Cautioning Federal Workers Against Taking Buyouts

Floor Speech

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Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning to urge Federal workers in Pennsylvania and across the Nation to exercise extreme caution as they consider the bogus buyout plan that the White House is pressuring them to accept.

In a memo to Federal workers last week, Trump's Office of Personnel Management notified Federal workers across the country that they had just over a week, until tomorrow, February 6, to voluntarily quit their jobs in exchange for keeping pay and benefits for 8 months. The memo threatened that if they refused the offer, their jobs might no longer exist.

Tens of thousands of Federal workers in the Philadelphia region received that email and were rightly concerned. The workers impacted by the memo include those who care for our veterans, protect our ports and airports, fight corruption and drug traffickers, and make sure that our food is safe to eat, that our air is clean, and that our water is safe to drink.

The OPM memo is one in a series of directives by the Trump White House aimed at gutting the Federal Government and the critical services it provides to Americans in order to justify massive tax cuts for billionaires and wealthy corporations. We have already seen illegal firings of hundreds of career civil servants and unconstitutional attempts to shutter entire agencies.

Union leaders immediately began raising the alarm that the buyout offer could be a scam. Congress has not authorized or funded these radical cuts to the government workforce and services, and employees could be left without the pay, benefits, and protections to which they are entitled by law.

The proposed workforce reductions would make it impossible for the Federal Government to deliver the services that Congress has authorized and Americans deserve. They would, however, make it easier for large corporations to take advantage of consumers and employees and to pollute the environment.

The unions have filed suit to protect their employees, and yesterday, 12 State attorneys general, including those in New Jersey and Delaware, issued a warning to Federal employees across the country that the buyout offer was misleading and should be viewed with caution.

Amidst the concern about the legality and impact of this unauthorized buyout, our colleagues from across the aisle, at both the State and Federal levels, have gone missing in action. Republicans control both the House and Senate in Washington, and we would welcome their help to stand up for the Constitution, for our constituents, and for Federal workers.

We will continue to raise the alarm and do everything possible to protect Americans and our Constitution from the worst abuses of this administration and its billionaire buddies because construction workers and contractors in our area know that the Trump corporation never kept its promises with respect to pay and meeting its obligations.

Mr. Speaker, the whole world knows that Twitter became a dumpster fire after Elon Musk tried to impact the exact types of reductions that we are seeing here, so I am issuing this warning to our constituents across the Delaware Valley.

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