[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 204 (Tuesday, December 19, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H15099]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       LET FEDERAL EMPLOYEES WORK

  (Mr. MORAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, yesterday at a press conference Speaker 
Gingrich indicated that there were a great many House Republicans who 
objected to paying Federal employees for not working. Fair enough. 
Federal employees do not want to get paid for not working. They want to 
work. We ought not repeat a situation where we paid out $750 million to 
Federal employees for not working. They should have been at work then, 
and they certainly should be at work now.
  There are two things the Speaker could do to rectify the situation. 
One, we have legislation we are trying to get to the floor that would 
keep Federal employees on the job and reimburse them subsequently when 
appropriation became available.
  The second thing to do is just what we did during the Reagan 
administration, the Bush administration, the Nixon administration and 
every administration prior. When we had a conflict between the 
executive and the legislative branches, you pass a clean continuing 
resolution at the lower of the House or Senate level. You keep the 
Government functioning. You do not hold Federal employees hostage. And 
that is what we are doing, and to do it at Christmastime is wrong. It 
is mean-spirited.
  I was in a school yesterday and the principal and teachers came up 
and said, ``You know, these children are not happy like they should be 
at Christmas time. Their parents are fighting, their parents do not 
know what the future holds, they are not buying Christmas presents.'' 
We have ruined their Christmas, and it is wrong.

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