Shakes his head and shows pictures and believes those are facts. My friends, we ought to reject these bills because theyre about all employees. They may affect only a small few at this juncture, but they are about all employees and undermining their rights and the respect we ought to accord to them for the service they give to the people of the United States of america and i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. The gentleman from maryland reserves. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Issa at this time id like to yield one minute to the gentleman from North Carolina. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from North Carolina is recognized for one minute. Thank you, mr. Speaker. Id like to address the individual from maryland, the gentleman from maryland as he lks about its all about all employees and indeed it is because if we allow this continued behavior to go on, it tarnishes the good reputation workers that day in, day out serve this country and the citizens so well. Mr. Meadows and what were talking about is giving a tool, a management tool to let managers manage. Were talking about not giving bonuses, mr. Speaker. Were talking about not giving bonuses to those that are at the very highest, the 1 , while the rank and file goes so many times without being recognized or compensated for what they deserve. You know, were talking about employees that make an average salary of 168,000 a year and yet were talking about a privileged few that we need to make sure we address. So mr. Speaker, it is about all the employees and its about being fair. With that i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. The gentleman from california reserves. The gentleman from maryland. Mr. Cummings i grant the gentleman from maryland 30 seconds, mr. Hoyer. Mr. Hoyer theres so much id like to say, particularly about the extraordinary discrepancy of those folks who work in the private sector who perhaps have less responsibility on their shoulders, who make far less than their counterparts in the private sector. Look it up. See the statistics. Thats the case. The other thing i want to say to my friend, the law now provides for procedures to remove bad actors. Do we have some bad actors in the federal service . We do. Thats human life human experience. I will in just a second. I dont have any more time. If hell yield you some time ill be glad to yield you some ime. Apparently the gentleman is not that interested in going forward. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. The gentleman from maryland reserves. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Issa mr. Speaker, just give me a moment to compose myself. You know, the gentleman, mr. Hoyer i yield myself such time as i may consume. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Issa the distinguished minority whip presumes to tell me about the private sector and how much people make. The problem is i came from the private sector, and i know the difference between management and labor, and i know the difference between people who elect to be the top paid management of entities and typically serve at will in the private sector. Senior executive service is in fact people who choose to get additional pay for these responsibilities and they know what theyre doing when they get into it and were proud of most of them, the vast majority of them. But the fact is mr. Hoyer has people who serve at will. He fires them without notice if he chooses to, and yet he cannot understand the fact that that picture i held up and i wont hold it up again. Its reprehensible even though its been well seen. That man continued to work and get a bonus during the 10 months in which the g. S. A. Administrator knew wrongdoing had occurred on his watch. It wasnt until he decided to retire be honest, my understanding, with criminal allegations that he even left and stopped getting his pay and today he enjoys a very comfortable retirement. I reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The gentleman from maryland is recognized. Mr. Cummings i ask how much time we have . The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from maryland has nine minutes remaining. The gentleman from california has five minutes remaining. Mr. Cummings i yield two minutes to the gentlelady from california, ms. Speier. The speaker pro tempore the gentlelady from california is recognized for two minutes. Ms. Speier i thank the gentleman for yielding. You know, this bill is truly astonishing. We have serious issues before us. We should be focused on job creation, comprehensive immigration reform, providing nutrition assistance to children and seniors, postal reform or funding the government, but were again debating partisan bills that stand no chance of becoming law, including the 40th vote to defund or repeal the Affordable Care act. Now you know as kids were told that people in glass houses shouldnt throw stones so i hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle havent given one bonus to one of their senior staff members. I hope that that is the case. That you have not given one bonus to a senior staff member. I hope furthermore that each of you is recording all of your staff when they answer the phone, because you want to know how theyre treating your constituents. This particular bill is the height of hypocrisy. It is a blatant attack on federal employees saying that the current leadership is concerned about political messaging included through repeated attacks on hardworking federal employees. Its simply shameful to say we will belittle Public Service like that. I am a public servant, and i am proud to be a public servant. And every federal employee that works in this building and virtually every federal employee that is out there in our communities is doing so because they believe in Public Service. I think that a federal employee is pretty crazy to be doing this job. They basically are being told that youre not worth very much, their integrity is constantly being questioned, theyve had three years of pay freezes and furloughs. And theyre supposed to continue to do Public Service. I want to address one section of this bill that would now allow individuals to record telephone and inperson conversations with federal employees. Mr. Cummings i yield the gentlewoman 30 seconds. Ms. Speier it would preempt the law in my state of california and the chairmans state of california and 11 other states that require the consent of all parties to a conversation. It contains no exception for Law Enforcement, sensitive communications, the military or anything else. The f. B. I. Has already indicated to us that they strongly oppose this bill because in their words this proposal risks undermining criminal investigations by reducing the willingness of individuals to cooperate with Law Enforcement and would result in the creation of recordings of Law Enforcement conversations that could jeopardize sensitive and important criminal and counterterrorism investigations. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewomans time has expired. Ms. Speier i think this is illfounded and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewomans time has expired. The gentleman from maryland reserves the balance of his time. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Issa at this time i reserve. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from california reserves. The gentleman from maryland is recognized. Mr. Cummings i yield to the distinguished gentleman from the committee, the gentleman from illinois, mr. Davis, two minutes. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from illinois is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Davis i thank the chairman and i thank the gentleman for yielding. I rise in strong opposition to this legislation, the stop government abuse act. Id feel much better about it if it was labeled the promotion of government abuse act, because it encourages government to roll back the clock and take away rights that orkers have earned working hard. Can you imagine being fired after youve worked up to the ranks of the s. E. S. , which is very difficult to get to and being told that youve been let go on the basis of an i. G. Report . Where is the equal protection under the law there . There is none. I think that its unfortunate that we would treat our federal work force this way. They work hard, deserve better and i oppose this legislation. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from illinois yields back the balance of his time. The gentleman from maryland reserves. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Issa ill continue to reserve. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from california reserves. The gentleman from maryland is recognized. Mr. Cummings grant the gentleman from virginia, mr. Moran, two minutes. Thank you. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from virginia is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Moran mr. Chairman, mr. Chairman, this is one more bill designed to punish the federal work force and to discourage the very people that we need to join the federal work force. Singling it out for harsher treatment than we would apply , ourselves or our work force frankly. You need to be able to reward your best workers. If this was a private sector corporation, our revenue would have dried up, our stock value would have imploded and our employees would have left. But federal employees stick with it because they believe in this government. They hope that one day the legislative branch will appreciate what they do. I worked for the federal government 40 years ago. While i worked 10, 12 hours a day, there were people that did that longer than that and they did that for 40 years and did it in a dedicated way. This legislation isnt even properly thought through. No congressional hearing has been held on this measure that in fact jeopardizes Law Enforcement. It would intrude upon and disrupt sensitive phases of many federal, civil and criminal investigations and Law Enforcement efforts as well as litigation involving the government. We hear that from the national from the association of u. S. Assistant u. S. Attorneys. We hear from the f. B. I. Employees that this proposal risks undermining criminal investigations by reducing the willingness of individuals to cooperate with Law Enforcement, would result in the creation of recordings of Law Enforcement conversations that could jeopardize sensitive and important counterterrorism investigations. We hear from federal Law Enforcement officers that it puts Law Enforcement activities at risk and does a disservice to the brave men and women who are asked to put their lives on the line to protect us from terrorists and criminals. This is bad legislation. We know why its being offered. We also trust that its not going to become law. So you have to ask, why are we doing it . Were doing it to send a message . The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. Mr. Cummings i yield an additional 30 seconds. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for 30 seconds. Mr. Moran thank you, mr. Chairman. And the message its sending is that our federal employees are not to be valid. Our managers are not not to be valued. Our managers are not to be rewarded for good work. We want the federal government to shrink. We dont want it to carry out its necessary ack sifts. And activities. This stuff has got to stop. Thank you, mr. Chairman. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from virginia yields back. The gentleman from maryland reserves. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Issa at this time id like to yield 30 seconds to the distinguished gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. Kelly. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized for 30 seconds. Mr. Kelly i hear about pay being frozen. The people i represent in district three of western pennsylvania, wish their pay was frozen. Its gone down steadily since 2010. We talk about the inability to get the economy going. Well, i feel the same way. Its embarrassing. But at the end of the day we are not benevolent monarchs. We are stewards of the taxpayers moneys. All were doing is talking about accountability. Only in washington is accountability a bad word. In the private sector, accountability raines. The market holds me accountable. Why is that so foreign here to all of a sudden have bills, have things in front of us that would hold people responsible and hold them accountable . I yield back, mr. Chairman. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The gentleman from california reserves. The gentleman from maryland is recognized. Mr. Cummings how much time do we have, mr. Chairman . The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from maryland has three minutes remaining. The gentleman from california has 4 1 2 minutes remaining. Mr. Cummings mr. Speaker, you know, as ive listened to all of these arguments, i cannot help but think about the many employees that we see every day, the hardworking employees who give their blood, sweat and tears to keeping our country together. And when we talk about our Senior Executives, i remind this body of something that mr. Hoyer talked about and that is under current law, senior statutory be list of reasons for which actions may be taken against Senior Executives cover a broad variety of situations. They are adequate to deal with the problems that we are addressing today. Senior executives suspected of criminal activity may already be removed or placed on indefinite suspension without pay. Rather than deprive employees of their due process. D i know, mr. Moran, you are right. There has been a relentless attack on federal employees. The fact is that they are in the third year of pay freezes. They have been asked to pay more for their pensions and get less. We constantly here of negative comments about them and yet folks say, we love them. We appreciate them. They are often the ones that arent appreciated and unapplauded. We have a bill here that takes away something very fundamental. And that is that due process rights. A lot of people may think about due process and say, its no big deal. Well take a little due process away and take a little bit there, but it is that due rocess that is the basic foundation of our constitution and of our democracy. And what were talking about here i is making sure that employees are afforded that due process. So you get somebody who says, ok, fine. Fire them and then let them appeal to get their job back. Well, thats not how its supposed to work. They are to be given some type of notice and given an opportunity to simply address whatever the accusations are. And a lot of times we may look at folks and say, well, we dont like what they allegedly did, but the fact is we still have that little document which to me is a big document, that we must adhere to. And so, mr. Speaker, i would urge all members of the congress to vote against this bill and give us a chance to come back perhaps make the appropriate amendments so it will be more suitable for the congress to vote on. With that, i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Issa i yield 15 seconds to the gentleman from from North Carolina. I want to clarify one thing, when we talk about a freeze, when is a freeze not a freeze . Only in washington, d. C. Over the last three years 99. 4 of federal employees got increases. Out of every 1,000 employees, only six were denied an increase and the record needed to be clarified. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Issa how much time do i have . The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from california has 4 1 4 remaining. Mr. Issa i will close. Mr. Speaker, covers controversy comes in all forms, sometimes its legitimate and sometimes there are differences unresolved, but sometimes you find yourself befuddled. These three bills passed on a voice vote. Doesnt mean that our colleagues love them. It meant they were given a full opportunity to evaluate these, to offer amendments to have upordown votes on them. Many of the suggestions they made were taken into account on many of the bills marked up during that long day. Many of the things being brought up here today simply were not brought up, not because they didnt know about this. When you have a bill that a version of this bill almost identical on december 19 last year, passed by 4022. 4022. That means you have people that today are opposed to provisions that they already voted for. I repeat, opposed provisions they already voted for. I dont have the names of the two people who voted no. They have the right to express why they voted no last december. But i can tell you this. Hen you have to only terminate work 4 100 of 1 of the force, if you do it at all, you must do it because you determine, the head of the agency, not just anyone, the head of the agency has to determine that the employee has done something seriously wrong in regards to negligence of duty or misappropriation of funds or mall feesance. They have to determine that the employee did it knowingly and they have to consider it necessary and advisable and to protect this enterprise. On top of that, the employee has to be told why they are being terminated. And i think thats important because the Ranking Member and i had a woman in a hearing that i was shocked, actually shocked. Shes been on leave without pay and to this day, an investigation ongoing, months into it, shes never been told why she is on a leave without pay. To be honest, she is a member of the Senior Executive service. Maybe she would fall under this bill, but in order to fall under this bill, some things would happen. The head of the agency would have to make a decision of wrongdoing and would be held by that decision being reasonable after the fact. They would have to have told her why she is being removed. And she would have already had an opportunity in front of the merits system protection board and the federal circuit. She would have had this due process and months go by and she doesnt know and she is on administrative leave. This is a tool. They dont have to use it. If they use it, they have to make sure it is for sappropriated funds or mal feesance. These are extremely serious, extremely small part and highly compensated people and few bad actors, misappropriation of funds, can be removed. They still have their rights. We knew this was constitutional. And the complaint we seem to have in committee for hours was something that i want to share with you, mr. Speaker. Members of my committee, when talking about the idea that only 1 3 without special exce