Stop Government Abuse Act

Floor Speech

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, here we go again. It's become a ritual with the House Republican Leadership to devote the dying hours of the legislative calendar to the task of beating up on federal employees.

You'll remember that the last time we found ourselves in this position was on January 1, 2013. As the clock ticked down the minutes closing the 112th Congress, instead of addressing the host of pressing financial matters that threatened the fiscal health of this nation, my Republican colleagues chose to focus those precious minutes on legislation to claw-back the meager .5% COLA promised to federal employees when the Continuing Resolution expired in March of that year.

As this country faced a wave of serious economic difficulties, instead of spending the time focusing on legislation to address these challenges, Republicans in Congress turned their attention to squeezing even more out of the hard working federal employees who had already contributed $60 billion of their pay as part of a two-year pay freeze. By no fault of their own, our dedicated federal workers have become pawns in a ritualistic game fashioned to distract the American public from the real challenges confronting our country.

This week, this body considers a number of bills that again scapegoat federal employees. I rise today to ask my colleagues not to fall for this game again and to reject this gratuitous and disrespectful attack on our federal workers.

I ask my colleagues to join me in opposing H.R. 2879, the Stop Government Abuse Act because the bill eliminates due process protections for members of the Senior Executive Service (SES) by allowing agency heads to fire SES employees without giving them advance notice or an opportunity to address the allegations against them. The bill would place the burden of proof on SES employees by requiring them to prove their innocence when seeking reinstatement. Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight tried to amend the bill to preserve existing due process protections for these employees, but their efforts were rejected.

Further, the bill would limit bonuses federal workers may receive to 5% of basic pay during sequestration and limit the number of Senior Executives who may receive performance awards to 33% of those eligible in each agency. If passed, this bill could further harm our government's ability to attract the best and the brightest managers, make it more difficult to retain current employees and exacerbate personnel shortages in nursing, information technology, cybersecurity, and acquisition where shortages have been a major concern for some time.

Federal employees dedicate their lives to the service of our nation. They protect our borders, care for our wounded service members and work to discover treatments and cures for diseases that touch virtually every American family. With their diligence and unwavering devotion, they have earned the right to be treated with respect and they do not deserve to be the target of arbitrary attacks seemingly just to fill space on the legislative calendar.

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