The Fifth Congressional District is home to thousands of federal employees and retirees, both military and civilian. Congressman Hoyer is proud to represent them and has led the fight on issues important to public servants, including securing fair pay and benefits, with a strong focus on ensuring pay parity between military and civilian personnel.
Congressman Hoyer has consistently opposed efforts to reduce the wages, benefits, and hours of federal employees in a misguided attempt by some to bring down our nation’s deficit on the backs of middle-class families. Federal employees have already contributed more than $182 billion toward deficit reduction through freezes to cost-of-living-adjustments and changes to retirement benefits.
Throughout his career, Congressman Hoyer has also advocated for quality health care coverage, a solid retirement system, and fair working conditions for federal employees in Maryland and throughout the country.
The issue is not giving up salary. The issue is giving up positions that are strongly held and agreeing to compromise on a solution.
Today, the GSA issued a Request for Interest for the new location of the FBI headquarters, which lays out certain requirements for the project and will help identify sites available in our region. With a significant portion of the federal workforce living in Maryland and ample land available near Metro stations, its clear Prince Georges County is the right choice for the new headquarters.
Federal and postal employees and their families share our commitment to serving the American people in the most efficient, cost-effective manner, and, just like other taxpayers, they too are struggling during these tough times. Many face an uncertain employment future under almost any deficit reduction scenario. And to date, no other group has been asked to financially contribute the way they have. Our dedicated civil servants understand the principle of shared sacrifice and justifiably expect others will actually share in it.
When it comes to cutting-edge research, much of the attention these days has focused on the information revolution. However, we forget that we are still far more dependent for survival on the technologies first developed during theagricultural revolution.
Already federal employees have agreed to pay freezes and pension changes that have brought $75 billion in deficit savings, and House Republicans have insisted on additional contributions from federal employees but refuse to ask the wealthiest in this country to contribute as well. It is simply unfair to continue singling out these middle-class workers at a time when they have been working harder than ever.
am extremely disappointed that Republicans are asking federal employees to take a freeze in pay for a third year in a row. Federal employees have already accepted two consecutive pay freezes with the knowledge that the savings would be applied toward meeting our nations fiscal challenges. At the same time Republicans were asking federal employees to contribute, they refused to ask the same of millionaires and billionaires.
I want to thank my friend, Mr. Van Hollen, for the work he's done. I want to rise in opposition to this focus on federal employees.