WASHINGTON-Government Operations Subcommittee Ranking Member Jody Hice (R-Ga.) delivered remarks at today’s hearing chastising Democrats for disregarding the substantial costs additional paid leave for federal employees, both financially and in service, would place on the American people.
Subcommittee Ranking Member Hice emphasized Democrats are handing federal employees substantial benefits without any accountability.
Below are the remarks as prepared.
Republicans believe federal employees should get the job done for the American people and should be held accountable for doing so.
Under President Trump’s executive orders, federal employees could be held accountable. That’s what the American people deserve, and it’s what federal employees themselves want.
Through his executive order on official time, he sought to ensure federal employees actually did the jobs they were hired to do rather than on union activities. I have introduced legislation with the same objective.
Democrats, on the other hand, don’t seem to care about these things.
A key component of the Democrat return-to-work plan is to make sure as many federal employees as possible don’t actually have to come back to work. What kind of a great idea is that?
They are pushing permanent, expanded telework without understanding what the impact has been nor what it will be.
I have asked IGs across federal agencies to conduct an assessment, so we can at least have some data on this.
And now, today, we are looking at ways to give federal employees more time off on the backs of American taxpayers.
So, the Democrats’ agenda for federal workforce issues could be summarized as “come to work as little as possible, and when you do come, don’t worry about doing your job."
Congress just provided paid parental leave for federal workers, and now the majority is trying to expand paid leave for all categories in the Family Medical Leave Act.
Combined with federal holidays and annual leave, federal employees now only have to work eight months out of the year. Are you kidding me? This is absolute insanity, and this is what we’re told is leading by example.
The majority does not know how much this benefit expansion will cost. I can tell you who is going to pay the cost: it’s going to be the American taxpayer. They don’t know the consequences.
The Biden administration has released a tidal wave of wasteful and unnecessary pandemic “aid" that now threatens to swallow our country up in inflation and out of control spending. Meanwhile, here in this committee, it appears as if we are trying to create some sort of Gilligan’s Island so that we can insulate federal workers from the issues the rest of the world is facing.
I would agree it is time to lead by example both in having our meetings held in person and also in having common sense to some of the issues we bring as a topic of discussion for this Committee.
