[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 24 (Wednesday, February 5, 2025)]
[House]
[Page H465]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
           CAUTIONING FEDERAL WORKERS AGAINST TAKING BUYOUTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Pennsylvania (Ms. Scanlon) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning to urge Federal workers 
in Pennsylvania and across the Nation to exercise extreme caution as 
they consider the bogus buyout plan that the White House is pressuring 
them to accept.
  In a memo to Federal workers last week, Trump's Office of Personnel 
Management notified Federal workers across the country that they had 
just over a week, until tomorrow, February 6, to voluntarily quit their 
jobs in exchange for keeping pay and benefits for 8 months. The memo 
threatened that if they refused the offer, their jobs might no longer 
exist.
  Tens of thousands of Federal workers in the Philadelphia region 
received that email and were rightly concerned. The workers impacted by 
the memo include those who care for our veterans, protect our ports and 
airports, fight corruption and drug traffickers, and make sure that our 
food is safe to eat, that our air is clean, and that our water is safe 
to drink.
  The OPM memo is one in a series of directives by the Trump White 
House aimed at gutting the Federal Government and the critical services 
it provides to Americans in order to justify massive tax cuts for 
billionaires and wealthy corporations. We have already seen illegal 
firings of hundreds of career civil servants and unconstitutional 
attempts to shutter entire agencies.
  Union leaders immediately began raising the alarm that the buyout 
offer could be a scam. Congress has not authorized or funded these 
radical cuts to the government workforce and services, and employees 
could be left without the pay, benefits, and protections to which they 
are entitled by law.
  The proposed workforce reductions would make it impossible for the 
Federal Government to deliver the services that Congress has authorized 
and Americans deserve. They would, however, make it easier for large 
corporations to take advantage of consumers and employees and to 
pollute the environment.
  The unions have filed suit to protect their employees, and yesterday, 
12 State attorneys general, including those in New Jersey and Delaware, 
issued a warning to Federal employees across the country that the 
buyout offer was misleading and should be viewed with caution.
  Amidst the concern about the legality and impact of this unauthorized 
buyout, our colleagues from across the aisle, at both the State and 
Federal levels, have gone missing in action. Republicans control both 
the House and Senate in Washington, and we would welcome their help to 
stand up for the Constitution, for our constituents, and for Federal 
workers.
  We will continue to raise the alarm and do everything possible to 
protect Americans and our Constitution from the worst abuses of this 
administration and its billionaire buddies because construction workers 
and contractors in our area know that the Trump corporation never kept 
its promises with respect to pay and meeting its obligations.
  Mr. Speaker, the whole world knows that Twitter became a dumpster 
fire after Elon Musk tried to impact the exact types of reductions that 
we are seeing here, so I am issuing this warning to our constituents 
across the Delaware Valley.

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