Hoyer Remarks at Press Conference to Announce the Launch of the Federal Workforce Caucus

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) joined U.S. Senators U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) and U.S. Representatives James Walkinshaw (VA-11) and Suhas Subramanyam (VA-10), and federal employee union leaders and members at a press conference to announce the launch of the Federal Workforce Caucus to protect federal workers and strengthen the merit-based federal civil service for the American people. Below is a full transcript of his remarks:

"Thank you very, very much, and I'm pleased to be here with you. And I don't think we had a caucus, Jim is absolutely right. But I recall we had a guy named Don Devine; he worked for Ronald Reagan, and he wasn't quite as blunt, as - I'm going to mention our CFO, as I call him, our OMB Director, [indistinguishable]. But we had a Republican who worked with me hip to hip on federal employees, his name is Frank [Wall]. And very frankly, Don Devine ran against me for Congress in the 90s, thinking I had committed political suicide because I said, 'We ought to pay for what we buy,' and we were successful. We were successful because, Jim, we may not have had a caucus but we had a whole bunch of people. Republicans and Democrats [from] Virginia and Maryland. And, ladies and gentlemen, 70% of the workforce is not in the Washington Metropolitan area. It's serving the people in every corner of this country.

I think we still have a bipartisan coalition that understands that our federal workers compose the best civil service in the world. Is it perfect? No, but [nothing] in the world is perfect. But it's very good, and it is not [peopled] by persons who knew somebody, as Senator Van Hollen said . It's [peopled] by people who have the skills, the talent, and yes, the patriotism to serve their fellow citizens in the civil service.

"So, I want to thank all of you who represent so many of those people who are working, all the unions, all the other organizations, I'm particularly going to call out one person here. Skye - I got to do you - Perryman who has done such extraordinary work with Democracy Forward in protecting, Rob, our people. But more than that, protecting our government and its integrity, and its ability to serve in a nonpartisan and bipartisan, equal way, the people of the United States of America. We meet today after a critical win for our federal workers, frankly. We kept our government open, ensuring that we can continue their work for the American people, and to receive their pay that they're due. And I want to thank Senator Kaine for the work he has done, and so successfully. But we still have a lot of work ahead. The past year has been a reminder just how important the federal workforce is to American success, and just how dangerous it is to undermine the merit-based nature of our civil service. Chris Van Hollen, my colleague in Maryland, mentioned the symbol of the chainsaw. You know, a chainsaw is a rough cut, and it fells things; it makes them fall down, it kills them. The Administration's way is to crusade against our federal workers.

"I say this a lot; Russell Vought summed up their strategy. This is not something that they're hiding under a cover that they're doing, they're doing it right out in the open. They're telling you what they want to do. 'We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected.' That's the CFO of [their] enterprise. Any CFO that said that of their employees in any corporation - including the largest corporations in America - would be fired the next day by the board of directors [saying], 'What are you doing? We want the morale of our people up. We want them confident [their] work is appreciated.' He went on to say, 'When they wake up in the morning, we want them not to want to go to work -' boy, that's a great strategy '- because they're increasingly viewed as villains.' Boy, do we need a caucus.

"You were right, Jim, we need a caucus. Subramanyam you were right, we need a caucus. Tim and I and Chris who have been there, you know, we had some new blood come in and say, 'Let's organize!' (laughter) We thought we were organized but we weren't, and you made it clear. Vought went on to say, ' We want their funding to be shut down. We want to put them in trauma.' And yes, they shut down the government because they didn't want to give people health care. My colleagues and I are establishing this caucus because we know the truth: federal workers are not villains, they are patriots and heroes. I have about 75,000 federal workers living in my district. I think it's the largest-populated federal employee district in America. But I had a Senate district for 12 years in which there were very few state employees, and I fought hard for the state employees. Why? Because I know I can say very nice things, I can pass really nice laws, but if we don't have people who care carrying them out, it's not worth the paper it's written on. That's why we're so passionately for federal employees.

"Now, I could go on and on, as some people will attest to, who have known me for a long time. (laughter) But, the other five pages of this speech, I'm going to forgo because you get my point. This is not about Democrats or Republicans. This is about every American who regularly thinks, 'I have a problem that needs to be solved,' and they pick up the phone and they call some of us. (turns around and begins pointing at Members and union leaders) And they call you, you, you - and they certainly call you (laughter). You too. So, this caucus is going to energize the Congress in appreciating the work that is done every day by our federal employees, from the top level to the bottom level, who, by the way, are not paid nearly as much as their private sector counterparts. I'm glad to be a member of this caucus. I thank Jim for sort of galvanizing us. I thank Chris for doing that as well, we worked shoulder to shoulder for a long period of time. America needs our federal employees, not traumatized, but energized and uplifted."