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Providing For A Severance Payment For Employees Of Leadership Offices and Committees Of The House

Date: Dec. 8, 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Employment and Affirmative Action Legislative Branch


PROVIDING FOR A SEVERANCE PAYMENT FOR EMPLOYEES OF LEADERSHIP OFFICES AND COMMITTEES OF THE HOUSE -- (House of Representatives - December 08, 2006)

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Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. And I commend the chairman, Mr. Ehlers, and Ranking Democrat Congresswoman Millender-McDonald for bringing this bill to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is important to note that the money contained in this bill, the severance pay, is 100 percent for the Republican staffers who will be losing their jobs. When the Democrats lost the Congress in 1994, there was so much unrest and uncertainty among those who served on committee staffs. Every one of us who is elected to Congress and our staffs know that we have a 2-year term and the period from the election day and the swearing in of the new Congress is our severance pay. We have a 2-year term; that is it.

But the professional staff of the committees serve from term to term, and in losing the majority, the Republicans have to dismiss many of their professional and other employees. So it is just a sense of fairness, I believe, that we in the soon-to-be-majority, but the minority, recognize the need for these families to have a severance pay. If they get employed between now and before the 2 months expire, they don't get the full amount. But this isn't about leadership and committee. It is about the Republican leadership and the Republican committee staff. And as Democratic leader, I think that the fair thing to do is to treat those families with the respect they deserve for the service that these people have given to our country.

It is hard. People don't know if they are going to make their mortgage payment or if they are going to pay the tuition installment or what, and this at least gives them 2 months of certainty if they do not find employment in the meantime.

So I want the record to be clear. This is about the Republicans. It is the appropriate thing to do for the Republican staff, and I urge our colleagues to support this act of fairness in supporting this legislation.

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