Van Hollen Speaks on the House Floor in Support of Federal Employees

Statement

Today Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee, spoke on the House floor in support of the "Federal Employee Retroactive Pay Fairness Act" which would ensure that all federal employees who have been furloughed due to the ongoing government shutdown receive retroactive pay once appropriations funding is restored. Congressman Van Hollen also repeated his call to Speaker Boehner to allow a vote on a "clean" Continuing Resolution which, if passed, would re-open the entire federal government. Below is a transcript of his remarks, and the video is available here.

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank my friend from Maryland.

"No one should be made to suffer for actions that are no fault of their own. So I'm pleased that we're taking up this measure to ensure that dedicated federal workers, who are among the many innocent victims of this government shutdown, will be held harmless in the long run. But this important measure simply highlights the sheer folly of keeping the federal government shut down for one additional minute. These are public servants who are paid to do what they love to do - to serve the public. So for goodness' sake let them all get back to work for the public now.

"This bill, Mr. Speaker, doesn't say, "Let's just pay the federal employees at FEMA." It doesn't say, "Let's just pay the federal employees at the national parks." It doesn't say, "Let's just pay the federal employees at the piecemeal, cherry-picking agencies that our Republican colleagues have bought to the Floor." It says, "Let's make sure we hold all federal employees whole, absolutely." And let's open the entire federal government and do it now.

"Mr. Speaker, let us have a vote on that very simple proposition."

Source