Secret Service Overtime Pay Extension Act

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6893) to amend the Overtime Pay for Protective Services Act of 2016 to extend the Secret Service overtime pay exception through 2019, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days 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.

Mr. Speaker, the U.S. Secret Service is the premier protective agency in the world. Secret Service agents and officers play a vital role in defending the President, high-ranking government officials, and events of national significance.

Protection is a round-the-clock job, and Secret Service personnel often work extensive overtime to fulfill their zero-fail mission.

Under current law, Federal employees across the government may not be paid above an annual premium pay cap. The cap consists of base pay, including locality pay, and premium pay, such as overtime. The cap is in place to ensure a hierarchy of pay so that frontline employees do not earn more than their supervisors who are ineligible for overtime pay. It also helps to control agency spending on compensation.

The cap, however, has led to issues at the Secret Service. Due to a staffing shortage and increased protective responsibilities, Secret Service personnel are expected to work increasing amounts of overtime, causing them to hit the premium pay cap well in advance of the end of the year.

Secret Service personnel are expected to continue working once they hit the cap, but they receive no extra compensation for this work. This phenomenon is known as maxing out at the agency, and it can cause morale and attrition problems.

Committee staff recently traveled to observe Secret Service operations in Europe. During that trip, the topic of maxing out came up as an issue consistently on the minds of personnel in the field. The maxing out issue is expected to get worse in 2020, when the burdens of the Presidential campaign cycle cause a large increase in hours worked by the Secret Service.

In the previous Presidential election cycle, Congress raised the premium pay cap for Secret Service personnel to the Executive Schedule Level II, ensuring Secret Service personnel receive additional compensation commensurate with the amount of time they must work.

This waiver of the governmentwide premium pay cap was extended to the end of 2018 by the Secret Service Recruitment and Retention Act. Without a further extension, Secret Service personnel will once again be subject to the lower pay cap.

H.R. 6893 extends the premium pay cap waiver to the end of 2020. Between 700 and 900 personnel will be eligible for extra pay in 2019, while approximately 1,150 will be eligible in 2020.

The bill also continues a series of reports due to Congress on the premium pay cap, to ensure its appropriate use.

Extending the premium pay cap waiver also gives time for the Government Accountability Office to complete ongoing review of the Secret Service's staffing issues.

Finally, it ensures the agency doesn't backtrack on staffing progress made to date. The Oversight and Government Reform Committee continues to maintain that the premium pay cap waiver cannot be a permanent change and that the Secret Service must fix its own staffing issues and problems.

For now, however, I do urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I will take just a moment to give a huge thank you to the sponsor of this bill, Mr. Steve Russell from Oklahoma. Unfortunately, his flight was delayed. I know he would have loved to have been here to speak on this bill. I give a shout-out to him, thanking him for his leadership here. And also, as the gentleman from Massachusetts mentioned, other cosponsors, Mr. Cummings, Mrs. Watson Coleman, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Katko), and others, thanks to each of them.

Mr. Speaker, may the gentleman from Massachusetts be aware that I have no further speakers, and I am prepared to close.

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

Mr. Speaker, I also urge adoption of this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, first of all, I thank and acknowledge the remarks of the gentleman from Georgia on this bill. As ranking member of the Subcommittee on National Security, I also express my strong support for H.R. 6893, the Secret Service Overtime Pay Extension Act, introduced by my friend Steve Russell from Oklahoma, who is the chairman of our subcommittee.

In light of previous legislation reported out of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on a bipartisan basis, this bill would ensure that the United States Secret Service retains the ability to provide overtime pay to its dedicated workforce for the additional work that agents will be required to perform in 2019 and through the 2020 Presidential election process.

The bipartisan investigation conducted by our committee during the 114th Congress examined how best to strengthen the core protective mission of the Secret Service. The Secret Service is our Nation's primary security force for the protection of the President, the First Family, Presidential candidates, and, when necessary, other elected officials and world leaders.

The Secret Service currently faces serious administrative challenges. According to the bipartisan report unanimously adopted by our committee in 2016, chief among those challenges is a staffing crisis that poses perhaps the greatest threat to the agency and that allowed a series of brazen security breaches during both the Obama and Trump administrations.

The safety and security of the Secret Service mission demands that the Congress provide sufficient funding to restore the agency to adequate staffing levels. At a minimum, we must first ensure that the agency retains the basic ability to compensate its agents with the overtime pay that they have earned and that they deserve.

In 2017, we passed legislation on a bipartisan basis to retroactively authorize overtime pay for the thousands of additional hours worked by Secret Service employees in the midst of an extraordinarily taxing and extended 2016 Presidential campaign season.

Recognizing that the agency now provides security details for a President with a larger First Family and multiple and extensive travel schedules, we subsequently passed legislation extending that authorization through 2018.

As underscored by the Federal union representing rank-and-file Secret Service agents, the 2020 Presidential campaign season is expected to involve the participation of multiple candidates who may require earlier Secret Service protection than customary and include an extended Presidential primary cycle, thereby imposing further demands on the already understaffed Secret Service workforce.

That is why our committee approved Representative Steve Russell's legislation to fund overtime pay for the Secret Service for calendar year 2019, as well as an amendment introduced by our full committee ranking member, the gentleman from Maryland, Elijah Cummings, to extend this authorization through the 2020 campaign year. I note that the 2- year authorization request was specifically supported by the Secret Service.

The hardworking men and women of the Secret Service put their lives on the line every day and make tremendous personal sacrifices for our country. Congress has a fundamental responsibility to provide the resources that they need to do their jobs safely and successfully.

While I believe Congress should also spend some time working together on a permanent fix to this problem, I, nevertheless, stand proud to join my colleagues in this bipartisan effort to support the Secret Service in this effort.

Mr. Speaker, I also urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers.

Mr. Speaker, again, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 6893, which was received from the House.

I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.