We may no longer have a government openly attacking its own workforce, but it remains a shockingly dishonest narrative in Washington about federal employees that cannot be dismissed as a routine political controversy.
In a deliberate and deliberate political debate over paid family leave for federal servants, a recent congressional hearing instead turned into whimsical attacks on the integrity and worth of frontline federal workers across the country.
The Republican members of the House Oversight and Reform Committee were spearheaded by Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, who disparaged a paid family vacation program as “improved work perks for federal bureaucrats who are already enjoying a plentiful array of benefits.”
My members and federal employees across the country criticize this degrading and inaccurate characterization and refusal to seriously consider a program that would assist workers and their families in times of crisis. In response, New York Democratic MP Carolyn Maloney, chair of the committee and sponsor of the Paid Family Vacation Act, led a staunch defense by the officials.
It is possible to ask meaningful questions about the necessity of the program – whether it would help attract and retain skilled workers, how much it would cost, the logistics of its implementation, or how it protected against fraud – without attacking our country’s workforce .
This hearing should have been a substantive and informative investigation for the committee responsible for government oversight. Instead, it was a competition to see how many ways certain members could offend federal employees by claiming federal employees were lying about the need for paid family leave; that it’s an extravagant perk that they don’t deserve; that they already have too much free time every year; and that anyone who needs paid family vacation lacks personal responsibility.
Teleworking has also been attacked for unknown reasons. The program, which has enabled hundreds of thousands of federal employees to continue performing their agencies’ missions during a deadly global pandemic, has inexplicably been portrayed as an “out of work” federal employee.
Paid family vacation is not a benefit. It’s an extension of the unpaid leave provided by the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which we all know has extensive entitlement and documentation requirements, as well as strict limits.
It’s for the federal employee whose spouse spends the week in intensive care after having a heart attack. Or the one whose elderly mother only stays in the hospice for a few days. Or the one whose child is recovering from a serious injury and cannot go to school or daycare.
Too often federal employees who have used up their sick leave and annual leave to care for a family member have got into debt during the unpaid leave and are stressed about both when they return to work.
It doesn’t have to be like that. In fact, there is strong cross-party support in this country to reduce the burden on workers in times of crisis. We are confident that a serious, honest debate at the highest level of government would force Congress to implement these decent workplaces in federal agencies, and perhaps someday in every work place in America.
Tony Reardon is the National President of the National Treasury Employees Union.
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