Civilian Service Recognition Act of 2011

I thank the gentleman from Utah for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in proud support of H.R. 2061, the Civilian Service Recognition Act of 2011.

First, I would like to thank a few of my colleagues for helping to bring this bill to the floor. My friend and colleague, a New Yorker, Maurice Hinchey, one of the original cosponsors of this bill; my neighbor and friend in the Cannon Office Building and someone who has been supportive of this effort from the very beginning, Donna Edwards, Representative from Maryland; Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings for their support of this bill; and the entire staff of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee for its work on this bill.

In addition, Mr. Speaker, I'd like to thank the people who prompted the introduction of this bill: Grant Reeher and Terry Newell. These gentlemen penned a joint opinion editorial in The Syracuse Post- Standard suggesting that legislation be introduced to honor civil servants who are killed in the line of duty.

Mr. Speaker, this bill is quite simple. If a civilian Federal employee is killed on the job as a result of a criminal contact, terrorism, natural disaster, or an extraordinary event as determined by the President of the United States, their next of kin would be authorized to receive a United States flag. The Congressional Budget Office reports that this bill would have ``no significant effect on the Federal budget.''

Mr. Speaker, since 1992, almost 3,000 civilian Federal workers have been killed while on duty, both in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Haiti, but also in places like Oklahoma City and Austin, Texas. This legislation is widely supported by a variety of groups and individuals, including civil service organizations, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, and the American Legion.

I would like to note for the record that the American Legion raised some concerns about the language of this bill. I am personally very grateful and much appreciate their input. My office, as well as the committee staff, have worked with the Legion not only to listen to its concerns, but to act on them, which we have in this bill. In the end, we made a better bill, mindful of the real differences between military and civilian service, but also acceptable to all parties.

Legislative language aside, the spirit of this bill and the original intent of this bill is simple. If a Federal civil employee is killed in the line of duty, whether at home or abroad, their life will be honored by this Nation. Their family will be presented a flag on behalf of the United States of America.

More than 2 million Federal civilian employees work within our country and in countless overseas posts, many of them in dangerous jobs at Customs and Border Protection or the FBI, just to name a couple of examples. This is a

modest but significant benefit in honor of these dedicated individuals who sacrifice on our behalf.

Until the September 11 attacks, the largest terrorism attack on American soil took place in 1995--the Oklahoma City bombing. Employees showed up at the Federal building that day, like so many before, to go to work, to fulfill their oath of office and meet their obligations.

Ours is a grateful Nation, one that values the sacrifices made in honor of this country. Mr. Speaker, a life can never be repaid, but it can be honored. I urge all my colleagues to join me in support of H.R. 2061.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in proud support of H.R. 2061, the Civilian Service Recognition Act of 2011.

First, I need to thank several of my colleagues for their help in bringing this bill to the floor:

My friend and colleague to the south--and--the original co-sponsor of this bill: Maurice Hinchey.

My neighbor in the Cannon House Office Building and someone who's been supportive of this effort from the beginning: Donna Edwards, representative from Maryland.

Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings for their support of this bill.

The entire staff of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee for its work on this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I need to thank the people who prompted the introduction of this bill: Grant Reecher and Terry Newell.

These gentlemen penned a joint opinion-editorial in The Syracuse Post-Standard, suggesting legislation be introduced to honor civil servants who are killed in the line of duty.

Mr. Speaker, this bill is simple. If a civilian federal employee is killed on the job as a result of a criminal act, terrorism, natural disaster, or an extraordinary event as determined by the President, their next of kin would be authorized to receive a United States flag.

The Congressional Budget Office reports that this bill would have ``no significant effect on the federal budget.''

Mr. Speaker, since 1992, almost 3,000 civilian federal workers have been killed while on duty, both in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Haiti--but also in places like Oklahoma City, and Austin, Texas.

This legislation is widely supported by a wide array of groups and individuals including civil service organizations, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, and the American Legion.

I would note for the record that the American Legion raised some concerns about the language of the bill. I personally very much appreciated the input. My office, as well as Committee staff, worked with the Legion to not only listen to its concerns, but act on them.

In the end we made this bill better. Mindful of the real differences between military and civilian service, but acceptable to all parties involved.

Legislative language aside--the spirit of this bill--and the original intent of this bill--is simple: If a federal civilian employee is killed in the line of duty whether at home or abroad, their life will be honored by this nation. Their family will be presented a flag on behalf of the United States of America.

More than 2 million federal civilian employees work within our country and in countless overseas posts, many of them in dangerous jobs at Customs and Border Protection or the FBI, just to name a couple of examples.

This is a modest, but significant benefit in honor of these dedicated individuals who sacrificed on our behalf.

Until the September 11th attacks, the largest terrorism attack on American soil took place in 1995--the Oklahoma City bombing. Employees showed up at the federal building that day--like so many before--to go to work. To fulfill their oath of service to the U.S. Government.

Ours is a grateful nation, one that values the sacrifices made in honor of this country.

A life can never be repaid, but it can be honored.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to join me in supporting

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in strong support of H.R. 2061, the Civilian Service Recognition Act of 2011, as amended. I commend Congressman Hanna for his work on this legislation. This bill would authorize Federal agencies to give the United States flag to the families of Federal civilian and postal employees who lose their lives as a result of a criminal act, an act of terrorism, a natural disaster, or in other special circumstances as determined by the President of the United States.

There are more than 2.8 million Federal civilian and postal employees. They are the men and women who gather and analyze the intelligence that enables us to track down terrorists such as Osama bin Laden. They are our postal employees who deliver the mail to us in the rain, snow, sleet, and hail. They are the scientists who conduct groundbreaking and lifesaving research like those that I've seen at NIH. They are the food and water inspectors who ensure the products we eat and drink will not harm us. They are the correctional officers guarding criminals and terrorists, and they are the nurses and doctors who care for us and our wounded veterans.

Many of these employees have high-risk, dangerous jobs, and they put their lives on the line every day in service to our Nation. They give their blood, sweat, and tears for our Nation. For example, approximately 44,000 Federal civilian employees have served alongside our uniformed servicemembers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other combat- related zones over the last decade. They have performed jobs critical to our missions, and they have been essential to the successes our military has achieved.

Over the past two decades, some 3,000 Federal civilian employees have died on the job. The gift of a United States flag to the families of Federal employees who die in the line of duty is a small token of our very great appreciation for the ultimate sacrifice these public servants have made.

That said, Mr. Speaker, these same civil servants that we seek to honor here today are the very same people who are under attack from some quarters for simply doing their jobs. Recently, the majority of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee recommended to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction that Federal workers who are already subject to a 2-year-long pay freeze also be subjected to the following: arbitrary 10 percent workforce reductions, an extended pay freeze through 2015, elimination of periodic step increases, increased employee contributions to the Civil Service Retirement System and the Federal Employees Retirement System, and a change in the formula used to calculate Federal pensions that may reduce the benefits provided to these many employees. In addition, our committee has scheduled H.R. 3029 for consideration tomorrow. This bill would require a 10 percent reduction in the Federal workforce by fiscal 2015.

It is appropriate and, in fact, past due that we pay tribute to our civil servants who make the ultimate sacrifice in service to our great Nation, and I am encouraged that the legislation before us enjoys bipartisan support. But I remind my colleagues that it doesn't make any sense to turn around and attack these same workers' livelihoods as we consider further deficit reductions. Such actions denigrate the value of the service these individuals provide to our great Nation, the very service we are honoring in H.R. 2061.

If Federal employees are worthy of receiving a gift of our Nation's flag upon their deaths, they are surely worthy of receiving their full pay and benefits for a lifetime of service to our country. Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill to honor Federal employees killed in the line of duty. I also urge my colleagues to join me in honoring all of our civil servants by opposing any further efforts to balance the Nation's budget on the backs of these dedicated men and women.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Again, I wholeheartedly support this legislation, and I think it's a very, very important piece of legislation. I want to congratulate Mr. Hanna and all the cosponsors for it.

At the same time, though, there is an old saying: Give me my flowers while I live. The fact is that there are many Federal employees, and we get the calls every day, when we sit in committees and we hear negative things said about Federal employees, and I think we forget that we take so many of them for granted. And so often when you take people for granted, you just assume that things are going to work and that agencies are going to work.

In my district, I have the Social Security Administration, and I get complaints from employees almost every day. As they see a downsizing, they see their workload increasing tremendously, but yet they are still being subject to pay freezes and things of this nature.

So I think, again, this legislation is extremely important; but, again, I emphasize that I think it's so important that we not place these Federal employees in positions where they are constantly told that they're not doing enough work or they are not needed in many instances and need to be downsized, need to have their pay reduced and need to have the increases to their contribution to the retirement system.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from Maryland, Ms. Donna Edwards.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I just wanted to let the gentleman know that he mentioned that there had been an increase in Federal employees. There have been increases in DOD, DHS, and VA, but all the other agencies over the 10 years have been decreasing.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I would urge passage of this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2061) to authorize the presentation of a United States flag at the funeral of Federal civilian employees who are killed while performing official duties or because of their status as a Federal employee, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

H.R. 2061, the Civilian Service Recognition Act of 2011, was introduced by the gentleman from New York (Mr. Hanna) on May 31 of this year. H.R. 2061 enjoys the support of 21 cosponsors on both sides of the aisle, and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform reported this bill by voice vote on June 22 of this year.

Mr. Speaker, each year a small number of Federal civilian employees tragically lose their lives as a result of the duties they pledged to fulfill. Sadly, nearly 3,000 Federal civilian workers have died on the job since 1992.

Many civilian employees are veterans and thus are entitled to military

funeral honors. In addition, the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security have regulatory authority over burial benefits related to civilian employees who die as a result of their service with an Armed Force in a contingency operation.

The Federal Government lacks a policy authorizing the presentation of a United States flag to the families of Federal civilian employees serving elsewhere who lose their lives as a result of their employment. For those civilian employees who make the ultimate sacrifice in the course of service to their country, H.R. 2061 authorizes agencies to give a United States flag as a way for the Nation to formally express sympathy and gratitude.

H.R. 2061 is supported by a broad coalition of Federal employee organizations, including the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, American Foreign Service Association, American Federation of Government Employees, and the Service Executives Association.

I would like to thank Representatives Hanna and Hinchey for bringing this important issue to the attention of this Congress. I would also like to thank the minority for working with us to bring this legislation to the floor for our consideration.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to my distinguished colleague from the State of New York, the primary author of this bill, Mr. Hanna.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume to just merely point out that since Barack Obama took office until now, there are more than 141,000 additional Federal workers on the payroll. So while there has been some discussion about not appreciating Federal workers, I fully appreciate the Federal workers--they're patriotic people, they work hard, they do a good job. But I do think we have an expectation that people do a good day's work for a good salary. And there is nothing that has been brought up today to suggest we're doing anything other than recognizing those who are paying the ultimate sacrifice. We have been increasing the number of Federal employees; some of us are concerned about that. That is a discussion for another day.

At this time, Mr. Speaker, I would yield such time as he may consume to my distinguished colleague from Virginia (Mr. Wolf), who has been very active on this issue and cares passionately about this issue.

(Mr. WOLF asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

While the gentleman from Maryland and I may disagree on the statistics of the number of Federal employees, I think we can be united in supporting this bill, H.R. 2061.

There are so many good people who are doing the right thing, they're working hard, they're patriotic, and somehow, some way, unfortunately they pay the ultimate sacrifice.

We simply urge our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pass this. It may seem trivial to some, but I guarantee you that to the families who have suffered a loss of such consequence, of such magnitude, a flag presented from the United States of America is appropriate, it's something we should do. I congratulate Mr. Hanna for bringing this bill forward, and I encourage all of my colleagues to pass it.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

I thank the chairman for recognizing me. I appreciate it very much.

I rise in strong support of the bill. It's very appropriate. The first person killed in Afghanistan was a civilian employee from my congressional district, a CIA employee, Michael Spann. I went to the funeral out at Arlington Cemetery. He was the very first person, and he was a civilian and gave his life there.

I also, about 7 or 8 months ago, went out to the agency where they had a memorial service--the President was there, as was Director Panetta--to remember the seven who were killed at that base there. You could see the young families and just the pain and the agony and the suffering. Also, the DEA; we lost three DEA people in Afghanistan fighting the drug wars. And you can go on, the Border Patrol and all the others. So I want to thank Mr. Hanna for the bill, thank the chairman for it, and thank the ranking member. This is important, I think, to do.

I want to thank the gentleman from New York, Mr. Hanna, for introducing this legislation, which authorizes the presentation of the United States flag to federal employees who have died in the line of duty.

According to the Office of Personnel Management, since 1992, nearly 3,000 federal employees have paid the ultimate price while serving their country.

Federal employees work side-by-side on the front lines with our military personnel to carry out the Global War on Terror in locations such as Iraq and Afghanistan. They put their lives at risk daily to defend our national interests.

The first American killed in Afghanistan, Mike Spann, was a CIA agent and a constituent from my congressional district. Imagine the dangers a CIA or State Department employee or DEA agent or an FBI agent working in Afghanistan with the U.S. military must encounter.

When I traveled to Afghanistan, I visited with FBI agents serving side-by-side with our military in the fight against the Taliban. DEA agents are also in Afghanistan and working to eradicate the poppy, which the Taliban and al Qaeda use as a primary source of funding in their operations. Last year, three DEA agents were killed in Afghanistan.

A year ago January, I attended funerals for some of the seven CIA agents who were killed by a Taliban suicide bomber at Forward Operative Base Chapman near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

Federal employees also put their lives on the line here at home. The Border Patrol agent shot and killed in Arizona this past December who was working to stop the flow of illegal immigrants across our southern border was a federal employee.

The three Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who were attacked, including one who was killed, outside of Mexico City were federal employees.

Each federal employee repeats the following oath: ``I, [name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.''

We fly the flag to demonstrate our support for the values and principals found in the Constitution and expressed by this oath. I believe it is appropriate to allow for the presentation of the flag if an employee is killed because they represent this oath, which is why I am a proud cosponsor of this measure.

This legislation recognizes all unsung federal employees who work to ensure that our government is running as efficiently and effectively as possible to provide the services that taxpayers expect. I urge all members to support H.R. 2061.

I thank my colleague from Maryland for yielding.

I want to congratulate Congressman Hanna. It's been a privilege to be able to work with Mr. Hanna on his efforts in resolving some issues that have held up the passage of H.R. 2061--and I'm glad that we're here today--the Civilian Service Recognition Act.

When Federal civilian servants take the oath of office, they solemnly swear to ``defend the Constitution of the United States from enemies, both foreign and domestic.'' This legislation would authorize the head of an executive agency to give a U.S. flag to the next of kin of a deceased employee who dies at home or abroad of injuries incurred in connection with his or her employment with the government. The bill specifies that the employee would have to die due to injuries sustained with a criminal act, an act of terrorism, a natural disaster, or other circumstance as determined by the President.

The legislation is a well-deserved reminder of the important work done by our civilian employees, particularly when Federal employees have been so criticized and placed on the chopping block during the recent debates. H.R. 2061 is a modest but significant show of gratitude to our Federal civilian employees and the families of deceased public servants for their duty to the United States Government.

According to the Office of Personnel Management, over 100,000 civilian Federal employees have served in Afghanistan and Iraq alongside our military forces. As the daughter of a career servicemember, I know well the numerous sacrifices that members of our armed services, public servants, and their families make, and this doesn't in any way diminish the service that they

engage in every day. What it says, though, is that for those who serve in harm's way and who lose their lives, that we value their service as well.

And very similar to members of the Armed Forces, members of the Federal civilian workforce often risk their lives to carry out official duties critical to the Federal Government's foreign and domestic missions. OPM reports that more than 3,000 Federal employees have been killed in the line of duty since 1992.

In 2008, as the gentleman from Virginia mentioned, an FBI special agent was tragically shot and killed during a joint DEA, FBI, and local police department raid. This special agent began his law enforcement career with the Ocean City, Maryland, Police Department and later served with the Baltimore, Maryland, Police Department. Another brave Marylander, a DEA special agent who graduated from the University of Maryland, was killed in 2009 when the U.S. military helicopter he was in crashed while returning from a joint counternarcotics mission in western Afghanistan.

I want to recognize the dedication of these civil servants. This is a long-overdue recognition to the 146,000 Federal employees living in Maryland's Fourth Congressional District, many of whom place their lives on the line every day. I know that when I had the privilege of joining our servicemembers and our civilians in Afghanistan, I found many employed with the Department of Agriculture, Homeland Security, the IRS--virtually every agency of the United States serving in that dangerous and hostile theater.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Congressman Hanna and the chair and ranking member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee for their work on this bill. I commend passage of this legislation and urge all my colleagues to vote in favor of H.R. 2061, the Civilian Service Recognition Act.