[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 3 (Tuesday, January 8, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E20-E21]
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

                        Tuesday, January 8, 2019

  Ms. NORTON. Madam 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 the current and any other federal government shutdown 
this fiscal year (fiscal year 2019). This bill applies to all three 
branches of the federal government. After government shutdowns, federal 
workers have received back pay, but not federal contract workers, who 
often perform the same jobs as civil servants. 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. Therefore, my bill focuses specifically on 
low-wage federal contract workers, some of whom work here on the

[[Page E21]]

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 furloughed during government 
shutdowns, who often work in the same buildings as these low-wage 
contract workers, 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 back pay while everyone else 
in their federal buildings 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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