[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 118 (Thursday, August 5, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Page S6900]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. HATCH:
  S. 3747. A bill to provide for a reduction and limitation on the 
total number of Federal employees, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Reduce and 
Cap the Federal Workforce Act. This is a simple straightforward bill 
that would reduce the number of civilian federal employees--excluding 
those serving in the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security--to 
the pre-2009 numbers in each government agency through attrition. Once 
this reduced number is reached, then each agency would cap the number 
of employees at that level. Each hire would then have to be offset by 
another employee leaving that agency.
  It is not hard to locate illustrations where the Federal Government 
is growing at an exceptionally fast pace. Looking at the number of 
Government employees as a percentage of America's population, one 
easily sees how we have increased the size of the government.
  In 1815, the total population in America was 8.3 million people, yet 
there were only 4,837 Federal Government employees. That represents 
nearly \1/20\ of 1 percent of Americans who were Federal employees. 
From 1981 through 2008, the civilian work force remained at about 1.1 
million to 1.2 million.
  The Obama administration says the Government will grow to 2.15 
million employees this year serving roughly 310 million Americans. That 
is nearly 1 percent of the population, or put another way, is 20 times 
the number of government employees than there were in 1815 and almost a 
50 percent increase since 2008. The actual numbers are likely to be 
much higher.
  Some have estimated the newly enacted health care bill could add many 
thousands of Federal employees--as many as 16,000 new Internal Revenue 
Service employees alone. It has been reported that the recently enacted 
financial regulatory bill will result in the hiring of at least one 
thousand new federal government employees. It has been reported the SEC 
will need to hire an additional 800 employees alone.
  I am introducing this legislation in order to ensure that the size of 
our federal government is reduced to the pre-2009 size and does not 
expand thereafter. This legislation is supported by Americans for Tax 
Reform, the American Conservative Union, and Americans for Limited 
Government.
  I believe we need a limited federal government and this legislation 
is one way we can limit the size of the Government while decreasing 
Government spending. Our Nation, children, and grandchildren cannot be 
buried in debt created by an agenda to exponentially grow the size of 
the Government. Enough is enough.
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