[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 200 (Wednesday, December 19, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1686]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





 INTRODUCTION OF THE LOW-WAGE FEDERAL CONTRACTOR EMPLOYEE BACK PAY ACT

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 19, 2018

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today, I introduce the Low-Wage. Federal 
Contractor Employee Back Pay Act to grant back pay to federally 
contracted retail, food, custodial and security service workers who are 
furloughed during a federal government shutdown this fiscal year 
(fiscal year 2019). This bill applies to all three branches of the 
federal government. After the 2013 government shutdown, federal workers 
received back pay, but not federal contract workers. While I believe 
that all federal employees and federal contract workers should receive 
back pay after a shutdown, we know that we cannot get Congress to make 
whole all who are hurt by a shutdown. My bill focuses specifically on 
low-wage federal contract workers, some of whom work here on the 
Capitol grounds providing Members of Congress and congressional staff 
with daily services, because these are the workers most likely to be 
irretrievably hurt by lost wages during a shutdown.
  Many federal contract workers earn little more than the minimum wage 
and receive few, if any, benefits. While some are unionized with a 
little better wage, all are the lowest-paid workers in the federal 
government and should not be penalized because Congress has failed to 
do its job to keep the government functioning. Congress, historically, 
has provided back pay to federal employees, who often work in the same 
buildings as these low-wage contract workers, furloughed during 
government shutdowns--but not to low-wage contract workers. However, 
both groups of workers deserve to be made whole after shutdowns. I 
recognize, of course, that contract workers are employees of 
contractors, but the distinction between federal workers and, at least, 
the lowest-paid contract workers, who, for example, keep buildings 
clean, fails when it comes to a deliberate government shutdown. Unlike 
many other contractors, those who employ low-wage service workers have 
little latitude to help make up for lost wages. Low-wage, federally 
contracted service workers can least afford the loss of pay during a 
shutdown and should not have to go without pay while everyone else in 
their federal buildings likely receives back pay.
  The nation's capital is the high-profile home of the federal 
government's complicity with contractors who pay low wages through 
leases and contracts with federal agencies. At least this legislation 
would provide some parity to their low-wage federal contract workers.
  I strongly urge my colleagues to support the legislation.

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