doing anything because everyday I wonder [if I will] have a job.

What is happening is wrong. I am pregnant with my first child. I didn't do anything wrong. I . . . would have to separate from my husband weekly to keep my job if forced into [a particular location]. I can't make long drives due to sickness . . .

What did I do wrong to deserve this? Working for the federal government is [a] dream. I was sold an American dream! Graduate from high school, go to college, get an advanced degree, get married, buy a home . . . have a baby. All in that order. I did everything I was supposed to do and now myself and over a million other people are caught up in a political firestorm that we didn't ask for.

Tell me, why am I being punished? What did I do wrong? When will they be satisfied? When we kill ourselves from [depression for] not being able to provide for our families? I suffer from anxiety and depression already. I can tell you, this is enough to push a regular person over the edge. What more for someone who battles with their mental health? Why does no one care? Why should what I earned be ripped away from me? Why do millions deserve for our worlds to fall apart? Everyday my mind goes through what is happening and all the consequences that could fall upon me. It's unsafe for my health, my baby's [health] and my family. I ask for compassion and I want people to know that we are hard- workers. We are regular people. We are humans [who are] employed by the Federal Government. Please. Do something!

An intentional strategy of traumatizing Federal workers produces stories just like these, now in the hundreds. And by tomorrow, I will have hundreds more. And that is just one State. That is just Virginia. I know my colleagues are receiving these as well.

I see my colleague Senator Baldwin is here and will take the floor in just a few minutes, but I do want to turn to not just Federal employees but the Federal funding that is coming to Virginia and Virginia organizations. It has been hard to get the sense of this because, of course, the administration didn't share anything with us. They didn't tell us what they were going to do. And my Governor, frankly, hasn't been sharing with us either.

The analogy I have been using is this funding order. When it came out, I feel like a jigsaw puzzle was dumped in front of me on a desk upside down, and all I could see was the cardboard on the back of all the pieces. Nobody gave me the box with the picture on it, so I didn't even know what the jigsaw puzzle was supposed to be.

I am getting no information from the Trump administration. I am getting no information from my Governor about what this plan is, what is going on. But every time somebody shares a story like these and every time someone calls me office and every time a mayor talks to me about an infrastructure project or something, I turn over one of those pieces. I have been turning over pieces for the last 10 days, and the picture is starting to emerge.

Let me tell you what people in Virginia are telling me. I met today with the--``today.'' My days are running together. I met yesterday with the Virginia Association of Community Health Centers.

Mr. President, you know these. Senator Baldwin from Wisconsin has been very active in this space on the HELP Committee. These are the federally qualified health centers, chartered and funded pursuant to congressional appropriations to be the safety net for Americans' primary care.

In Virginia, there are 29 federally qualified health centers that serve hundreds of thousands of individuals. They are talented and focused in their localities and regions. These centers are particularly important in rural America that tends to have a shortage of primary healthcare providers.

On Monday, when I came into the office, I had an outreach from one of our largest FQHCs in the Hampton Roads area, the second largest metro area in Virginia, 1.6 million people.

Here is what they said. They are used to getting a payment for their congressional appropriation at the end of every month. It would have come in on January 29. President Trump's Executive order paused Federal funding that happened a few days before, but that order was enjoined.

The Trump administration was ordered to continue to make payments and not pause Federal payments. But this very large health clinic in Hampton Roads had not received their monthly payment on January 29. And when they called to ask at their Federal contact what about the payment, they weren't given any answer about the January payment or about the February payment or about any payment. They couldn't get an answer.

I had the entire association, coincidentally, in my office yesterday with representatives from virtually all of these, and I asked them what was going on. They said, well, more than half of the FQHCs in Virginia had not received their January payment. They had submitted to receive it under normal course of business at the end of January but hadn't gotten it and couldn't get an answer about when or whether they could get it.

This is frontline healthcare for low-income people. If they are not getting primary healthcare, they are still going to get sick, and then they are going to be in emergency rooms, which is the worst place to get healthcare, creating long lines and congestion that will make it harder for everybody else to get the treatment they need in emergency rooms. It will make people sicker. It will make hospitals more crowded for everybody who needs hospitals.

You know, the thing about it is Russell Vought was not only the architect of the funding freeze, but now he and others are responsible for following the court order, for God's sake. The court order said they had to resume payments.

My FQHCs are not getting paid. They are not getting paid. My Commonwealth attorneys, my prosecutors around Virginia, they all get funding through various programs that come to our State's department of criminal justice services. They use that Federal grant funding to hire victim witness coordinators.

I had the organization of prosecutors from Virginia in my office today. They talked about how they rely on Federal funding to hire victim witness advocates in their offices. That is not funded by the State. It is funded through the Federal grant program. They don't know whether they are going to get the funding for that.

So compounding these concerns from Federal employees, I have Head Start programs, I have healthcare clinics, I have Commonwealth attorneys, I have sheriff's offices who get Federal funding to provide mental health services for people who need mental health services in jails and in the community--they are not sure they are going to get them.

The compounding of confusion and fear is sharp and unnecessary and illegal. These are appropriated funds. I don't need to repeat everything that Senator Whitehouse said. Congress has appropriated these funds. A Democrat and Republican House reached budgets together, signed by the President. The President is under an obligation to implement those funds. There is no legal authority for him to hold them back. Why is he holding them back? What did the patients at the health clinic in Hampton Roads do to get punished?

One of the health clinics is called the Capital Area Health clinic in Richmond. They have six clinics around the Richmond metropolitan area. They have closed three of them. They have closed three of the six. Other of the health clinics around the State are reducing the services, trying to keep the doors open but reducing services.

There is a court order that says they are supposed to be paid, but they are shutting the doors of their clinics, and they are reducing services because the administration won't even follow a court order. It is my hope that they will.

I don't think this is a glitch. I think this is an intentional effort to thwart a court order in order to hurt people who don't deserve to be hurt.

So under these circumstances, there is no way that I or any of my colleagues can stand here and cast a ``yes'' vote for somebody who has declared their intention is to traumatize Federal employees.

I will finish as I started: Who talks like that? Who talks like that? That is the professed goal of this individual who has been nominated for this most important post, and there is no circumstance under which I could cast a ``yes'' vote for someone harboring that kind of resentment.

Finally, I asked Mr. Vought in the confirmation hearing to tell me who his favorite Presidents are. He is a Republican, so I felt like I had a pretty good sense of it. I asked him, Do you admire Abraham Lincoln? He said very much. I said, I do too. I do too.

``With malice toward none, with charity toward all''--that is what Lincoln said to a divided nation during the Civil War. He spoke to the South. He spoke to Confederates. He spoke to those who were waging war to try to destroy the Union.

What he said to them was:

With malice toward none, with charity toward all.

Mr. Vought told me he admires Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln would never have thought to say: I want to traumatize you. I want you to not want to go to work because you are viewed as the villain.

How far this Grand Old Party has come from the lofty and noble sentiments of its founder when it is putting at the head of the Federal workforce somebody whose desire is to traumatize Federal workers.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source