Madame Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to an extension of the current pay freeze for federal employees. This legislation is a cynical attempt to tap into misguided resentment fostered by the far right against the federal government and the 2.1 million men and women who serve our nation as civil servants.
Of the 2.1 million, let me point out to my colleagues, nearly two out of three civil servants work for the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Justice.
In other words, two out of three federal employees work in jobs related to our national security, at home and abroad, or caring for our veterans. Every one of those employees seems to be the target of this body's misguided anger. And that is a shame.
Employees of the Joint POW/MIA Accountability Command work to find, return and identify the remains of the more than 83,000 uniformed service members killed or missing in action since World War II. These are federal employees who work every day to return our fallen heroes to their families. And this Congress wants to punish them for their effort.
Employees at the Department of Homeland Security work to ensure nuclear materials are not smuggled into our country by those that wish to do us catastrophic harm. The Federal Bureau of Investigation works to investigate and prosecute cyber criminals that steal billions of dollars of intellectual property from our defense and civilian industrial base every year. This body claims to care about preventing nuclear terrorism and halting cyber crime, yet we intend to punish those that are charged with carrying out that mission.
Finally, last year a constituent of mine was awarded a "Sammie" from the Partnership for Public Service for his work at the VA helping to address veterans struggling with the human toll of warfare. My constituent has devoted his nearly thirty year career building a national network of small, community-based centers where veterans traumatized by combat obtain counseling, job assistance, medical referrals and other services. Whereas the Partnership rewarded him last year, today the House is going to force him to forfeit his pay raise for a third consecutive year.
Proponents of this bill will argue that federal employees are overpaid and underworked. They will cherry-pick data from a recent CBO report, and will rely on dubious analysis informed by right-wing "think tanks."
In reality, this bill is the product of an ideological extreme that was elected by espousing the mantra that our government is broken, and now is intent upon proving it. We ought to be proud of our federal government and oppose this bill.
