[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 34 (Wednesday, March 10, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H1226-H1228]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   AUTHORIZING COMPENSATION FOR FURLOUGHED TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT 
                               EMPLOYEES

  Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 4786) to provide authority to compensate Federal employees 
for the 2-day period in which authority to make expenditures from the 
Highway Trust Fund lapsed, and for other purposes.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 4786

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. COMPENSATION AND RATIFICATION OF AUTHORITY.

       (a) Compensation for Federal Employees.--Any Federal 
     employees furloughed as a result of the lapse in expenditure 
     authority from the Highway Trust Fund after 11:59 p.m. on 
     February 28, 2010, through March 2, 2010, shall be 
     compensated for the period of that lapse at their standard 
     rates of compensation, as determined under policies 
     established by the Secretary of Transportation.
       (b) Ratification of Essential Actions.--All actions taken 
     by Federal employees, contractors, and grantees for the 
     purposes of maintaining the essential level of Government 
     operations, services, and activities to protect life and 
     property and to bring about orderly termination of Government 
     functions during the lapse in expenditure authority from the 
     Highway Trust Fund after 11:59 p.m. on February 28, 2010, 
     through March 2, 2010, are hereby ratified and approved if 
     otherwise in accord with the provisions of the Continuing 
     Appropriations Resolution, 2010 (division B of Public Law 
     111-68).
       (c) Funding.--Funds used by the Secretary to compensate 
     employees described in subsection (a) shall be derived from 
     funds previously authorized out of the Highway Trust Fund and 
     made available or limited to the

[[Page H1227]]

     Department of Transportation by the Consolidated 
     Appropriations Act, 2010 (Public Law 111-117) and shall be 
     subject to the obligation limitations established in such 
     Act.
       (d) Expenditures From Highway Trust Fund.--To permit 
     expenditures from the Highway Trust Fund to effectuate the 
     purposes of this section, this section shall be deemed to be 
     a section of the Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2010 
     (division B of Public Law 111-68), as in effect on the date 
     of the enactment of the last amendment to such Resolution.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) and the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. 
Coble) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Minnesota.


                             General Leave

  Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks 
on the bill, H.R. 4786, and to include extraneous material.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Minnesota?
  There was no objection.

                              {time}  1030

  Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, we are here on both sides of the aisle 
this morning on a mission of equity, fairness, even mercy, on behalf of 
1,922 career Federal employees of the U.S. Department of 
Transportation. They were unintended victims of a standoff in the other 
body, which resulted in a 2-day lapse in the authorization of funding 
for Federal highway, highway and motor carrier safety, and public 
transit programs.
  On February 25, the House passed by voice vote H.R. 4691, the 
Temporary Extension Act of 2010. The bill extended the authorization 
for Federal surface transportation programs which otherwise were 
scheduled to expire on February 28.
  The Senate's efforts to pass the bill and to clear it for signature 
by the President were stalled by the actions of one Senator from the 
other party. His repeated objections held up consideration past the 
February 28 deadline.
  As a result of those objections, the authority to reimburse States, 
metropolitan regions, and public transit agencies for federally 
approved Highway Trust Fund expenditures lapsed. Several States, like 
Missouri, immediately cancelled bid openings. DOT's authority to pay 
administrative expenses for Federal employees from the Highway Trust 
Fund also lapsed.
  These authorities were restored only when the Senator relented on the 
evening of March 2, allowing the Senate to consider the bill. The 
Senate passed it, and the President signed it that evening, but these 
1,922 employees were collateral damage. They were doing their jobs, 
career professionals, and they just happened to be hit by this roadside 
bomb. It affected them in a very specific way. Let me toll the numbers:
  1,307 employees of the Federal Highway Administration, 434 employees 
of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, 143 employees of 
the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and 38 employees of 
the Research and Innovative Technology Administration.
  Well, in a few days, on March 16 to be exact, the DOT will process 
its payroll for the current March pay period. If Congress does not act 
to reinstate those career employees, those 1,922 public servants, 
through no fault of their own and having simply been doing their jobs 
as they have done for decades in many cases, will suffer a 20 percent 
pay cut in their biweekly paychecks. Now, this is not an abstraction. 
This is not a debating point. This is not something that, oh, we'll put 
this off, and we'll think about it later.
  At the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a long-term 
career secretary of NHTSA in Seattle, Washington normally would net 
$1,540 per paycheck, but because of the furlough, would be paid $1,150, 
a $390 cut. A $390 cut could affect your paying your mortgage, buying 
your weekly groceries, buying fuel for your car. Maybe it could even 
affect your sending a birthday card to a child or to a grandchild. It 
has a real effect, and I think the Senator on the other side just had 
no idea, no interest, and no care about what the effects would be of 
his actions.
  An entry-level program analyst, a GS-7 in Chicago, Illinois at NHTSA, 
normally would net $1,200 per paycheck in 2 weeks. Because of the 
furlough, he would be paid only $900. That's a $300 cut. If you're 
taking $900 home over 2 weeks, $300 out of that paycheck is serious 
money, a serious effect on your life, and it's a serious devaluation of 
appreciation for your service to the public.
  These are career personnel. At any time, that's painful, but at this 
time, with this severe meltdown, economic recession, it's devastating. 
Miss a car payment; miss a tuition payment; miss part of your mortgage 
payment; miss your fuel bill; miss your electric bill. All of these 
things are the real-world consequences of one person's peak over some 
piece of this bill that had nothing to do with these personnel, with 
these careerists.
  To the great credit of Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, a 
former colleague of ours in this body, he called and said, I am really 
concerned about these career personnel. We have to make them whole. 
They didn't do anything wrong. The department didn't do anything wrong. 
They were just standby victims of this action, and we will be able to 
restore their pay without any increase in budget. We will just shift 
dollars from one account to another.
  The bill that we bring before you today does not require any new 
Federal funding. The Secretary, as I just described, will draw on 
administrative funding previously authorized and appropriated to 
finance the lost compensation for those personnel. It is the right 
thing to do. We need to do this. We have got to pass it by a unanimous 
voice vote.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. COBLE. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to voice my strong support for H.R. 4786. 
The distinguished gentleman from Minnesota has pretty well covered this 
bill in detail. I will speak briefly to it.
  Beginning at midnight on February 28 through March 2, all of the 
programs and the operations of the agencies funded under the Highway 
Trust Fund came to a halt because the extension of these programs was 
not passed by Congress, as the chairman has already pointed out. As a 
result, nearly 2,000 Department of Transportation employees were 
furloughed. This bill will ensure that those employees furloughed, at 
no fault of their own, will receive their normal compensation for that 
period of time.
  Between February 28 and March 2, certain surface transportation 
activities were classified as ``essential,'' such as the Federal safety 
inspection of trucks and buses. This bill approves these activities as 
essential actions taken to save lives and to protect property, allowing 
the DOT employees who worked on those activities during the furlough to 
be paid.
  I urge my colleagues to support the passage of H.R. 4786. I support 
the bill.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
gentleman from Northern Virginia (Mr. Connolly). I wish to express my 
great appreciation and admiration of his concern for these Federal 
employees. Many Federal employees reside in his district. Even some of 
these 1,900 likely reside in the gentleman's district. I appreciate his 
coming forward to champion this bill.
  Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of 
this bipartisan legislation, compensating those Federal transportation 
employees who were unfairly furloughed on March 1 and 2 because of a 
lapse in the Highway Trust Fund.
  I also want to thank my good friend, the chairman of the 
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Mr. Oberstar, and the 
ranking member, Mr. Mica from Florida, for their great leadership and 
for their sensitivity. I want to thank Mr. Coble from North Carolina 
for his support on this on a bipartisan basis. Their leadership is 
critical to resolving this problem.
  As the chairman has indicated, H.R. 4786 is a simple, commonsense 
bill. It would compensate the 1,922 Department of Transportation 
employees who were forced out of their jobs for 2 days because of 
political gamesmanship on the other side of the Capitol. These 
employees were spread across four agencies at the DOT: the Federal 
Highway

[[Page H1228]]

Administration, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the 
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the Research and 
Innovative Technology Administration. These employees were furloughed 
through no fault of their own. They became unwitting victims of an 
arcane practice in the upper Chamber that allows one Member's 
objection, irrespective of merit, to grind to a halt the work of the 
American people.
  As my colleagues will recall, an objection by one Senator from 
Kentucky led to the lapse of authorization for the Highway Trust Fund 
despite the objections of 21 of his Republican colleagues, a majority 
of the Republican caucus, who supported the ultimate extension on a 78-
19 vote.
  This bill does two simple things: It authorizes those workers who 
were furloughed to be compensated at their normal rate of pay for the 2 
days in which they were laid off, and it ratifies actions taken by DOT 
during those 2 days to maintain minimum essential services. The 
Congressional Budget Office says this legislation has no new costs 
associated with it, as the chairman indicated, as the funding will come 
from existing expenses. By taking action now, this Congress will 
prevent a 20 percent cut in the next biweekly paycheck for these 
dedicated public servants.
  There is a clear precedent for this type of restorative action dating 
back to the much longer government shutdown in the late 1995-early 1996 
period during the Clinton administration. During that period, there 
were two funding gaps totaling 26 days which affected more than 800,000 
Federal workers. As part of the final appropriations bill for FY 1996, 
the Republican-controlled Congress restored compensation for those 
employees. It was the right thing to do then, and it is the right thing 
to do now.
  I thank Chairman Oberstar for his leadership and for his 
collaboration and generosity on this important legislation. I urge my 
colleagues to vote ``yes.''
  Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, in closing, I wish to express my great 
appreciation to Mr. Mica, the senior Republican on our committee and my 
partner and good friend and co-participant, in all of the works of our 
committee.
  I share with him this tragic fact of the loss of pay for these 1,922 
employees. He immediately said, We have to fix that. We have got to 
make it right by them, and he volunteered to cosponsor the legislation, 
which he has done.
  I am delighted he designated the gentleman from North Carolina, Mr. 
Speaker, who a great advocate for our committee, a great participant in 
all of our work and who is also a very good, fair and decent-minded 
Member.
  Today, we will do something really good and decent. We can all go 
home and feel we have accomplished something useful in a very specific 
and direct fashion for 1,922 career professionals in transportation of 
the U.S. Department of Transportation.
  Again, I express admiration for Secretary LaHood for taking the 
initiative to bring this issue forward and to find a funding solution 
for it as well.
  We have got to be able to pass this on a voice vote and to do good by 
these 1,922, and we need to set a good example for the other body as 
well.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 4786.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________