[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 147 (Tuesday, November 29, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: November 29, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
         TREATMENT OF PROFESSIONAL STAFF DURING THE TRANSITION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Cardin] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. Speaker, I take this time as chairman of the 
Democratic transition team to talk about the policy concerning the 
termination of our committee staff people and their severance pay. I 
should point out to the Members that under the agreed-to procedure, a 
resolution could only be brought up today if it has cleared unanimous 
consent by both the Democrats and Republicans. We would hope that we 
would be able to present to the House a policy concerning severance pay 
and a termination policy for our committee staff, but we were unable to 
get the clearance from the Republicans.
  Therefore, we will not be able to bring up in this session a 
resolution concerning severance pay.
  I regret that because of the loyalty and dedication of our 
professional committee staff. As a result of the change in party 
control, we are going to find a dramatic change in the employment of 
our professional staff in our committees. It think there is widespread 
support in this House about applying the same type of practices to 
Congress as would be applied in the private marketplace. The common 
practice in the marketplace is that when you terminate employees, you 
provide some degree of severance pay or deal with their uncompensated 
leave. We have not resolved that here.
  The other body, the Senate, has resolved that issue. They do have a 
policy in regard to severance pay. It has worked with both Democrats 
and Republicans because they have had a change in party control twice 
in the last 15 years.
  The House has no such policy.
  Tonight we cannot bring up that resolution because we cannot obtain 
unanimous consent. We had intended to bring up a resolution that would 
deal with it, that would be offsetted by reprogramming funds within the 
legislative branch appropriation so that it would not add additional 
cost to the deficit or to the Government.
  This is not end of the issue. I have talked about it with the Chair 
of the Republican transition team, Mr. Nussle. We are going to be 
working together to come up with a policy that relates to people who 
will be terminated as a result of the party change of leadership in the 
Congress.
  We need to deal not only with severance pay but also with 
compensation for uncompensated leave time that employees still have. We 
also need to deal with the policy of retaining certain of our 
employees, professional people, to train their successors. All of these 
issues need to be addressed.
  I hope we will be able to do that, Democrats and Republicans working 
together, in order to be fair to our employees.
  We need to do that as soon as possible. People need to make plans. I 
am hopeful that we will be able to address this issue in a bipartisan 
spirit within the next few days or weeks. I want to thank my colleague, 
the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Hoyer] who raised this issue, and the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Mineta] who is also on the floor and who 
raised the issue, both of whom have been working very hard to make sure 
our dedicated, loyal employees are fairly treated as they would be if 
they were in the private sector.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Hoyer],

                              {time}  1950

  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. 
Cardin] for yielding. I want to also congratulate him for his 
leadership on the Democrat Transition Team in trying to make the 
transition from leadership of this House by the Democrat Party to the 
leadership by the Republican Party as smooth, and effective, and 
efficient as it can possibly be. It is in the interest of all of our 
constituents that the transferring of the leadership responsibilities 
and the changing of roles be done as effectively as possible so we can 
serve the interests of our constituents as well as possible.
  In that process, Mr. Speaker, I regret that we have not been able to 
at this time resolve the issue of those committee employees who will 
be, through no fault of their own, terminated in their employment as a 
result of the change in leadership. I am very hopeful that we can do 
this in a bipartisan way, as was done in the United States Senate. 
Democrats, currently in control of the 103rd, and Republicans, who will 
be in control in the 104th, worked together to provide consideration 
for employees who were being terminated, again through no fault of 
their own. I am very hopeful that we can effect a similar resolution on 
this side of the Capitol. It is fair to our employees, and it is what 
the private sector normally does, if they can do it. We can do it 
without adverse budgetary ramifications, and we ought to do it.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Cardin] for his 
leadership and role in trying to effect this end.
  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. 
Hoyer] for his comments.
  Mr. Speaker, a smooth transition is in the interests of both the 
Democrats and Republicans. We have employees here who are going to be 
very valuable to the incoming leadership, and we need to make 
arrangements so that they are treated fairly and so their talents can 
be utilized, particularly in training, and without having a severance 
policy, Mr. Speaker, it is very difficult to have that type of smooth 
transition.
  I am glad to yield to the gentleman from California [Mr. Mineta] who 
has been in the forefront of raising the issue about the fairness to 
our employees.
  Mr. MINETA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. 
Cardin] for yielding this time to me.
  Mr. Speaker, I did introduce House Resolution 586 in order to try to 
attempt to correct this problem. The Senate Republicans and Democrats, 
in a bipartisan manner, as has already been pointed out by our 
colleague, the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Hoyer], corrected this 
problem in the Senate, and it is simply a matter of trying to make sure 
that we give reasonable notice to our employees when we have to remove 
these employees from their jobs. Many employees around here have had 
notice since November 9 that they would not have jobs beginning the 
early part in January, but we also have hundreds of employees on the 
staffs of our committees, many of whom do not know yet today whether 
they will have jobs in January, and in fact they may not know for 
several weeks whether they will have jobs in January. These are people 
who work for us, who have served us and the American people well, and 
who will be thrown out of work with 2 or 3 weeks' notice.
  Now, as chairman of the Committee on Public Works and Transportation 
trying to downsize our committee to some number, and we are not even 
sure what that number will be, I just do not believe that the procedure 
that we are subjecting our committee staffs to is correct. So, the 
resolution that I had introduced today, which we tried to get some 
bipartisan support for as was done in the Senate, would simply have 
provided a more reasonable amount of notice to our staff. But 
unfortunately the leadership on the other side of the aisle told us 
that they would object to any unanimous consideration of this 
resolution and, therefore, it would not pass. Frankly I regret this 
outcome, but I will be, I am hopeful that our fine colleague, the 
gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Cardin], and his transition task force 
will be able to work out some amicable arrangement with the other side 
of the aisle in order to bring some fairness, decency and equity in 
terms of true family values to our employees so that they are not given 
inadequate notice between now and Christmas, when many will be finding 
out they will not have jobs in January.
  Mr. CARDIN. Again, Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague 
for the work that he has done.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Montgomery). Under a previous order of 
the House, the gentleman from California [Mr. Horn] is recognized for 5 
minutes.

  [Mr. HORN addressed the House. His remarks will appear hereafter in 
the Extensions of Remarks.]

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