Key civil service lawmakers keep Congressional seats
Key lawmakers on congressional civil service committees overwhelmingly retained their seats, according to unofficial returns released late Tuesday night.
While the president-elect will be the next CEO of the federal government, lawmakers on congressional civil service committees will be the ones pushing new federal pay and benefits and agency reform issues through the legislative process.
Here's a look at race outcomes for civil service legislators and a recap of legislation affecting federal employees that they have sponsored.
| Incumbent | Race outcome | Key legislation |
| House Government Reform Committee | ||
| Joe Scarborough, R-Fla. | Winner | Scarborough is the current chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Subcommittee on the Civil Service. In March, Scarborough introduced legislation (H.R. 4040) offering long-term care insurance for civilian and military federal employees and retirees to broad bipartisan support, which President Clinton signed into law in September. |
| Elijah Cummings, D-Md. | Winner | Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., has long been an advocate for federal workers, co-sponsoring legislation allowing all government employees and retirees the opportunity to buy private long-term care insurance at their own expense, as well as legislation to increase the amount of leave time available to a Federal employee in any year in connection with serving as an organ donor. In 1999, he opposed a recommendation in President Clinton's fiscal budget budget repealing the 1998 open season, which would permit federal employees currently enrolled in the Civil Service Retirement System to switch to the Federal Employees Retirement System. Earlier this year, he introduced legislation that would give all federal workers with at least one year of service a free home computer and unlimited Internet access. |
| Connie Morella, R-Md. | Winner | Rep. Connie Morella, R-Md., the most senior member of the civil service subcommittee, is now chairman of the House Science Subcommittee on Technology. Morella's suburban Maryland congressional district is home to many federal employees. Morella's TSP legislation bill (H.R. 208) allows federal employees to begin participating in the TSP immediately after being hired, rather than waiting a year, and permits new federal employees to roll over money from their private sector 401(k) accounts to their TSP accounts. The bill became law in October. |
| Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. | Winner | Maloney, the Ranking Minority Member on the House Subcommittee on the Census, introduced legislation in May, which would give federal parents six weeks of paid maternity or paternity leave to care for either newborn or adopted children. The Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act is awaiting action in the House. |
| Del. Eleanor Holmes-Norton, D-D.C | Winner | Del. Eleanor Holmes-Norton, D-D.C., stood on the steps of the Capitol building with federal workers this year as they lambasted the outsourcing of federal work to private companies. Holmes-Norton also signed off on a long-term care insurance bill and recently got legislation through the house allowing private sector development in the Southeast Federal Center near the Navy Yard. During a hearing in March, Holmes-Norton took the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to task for not making more of an effort to reduce complaints by federal employees. "There is a fatal flaw in the EEO process," said the former head of the EEOC. |
| Rep. Stephen Horn, R-Calif. | Winner | Rep. Stephen Horn, R-Calif., chairs the House Subcommittee on Government Management, Information, and Technology. Horn spearheaded the government's Y2K preparation effort, issuing "report cards" grading each agency's level of preparedness. In September he graded federal agencies on their computer security practices. "Obviously, there is a great deal of work ahead," Horn said, armed with a GAO report that found "serious and widespread weaknesses" in each of 24 major federal agencies' computer security systems. |
| Rep. Jim Turner, D-Texas | Winner | Rep. Jim Turner, D-Texas, is ranking minority member on the House Subcommittee on Government Management, Information, and Technology. In September, Turner introduced H.R. 5024, the Federal Information Policy Act of 2000, a bill that would create a small office that would assume many of the responsibilities currently performed by Office of Management and Budget, and would encompass all IT management functions that rely on technology within the federal government using a CIO as an adviser and visionary for IT management. Turner supported legislation introduced in April that prohibits delinquent, non-tax debtors from obtaining federal loans or loan guarantees for education, housing and small business development. |
| Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va. | Winner | Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., introduced legislation this year that would restrict the use of minimum educational requirements when federal agencies procure IT goods and services. Davis also criticized proposed changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulation, saying it put information technology companies at risk for "unfair exclusion" from the $28 billion worth of federal contracts for IT products a year. He also introduced legislation allowing federal retirees, legislative branch employees and members of the armed services to pay their health insurance premiums out of pre-tax earnings. |
| Senate Governmental Affairs Committee | ||
| Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn. | Winner | Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., is the ranking member on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. In March, he co-sponsored the Government for the 21st Century Act (S. 2306), which would charge a nine-member commission with recommending ways to streamline government operations. Earlier this year, Lieberman joined Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., in supporting federal employee unions in their attempt to block Office of Management and Budget regulations that would eliminate restrictions on per diem and relocation expenses for private contractors to the federal government. In February, Lieberman recommended that Congress take a hard line with agencies that don't employ sound security practices. |
| Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii | Winner | Akaka, the Ranking Minority Member on the International Security, Proliferation and Federal Services Subcommittee, introduced the Whistleblower Protection Act of 2000 in October, and has been a strong supporter of long-term health care for federal employees, co-sponsoring S. 1232 which provides relief to federal employees and their families who, through no fault of their own, became victims of retirement coverage mistakes. This provision was included in the long-term health care bill Clinton signed in September. In October 1999, Akaka, along with Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., introduced a bill which would provide health insurance coverage for children of federal employees when employees fail to enroll in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan (FEHBP). |