Press Releases

For over a quarter century, John Gage has dedicated his career to making sure that government employees can focus on working on behalf of Americans instead of having to worry about receiving the pay and benefits they have earned through their service.  As national president of the American Federation of Government Employees for the past nine years, John has been a tireless defender of our nation’s public servants during a time when they have been asked to do more with less.  Under his leadership, AFGE has continued to be a leading voice for the collective bargaining rights of all our workers in this country.  The son of a Pittsburgh steel worker and union member, John was raised among working families who saw organized labor not only as a means to defend rights but also to strengthen entire communities and help them achieve the American Dream. 

CBO’s Long-Term Budget Outlook makes it abundantly clear that our long-term structural problems should be just as concerning as the looming fiscal cliff, including the budget sequester, facing us at the end of this year.  CBO’s report is a warning that we must get our fiscal house in order by achieving big and balanced deficit reduction that includes both spending and revenues. Cutting domestic spending alone won’t work, and it will require both parties working together.  I still believe this is a goal we must pursue in Congress this year – and one that is achievable.   Doing so would provide certainty to businesses that have been holding back investment and could constitute the single greatest stimulus to our economy and job creation. 

For LGBT Americans and their families, this year’s Pride Month comes at a particularly hopeful moment for LGBT equality in America.  From support for same-sex marriage growing across the country, to this week’s federal circuit court ruling that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional, to the end of the military’s discriminatory ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy last year, there is a real and tangible sense that our nation is moving closer to full equality.

This morning’s jobs report shows that Congressional Republicans’ do-nothing, confrontation over compromise approach to jobs isn’t working.  While we continued to see the private sector add jobs for the twenty-seventh straight month, our unemployment rate has slipped back up to 8.2 percent from the three-year record low of 8.1 percent last month.  While the President and Democrats in Congress have been promoting a jobs-first agenda to provide certainty to American businesses and workers, Republicans continue to avoid addressing serious job creation in favor of ideological bills. 

I am extremely disappointed that Republicans are asking federal employees to take a freeze in pay for a third year in a row.  Federal employees have already accepted two consecutive pay freezes with the knowledge that the savings would be applied toward meeting our nation’s fiscal challenges.  At the same time Republicans were asking federal employees to contribute, they refused to ask the same of millionaires and billionaires. 

I was honored to join the President today as he signed into law a bipartisan reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank.  Democrats unanimously supported this bill in the House, and it is an important part of House Democrats’ Make It In America plan for job creation and long-term economic competitiveness. 

John Lewis was our lead sponsor on this particular piece of legislation, joined by an awful lot of people on our side of the aisle representing majority groups and representing minority groups. What John Lewis was saying was: look, in America we ought to facilitate, encourage, and make easier voting. Not doing what is happening in so many states, Al, trying to make voting more difficult to do. We want to modernize registration, we want to have a responsibility of the state and local subdivision to make sure voters are on the registration rolls and make sure they are included. We want to make sure that people with disabilities have access to the polls.

I am pleased that the Senate passed the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank that the House approved last week.  This bipartisan legislation will enable the Export-Import Bank to continue helping American businesses remain competitive in overseas markets, which will, in turn, provide manufacturers with greater certainty that they can invest in growth and create well paying jobs here in our country. 

"One of the first votes I cast as a member of the Maryland State Senate in 1967 was to repeal the anti-miscegenation statute that remained Maryland law.  It was a legacy of a discriminatory history of prejudice and segregation. It was my feeling then and now that individuals have a right to choose their partners, and society must accord them that freedom.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank my friend for yielding. I have known Mr. Berman for almost half a century. He has been an extraordinary leader, as a young person, as Chairman of this committee, as Ranking Member on this committee. And I want to thank him for his leadership on this issue. He has been instrumental. I want to thank my dear friend in whose district I used to live so many years ago, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, thank her for her leadership and her commitment. She's been a stalwart.

Over two decades ago the first President Bush signed into law the bipartisan and historic Americans with Disabilities Act. I was proud to sponsor that legislation and have worked over the last 20 years to make sure that it was effective and strengthened.

Today, the President called on Congress to take concrete steps that will help American businesses create jobs that won’t be shipped overseas.  It is very unfortunate that Republicans in control of the House have chosen to shirk their responsibilities by refusing to consider a comprehensive plan for growing jobs.  Moreover, after a year in the majority, they continue to block Democrats’ Make It In America jobs plan.