Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2008

Floor Speech

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008 -- (House of Representatives - June 22, 2007)

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam Chairman, I am grateful for the opportunity to add my voice of support to our valued public servants at the Government Accountability Office, GAO. Just as Congress relies on the GAO for the gold standard of fair and even-handed analysis, so too must we ensure that our GAO workforce receives that same standard of fairness and even-handedness when it comes to matters of their own employment.

The issues that gave rise to the language in today's underlying Legislative Branch Appropriations bill are not new to the Government Oversight Committee on which I sit, or to the Federal employee community I am privileged to serve. Like many of my colleagues on the committee, I have received reports expressing concern about the process surrounding the recent Band II Restructuring Project, as well as the methodology used in the 2004 Watson Wyatt Worldwide, WWW, compensation study. In that regard, I am particularly troubled that the WWW study is being cited as the reason over 300 hard-working GAO employees who met or exceeded their performance expectations have been denied annual cost of living adjustments, notwithstanding public commitments to the contrary.

As a majority of GAO analysts have now exercised their employment rights to organize a union, it is critical that the requisite election process go forward expeditiously and without interference. I thank my colleagues for this opportunity to voice my support for the GAO workforce and the rest of our valued Federal employee community.

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