[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 27 (Friday, February 17, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S894-S895]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           FEDERAL EMPLOYEES

  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I thank my colleagues on the other side of 
the aisle. I know we have been switching back and forth. As someone who 
has the opportunity to preside more often than not on these kind of 
days, I know they are anxious to speak as well. I will only take a 
couple moments. I appreciate their courtesy.
  A little earlier today we passed a conference report that extended 
the payroll tax cut. While I am glad the payroll tax cut was extended, 
I voted against that conference report because, unfortunately, we did 
not pay for that tax cut. I believe we could have found ways to pay for 
it--a surcharge on millionaires, tying this to a means test so it could 
have been more coordinated. But also in that action for those parts of 
the legislation that we passed that we did pay for, things such as 
unemployment benefits, we once again targeted a group that I think for 
too many in Congress becomes the payer of first resort, not payer of 
last resort; that is, our Federal employees.
  Over the last year and a half or so, I have continued a tradition 
that was started by a colleague, Senator Ted Kaufman from Delaware, 
where on an occasional basis I come down and recognize the service of 
Federal employees who, too often, again as we have seen in recent 
debates, receive the brunt of lots of comments when in reality they are 
good folks who keep the operations of our Government working, who 
patrol our streets, catch the terrorists, and in some cases just 
recently I recognized a Federal employee who actually helps keep the 
Senate operating on a regular basis.
  As we think about how we get our debt and deficit under control and 
pay for the programs that we will continue to initiate, we need to make 
sure we have a shared burden approach, where we look both to programs 
that have outlived their usefulness and the revenue side. Yes, I know 
Federal employees will make their contribution as well, but as we have 
seen from their pay freeze, from the threat of repeated furloughs over 
the last year and a half, and now adding to their pension contribution 
for new Federal employees, that burden is not always shared with all.


                       Tribute to Joseph Lawrence

  I am continuing the tradition of recognizing great Federal employees.
  Mr. President, today I am pleased to honor a recently retired great 
federal employee, Joseph Lawrence. He most recently served as the 
director of transition in the Office of Naval Research within the 
Department of Defense.
  During his time there, he oversaw a $1 billion research and 
development portfolio responsible for developing science and technology 
solutions to problems discovered during war game exercises conducted by 
the Marine Corps and the Navy.
  For example, Mr. Lawrence oversaw the development and delivery of a 
new type of dressing that can be applied to a battlefield wound to 
prevent bleeding during transportation to a hospital.

[[Page S895]]

This innovation is now found in every Marine's individual first aid 
kit, as well as products used by U.S. Armed Forces and law enforcement 
agencies.
  Other innovations include a system that protects tactical wheeled 
vehicles against rocket-propelled grenade and a crane that better 
transfers containers between ships.
  In December 2011, Mr. Lawrence retired after 45 year of service, 
which began at the U.S. Naval Research lab while he was in college. He 
has played an important role in the protection of our country and the 
well-being of our troops.
  Dedicated civil servants such as Mr. Lawrence are the lifeblood of 
the federal government. I admire their patriotism which drives them in 
their daily work. Too often, their service to the success of the United 
States does not receive the proper recognition it deserves.
  This has been recently exemplified in the systemic problems 
associated with processing necessary paperwork prior to the 
disbursement of retirement benefits to all federal employees. Earlier 
this month, the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs 
Committee investigated problems within the Office of Personnel 
Management surrounding the processing of retirement and survivor 
benefits. Too many of our recently retired federal employees--the 
current estimate is more than 62,000 people--are waiting for more than 
year to receive earned retirement benefits.
  We are not holding up our end of the bargain with people who commit 
to public service to their country. To make matters worse, this is not 
the first time the Congress and OPM recognized the current processing 
system is broken. I am committed to helping resolve the issue with the 
current OPM system. But, frankly, the current OPM system, which doesn't 
have very good technology--when they have invested in technology 
resources, they have actually come up with goose eggs--is now currently 
processing these retirement requests with old-fashioned paper and 
pencil. It makes no sense.

  As a matter of fact, there are a number of agencies--the Department 
of State and others--as they send over the retirement information on an 
employee to OPM, over 50 percent of the information they send over in 
terms of the case is not complete. So not only is this a problem at 
OPM, but this is a problem in terms of OPM being able to enforce the 
other 88 Federal agencies actually doing their job.
  I believe we need to tackle and fix this problem to ensure that 
retired Federal employees, such as Mr. Lawrence, who have faithfully 
served this great Nation, are able to enter retirement and receive that 
for which they worked so hard.
  I hope my colleagues will join me in honoring Mr. Lawrence for the 
excellent work he has done, and I hope they will join me in making sure 
that when Federal employees retire, they get their retirement benefits 
in a timely and efficient manner.
  I yield the floor and thank my colleagues for their courtesy.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Dakota.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to enter into a 
colloquy with the Senator from Kansas for as much time as we may 
consume.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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