[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14849-14850]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

      By Mr. CARDIN (for himself, Mrs. Boxer, Mr. Brown, Mr. Carper, 
        Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Harkin, Mr. Heinrich, Ms. Hirono, Mr. 
        Kaine, Mr. Leahy, Ms. Mikulski, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Schumer, Mr. 
        Udall of New Mexico, and Mr. Warner):
  S. 1567. A bill to provide for the compensation of furloughed Federal 
employees; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 
Affairs.
  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the Federal Employee 
Retroactive Pay Fairness Act. I am pleased to have Senators Boxer, 
Brown, Carper, Feinstein, Harkin, Heinrich, Hirono, Kaine, Leahy, 
Mikulski, Sanders, Schumer, Udall (NM), and Warner as original co-
sponsors. This bill is a companion bill to legislation Representative 
Jim Moran introduced in the House of Representatives, H.R. 3223. The 
bill is simple and straightforward. It requires that all Federal 
workers furloughed as a result of the lapse in appropriations that 
began last night at midnight receive their pay retroactively as soon as 
is practicable. It is the right thing to do. It is the fair thing to 
do. Federal workers didn't cause this shutdown. Federal workers don't 
want this shutdown. They are dedicated public servants who simply want 
to do their jobs on behalf of the American people. They shouldn't 
suffer because so-called Tea Party Republicans, mostly in the House of 
Representatives, suffer from the delusion that shutting down the 
Federal Government will somehow prevent the Affordable Care Act from 
being implemented.
  As the Congressional Research Service has reported, in ``historical 
practice'', Federal workers who have been furloughed as a result of a 
shutdown have received their pay retroactively ``as a result of 
legislation to that effect''. The language in our bill is the language 
used to provide pay retroactively to workers furloughed in the Newt 
Gingrich-led shutdowns in 1995 and 1996; that language was contained as 
part of section 124 of Public Law 104-56 (109 STAT. 553).
  Mr. President, Federal workers already have endured a 3-year pay 
freeze and ``contributed'' over $90 billion to deficit reduction. That 
was before sequestration hit. On top of the pay freeze, hundreds of 
thousands of Federal workers have been furloughed because of 
sequestration. Their pay

[[Page 14850]]

hasn't just been frozen; it has been cut. They have had fewer resources 
to carry out their missions and administer the programs they are 
responsible for.
  Now, upwards of 800,000 Federal workers are being furloughed, again, 
and the rest of federal workforce is being compelled to work without 
pay. And Republicans are threatening that there won't be any 
retroactive pay. This is happening to hardworking, patriotic public 
servants, mostly middle class and struggling to get by like so many 
other Americans. Enough is enough.
  Increasingly, Federal workers are asked to do more with less. 
According to the Office of Management & Budget, the size of the Federal 
civilian workforce relative to the country's population has declined 
dramatically over the last several decades. In the 1950s and 1960s, 
there were, on average, 92 Americans for every Federal worker. In the 
1980s and 1990s, there were 106 Americans for every Federal worker. By 
2011, the ratio had increased to 145 Americans for every Federal 
worker.
  Since the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S. population has increased by 76 
percent and the private sector workforce has surged 133 percent, but 
the size of the Federal workforce has risen just 11 percent. Relative 
to the private sector, the Federal workforce is less than half the size 
it was back in the 1950s and 1960s. Now it just got smaller by another 
800,000 workers overnight because of Republican action regarding the 
fiscal year 2014 continuing resolution.
  The picture that emerges is one of a Federal civilian workforce whose 
size has significantly shrunk compared to the size of the U.S. 
population it serves, the private sector workforce, and the magnitude 
of Federal expenditures. Yet Republicans are intent on making things 
even more difficult for Federal workers and their families across the 
United States.
  Preventing Federal workers from doing their jobs doesn't just harm 
Federal workers; it harms all Americans because Federal workers patrol 
our borders, make sure our air and water are clean and our food and 
drugs are safe, support our men and women in uniform and care for our 
wounded warriors, help our manufacturers compete abroad, discover cures 
for life-threatening diseases, prosecute criminals and terrorists, 
maintain and protect critical infrastructure, explore the universe, and 
make sure Social Security, Medicare, and other social safety-net 
programs are functioning properly.
  When Federal workers do their jobs, they are helping each and every 
American live a safer and more prosperous life. And I would argue that 
what Federal workers are able to do on behalf of the American people 
often redounds to the benefit of all humankind, whether we are talking 
about conducting ground-breaking basic scientific research or 
establishing the rule of law.
  Our tasks here in Congress are simple--not easy, perhaps, but simple: 
we need to end the shutdown and put federal workers back on the job; we 
need to raise the debt ceiling so we can continue to pay our bills and 
maintain the full faith and credit of the U.S. Government; we need to 
return to regular order around here and negotiate a comprehensive 
budget deal that spreads the burden of deficit reduction in a fair way; 
and we need to hold Federal workers and their families harmless after 
subjecting them to so much harm over the past several weeks and months.
  We need to stop demonizing and scape-goating and punishing Federal 
workers. We need to re-open the government, continue paying our bills, 
and replace the sequester with a rational budget. One of the greatest 
attributes of the American character is pragmatism. Unlike what some 
other Federal workers are actually doing, here in Congress, balancing 
the budget is not ``rocket science''. We know the various options. 
Former President Lyndon Johnson was fond of quoting the prophet Isaiah: 
``Come, let us reason together'' That is what we need to do. We can 
acknowledge and respect our differences but at the end of the day, the 
American people have entrusted us with governing, with being pragmatic. 
Let us do our job so Federal workers can get back to their jobs.

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