Tom Davis

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to honor Helen Winter as the Mason District Council of Civic Associations' Citizen of the Year. Although Ms. Winter can boast many civic contributions, the most dramatic impact she has had on her community is her involvement with her local Adopt-a-Highway campaign. Since 1985 Ms. Winter has supervised the cleanup of Little River Turnpike, the area between Hummer Road and Braddock Road. This stretch is located between Fairfax City on the west and the City of Alexandria on the east; it is an unincorporated area and as such the Little River Turnpike would likely be cluttered with litter without the careful watch of Ms. Winter. In addition to the Turnpike, Ms. Winter spearheads the adoption of two other stretches of highway: Braddock Road between Little River Turnpike and Backlick; and John Marr Drive, between Backlick and the Columbia Pike. Ms. Winter has innovatively incorporated the Sheriff's Weekender Work Program into her efforts. She uses citizens who have been sentenced to serve community service in lieu of fines or jail time to work on her clean-up teams. In addition to her important work in the Adopt-a-Highway program, Ms. Winter is a former president of the Clean Fairfax Council. The council has enjoyed Ms. Winter's membership for the last 18 years. She heads the Annandale Cleanup Day for the Council. Ms. Winter is also a member of the Annandale Central Business District Planning Committee, and Chairwoman of the Beautification & Business Recognition Committee. While in these positions she has been responsible for the recognition awards to businesses that improved the appearance of the city of Annandale. Such improvements include: attractive street lamps, metal benches, trash receptacles, bus shelters, brick sidewalks, trees, flowers and shrubbery. Furthermore, Ms. Winter is a member of the Annandale Woman's Club and the Virginia State Women's Golf Association. She is also active in the Pinecrest Women's Golf Association, where she served two terms as president from 1999-2001. Mr. Speaker, in closing, it is with great pleasure that I extend this recognition to Ms. Helen Winters. She is a well-respected and much endeared member of her community. Her contributions to the city of Annandale, Fairfax city and the State of Virginia abound. I am very pleased to honor and congratulate Ms. Winter on her many years of service and involvement. I call upon my colleagues to join me in applauding her for all that she has done.

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to honor the 100th Anniversary of the Vienna Volunteer Fire Department. Established in 1903 at the behest of Vienna Town Councilman Leon Freeman, the Vienna Volunteer Fire Department has a long and distinguished history. Councilman Freeman served as the Department's first chief and remained active in the Department until 1936. Starting with his tenure and continuing to the present, the Vienna Volunteer Fire Department has consistently set the standard for fire safety in Fairfax County, having implemented a laundry list of groundbreaking fire safety initiatives. At the time of its founding, no other volunteer fire department existed in the region, making the Vienna Volunteer Fire Department the first of its kind in Fairfax County. It also acquired the first motorized fire protection in Fairfax County: a 1919 Model T Ford truck. The Vienna Volunteer Fire Department exemplifies the success that can be achieved by volunteerism. Working together with Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department career staff, volunteers provide professional emergency response capabilities to the Town of Vienna and surrounding Fairfax County. Supported primarily by citizen donations and departmental fundraising activities, the department was able to stay up-to-date by purchasing over $500,000 worth of equipment in 2002. The volunteers attend fire and medical training courses and host public education events during Kids Safety Week and Fire Prevention Week. In our nation's time of need on September 11, 2001, the Fairfax County career staff assigned to Vienna were deployed to the Pentagon to assist with fire and rescue operations. To help cover both Vienna and other areas in Fairfax County during their absence, the volunteers staffed additional emergency medical units, playing a vital role in helping our community to cope with the crisis. Today, the Vienna Volunteer Fire Department consists of over 50 active volunteer firefighters, EMTs and administrative personnel. The membership also includes 13 Life Members, each having served 20 years or more, and some having served more than 60 years. Their dedication to public service has been selfless, consistent, and invaluable to the region. Fairfax County is truly indebted to the assistance provided by the Vienna Volunteer Fire Department. I ask that my colleagues join me in congratulating these outstanding individuals on their century of service.

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. I yield to the gentleman from Maryland.

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. I appreciate the gentleman's comments, and we did take some of his suggestions in the markup. The gentleman's testimony was not for naught.

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. I yield to the gentleman from California.

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. I yield to the gentleman from California.

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman, but let me just say it is 320,000 uniform personnel doing jobs that civil servants are certainly capable of doing. These are 320,000 we had to call up from the Reserves to do work, potentially, that could have gone and stayed with their families and everything else because of these arcane rules. In addition to this, Under Secretary Wolfowitz testified under oath that this would increase the number of Federal civil servants. So this idea that it is going to lead to more contracting out is not only bunk, it is disingenuous, it is wrong, and I think it takes civil servants in the wrong direction. Let me correct a couple of other things that have been said in the debate. We had a Member yesterday say that the right to receive veterans preference is gone, the right to discrimination protection, gone. Veterans preference, located in chapters 33 and 35 of title V, those are nonwaivable under this legislation. Discrimination protection is located in 2302(b)(2) of title V and explicitly referred to in this legislation. Overtime pay in chapter 55 of title V, also nonwaivable. In fact, for middle-level managers, what we have done is corrected some inequities in overtime pay. Currently, GS-12s, 13s, and 14s receive less working overtime than they receive in ordinary pay, and we have corrected that in this. This is a benefit to managers. We have raised the level that SES'rs and managers can get in bonus over what the current level is. So we have raised the levels of what Federal employees can earn. As far as collective bargaining, NSPS states that we must ensure that employees may organize, bargain collectively, and participate through labor organizations of their own choosing. As for the right to an attorney, which was alleged to have been taken away, we do not mention it, but neither does the underlying legislation, and we have established an independent review panel to consider employee grievances. We have worked hard on this legislation. We held a couple of hearings in the Committee on Government Reform on this, but, most importantly, this is designed from nine pilot programs where the Federal employees themselves have spoken to this and have voted strongly to opt for the new systems versus the existing system. It does not pay for performance; it pays on a seniority basis. This will allow us to expedite hiring. It will allow us to do the kinds of things that we have already given other Federal agencies. This is not new ground. There are numerous Federal agencies currently, in sections 71, 73, and 75, that we have waived or altered, and we do this here. In fact, there is less flexibility here than Congress recently gave to the Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Speaker, I might add, my colleagues who are arguing against this opposed those provisions in the Department of Homeland Security bill. We had an ensuing election on this issue. The voters spoke, and I think we have visited this issue once. There are fewer flexibilities here than we have in that as well. I want to say a couple of other things. The Committee on Armed Services also had a day-long hearing and a 2-day markup of the DOD authorization bill. Dozens of the amendments offered there were also offered in our committee, and the votes were party line on these issues. They want to bring these same issues to the floor. I am not happy with every part of this rule. I had several amendments, particularly on the procurement side, that were part of the Committee on Government Reform's markup that were not included in the DOD bill that I could not get offered here. I understand the disappointment of those Members who are not able to have those heard at this point. But 40,000 employees with over 20 years of experience want a new system, and defense of the current system not only leads to more outsourcing, it does not lead to the kind of performance-based pay and the salary levels that many of our best Federal employees are deserving of. I worked in the private sector for a number of years. I worked for a company where our best asset was not our computers or our building; it was our people. They walked out the door every night; and we prayed to get them back because replacing them was costly, it created more inefficiencies, and it made us less competitive. Those factors in the private sector ought to be extended to the public sector because our employees are our best asset, too. But I think we need to treat them well, I think we need to give them appropriate safeguards, which this legislation does. The unknown and the concerns by some on the other side are that all of this is not written by Congress. But we have put appropriate safeguards in this legislation. This will be part of a later debate, but I certainly support the rule.

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I include for the Record an editorial from the Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld, printed in today's Washington Post. Defense for the 21st Century (By Donald H. Rumsfeld) Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) laid out a number of objections on this page yesterday to the president's proposed Defense Transformation Act for the 21st Century. I respect Mr. Skelton's long service, but I disagree with many of his stated objections. Here is why. Skelton argues that this legislation is the most sweeping overhaul of the Defense Department since the 1986 Goldwater- Nichols Act. He may be right--but that is precisely the point. We are at this moment fighting the first wars of the 21st century with a department that has management and personnel systems developed decades ago, at the height of the Cold War. The threats we face today are notably different from that era. We learned on Sept. 11, 2001, that our nation is vulnerable to enemies who hide in the caves and shadows and strike in unexpected ways. That is why we must transform our armed forces. Our forces need to be flexible, light and agile, so they can respond quickly and deal with surprise. The same is true of the men and women who support them in the Department of Defense. They also need flexibility, so that they can move money, shift people, design and deploy new weapons more rapidly and respond to the continuing changes in our security environment. Today we do not have that kind of agility. In an age--the information age--when terrorists move information at the speed of an e-mail, money at the speed of a wire transfer and people at the speed of a commercial jetliner, the Defense Department is still bogged down in the bureaucratic processes of the industrial age. Consider: we have more than 300,000 uniformed personnel doing jobs that should be done by civilians. That means that nearly three times the number of troops that were on the ground in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom are doing nonmilitary jobs that should be done by civilian personnel. Why is that? It's because when managers in the department want to get a job done, they go to the military. They know they can manage military people, put them in a job, give them guidance, transfer them from one task to another and change the way they do things. They can't do that with the civil service, because it is managed outside the Defense Department by others, with a system of rules and requirements fashioned for a different era. The defense authorization bill has grown from only one page in 1962 to a whopping 534 pages in 2001. The department is required to prepare and submit some 26,000 pages of justification, and more than 800 required reports to Congress each year--many of marginal value, most probably not read. Since 1975, the time it takes to produce a new weapons system has doubled, even as new technologies are arriving in years and months, not decades. We are working to fix problems that we have the freedom to fix. We have reduced management and headquarters staffs by 11 percent, streamlined the acquisition process by eliminating hundreds of pages of unnecessary rules and red tape, and begun implementing a new business management structure. But we also need legislative relief. That is why we are asking for: Measures for transforming our system of personnel management, so that we can gain more flexibility and agility in the way we manage the more than 700,000 civilians in the department. And let me be clear: The provisions we have proposed explicitly bar nepotism. Expanded authority for competitive outsourcing so that we can get military personnel out of nonmilitary tasks and back into the field. Measures to protect our military training ranges so that our men and women in uniform will be able to train as they fight, while honoring our steadfast commitment to protecting the environment. It is true, as Rep. Skelton notes, that the Goldwater- Nichols Act took four years for Congress to pass. But we do not have four years to wait before we transform--the new threats are here now. If anything, our experience in the global war on terror has made the case for transformation even more urgent. Because our enemies are watching us-- studying how we were successfully attacked, how we are responding and how we might be vulnerable again. In distant caves and bunkers, they are busy developing new ways to harm our people--methods of attack that could kill not 3,000 people, but 30,000 or 300,000--or more. And they are not struggling with bureaucratic red tape fashioned in the last century as they do so. The fact is that the transformation of our military capabilities depends on the transformation of the way the Defense Department operates. This does not mean an end to congressional oversight. What it means is that we need to work together to ensure the department has the flexibility to keep up with the new threats emerging as this century unfolds.

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentlewoman yielding me this time. First of all, civil servants have had a large role in shaping this. There have been nine pilot programs the Department of Defense has piloted through the years, and in all of those cases, civil servants have, in many cases contrary to the labor bosses, opted for the new system as opposed to the old system with which they are currently operating. The problem with the current system today is that we are contracting out where we ought to be able to use Federal employees because we do not have the flexibility in terms of deployment. So we are using uniformed officers behind desks to get jobs done, Federal contractors to get jobs done, what Federal workers are, in many cases, more capable of doing, and that is wrong.

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. I yield to the gentleman from Maryland.

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. As I stated earlier, we debated these thoroughly in both committees. I cannot speak to every amendment that is being offered on the floor of the House. I understand the gentleman's concern. I know we will get debate on the motion to recommit, and we are debating it now. But I was also disappointed in not being able to offer some amendments. In addressing that issue, I think that is probably above my pay grade.

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. Although we were privileged to have the gentleman testify before us.

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Chairman, hopefully this bonus pool will reward hard-working Federal employees who exhibit great merit. I urge adoption of the amendment.

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn).

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Chairman, not only are we for it, there is language in this underlying legislation that calls for pay parity to the maximum extent practicable.

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. Absolutely.

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Chairman, I offer amendment No. 4 made in order under the rule.

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I rise to offer an amendment to authorize the establishment of a Human Capital Performance Fund, a fund that would enable agencies to reward their highest-performing and most valuable employees at various and sundry GS levels. This is a common-sense idea that the current civil service laws prohibit. In his fiscal year 2004 budget submission to the Congress, the President proposed the creation of a Human Capital Performance Fund that would provide for a base pay increase of up to 10 percent to individual employees based on exceptional employees' contribution to an agency's mission. H.R. 1836, the Civil Service and National Security Personnel Improvement Act, which the gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter) and I introduced last month, included this language that I am offering here today. In addition, the Human Capital Performance Fund was approved by the Committee on Government Reform during its consideration of this legislation. The incentive payments paid to employees from this performance fund would be, number one, in addition to an employee's current salary and general schedule grade; second, continuing rather than just a one-time bonus; and, third, part of a base pay for purposes of retirement and other benefits. This amendment would authorize $500 million for the fund for fiscal year 2004, in which 90 percent would be available to the agencies. The other 10 percent would be used to train Federal managers on how to effectively manage and evaluate employee performance. To qualify for funds from this fund agencies must submit a plan demonstrating its performance management system supports its strategic goals and performance objectives and is able to make a meaningful distinction in individual performance. In addition, the Committee on Government Reform included additional requirements that agencies must certify that their agency plans contain certain elements that are essential to a good performance management system, such as adherence to merit principles, transparency, employee feedback, and sufficient training. The statement of administration policy strongly endorses the authorization of the performance fund. I believe it will go a long way toward moving the government-wide human capital management agenda forward. I urge adoption of this amendment. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. I yield to the gentleman from Maryland.

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 15 seconds. Let me assure the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) that this is in addition to. This is supplemental to what would ordinarily be paid. The underlying legislation speaks to that. This is a half billion in additional compensation to Federal employees, and I want to put that on the record. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murphy).

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time. I thank the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) for some of the clarifications he brought forth. It is very clear that underlying pay parity is something I feel strongly about. That needs to be in the record. In addition, this bonus builds for calculations for retirement, something that current bonuses do not. Pay parity has been an issue not just with this administration but with previous administrations, and we have joined together in a bipartisan way to overturn those, and will be fighting that battle again this year.

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, this amendment was offered and rejected in the Committee on Government Reform. The gentleman is right, it was 100 years ago; and today we are in an information age when terrorists move information at the speed of an e- mail, money at the speed of a wire transfer, and people at the speed of a commercial jet liner. But the Department of Defense is still bogged down in bureaucratic processes in an industrial age that goes back 100 years. Now, we preserve the rights the gentleman talked about, and he alluded to the fact, I am holding up the bill and ask you to read these. This section 9902 has 10 pages of fundamental employee protections. We include Chapters 33 and 35 of title V, which cover veterans' preferences with nonwaivable chapters. The NSPS strictly forbids political patronage and mandates that the Department comply with all existing civil service protections, sex, age, race discrimination. That is in section 2301 and section 2302 of title V. Nepotism protections, section 2302, are not waived. They remain in this legislation. The amendment would require employees to be able to collectively bargain. The legislation at 9902 specifically says that employees may organize, bargain collectively, and participate through labor organizations of their own choosing. And section 9902, the gentleman from New York (Mr. McHugh) offered an amendment in committee that sets up an independent employee review panel appointed by the President, not the Secretary of Defense. The McHugh amendment took care of that problem. These flexibilities are less in most cases than what we just gave the Department of Homeland Security less than a year ago and which dozens of other government departments have. We need to understand that. And they are based on the experience of nine pilot programs and 40,000 employees who have voted, in many cases against the union bosses who oppose them, to continue these kinds of reforms. Let us take the civil service into the 21st century, and let us pay our employees what they are worth.

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Mr. Art Kellar, an outstanding citizen of Fairfax, Virginia, who, for over half a century, has served his community and country. Art and his wife Betty made the initial gift to establish the Inova Kellar Center in 1992. The Kellars personally understood the need for a mental health care facility for children and adolescents--and their families--suffering from substance abuse and mental health problems, so they decided to do something about the lack of such a facility in our area by starting the Inova Kellar Center. The Center reaches out to children and families suffering from the effects of mental health and substance abuse problems. The Center offers programs ranging from in- home services for families with at-risk adolescents to a fully certified, accredited therapeutic day school providing comprehensive treatment to its pupils. Children and adolescents from Northern Virginia, DC, and suburban Maryland currently come to the Inova Kellar Center for treatment. A not-for-profit outpatient mental health and substance abuse treatment center, the Inova Kellar Center has filled what was a gaping void in our community since its founding over a decade ago. Mr. Kellar's contributions to the community, however, began long before 1992. He served our country in the Second World War in Italy, moving to Fairfax upon his return from service. He has long been an innovator and creator--a quick glance at his biography reveals the word ``founder'' perhaps more often than any other word! He founded OK Broadcasting in 1955 with George Olsen and sold it in 1978. He also founded EZ Communications in Fairfax in 1967 with WEZR-FM, which then expanded to Charlotte, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Miami, and St. Louis. At the same time he acquired 9 stations in other cities, finally selling the flagship station in 1996 at a sizable profit for his many investors. A generous philanthropist, Mr. Kellar has used his high earnings to make the community a better place, giving kindly to the aforementioned Inova Kellar Center and George Mason University. Here is a man who donates his resources to bettering two crucial pillars of society: Health and Education. And he understands that the way to make a difference in the world is to start in your local community. Mr. Kellar loves golf and the Redskins--it seems to follow naturally that he loves and works to improve northern Virginia. Literally thousands of workers owe their careers to Mr. Kellar. Northern Virginia joins these people in their debt of gratitude to Art Kellar, and extends him heartfelt thanks for his continuing role in bettering the lives of children, adolescents, and families. Mr. Chairman, the life and service of this Virginian serve as a shining example to all who wish to improve health and education through civic and philanthropic involvement.

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2, the Jobs and Growth Tax Act of 2003. Although there is general consensus among many economic forecasters that our economy is poised to grow at a faster pace than it has over the last year, action is necessary in order to hasten the recovery. While GDP has continued to increase, the modest increases we have been witnessing are not sufficient to stabilize employment. Consumer confidence and spending have improved, however business and investor confidence have not followed suit. The legislation before us today will stimulate growth and investment, and expedite our economic recovery. First, this legislation will increase purchasing power for all Americans through an acceleration of the 2001 tax cuts for individuals. Accelerating tax relief from the marriage penalty, increasing the child tax credit, expansion of the 10 percent tax bracket and providing working families with relief from the AMT will help to give our economy an immediate stimulus. Secondly, this package creates business and investment incentives to spur business growth, ultimately leading to job creation. Increases in depreciation allowances for business and an increased allowance for expensing capital purchases for small business will promote capital investment, putting more money back into the economy and creating more jobs. These provisions will work to counteract the general climate of caution in the business sector that has resulted in layoffs, a reluctance to invest in new capacities, and aggressive actions to maintain low levels of inventories. Finally, the bill reduces the tax rate on dividends and capital gains to spur investment and business growth. Today, we are faced with the simple fact that the overall economy cannot improve until the stock market recovers. Additionally, today, eighty-four million Americans, over 50 percent of our population, are invested in the stock market, and investment plays an increasingly important role in our individual financial security. With much of this investment in 401(k)s, IRAs and pension plans, it is vital to many Americans that we do all we can to increase the growth of the stock market. Additionally, capital gains tax reductions have historically resulted in freeing stranded capital locked in mature investments as well as increasing capital for new investment. The reduction of the tax rate on dividends and capital gains to 5 percent and 15 percent will increase the purchasing power of individuals, stimulate investment and capital formation in business, and increase job creation through business growth. For these reasons, Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this measure, in support of an immediate stimulus and infusion of confidence in our economy, in support of creating jobs, and in support of long-term economic stability and growth for the future.