Ranking Member Cole Remarks on H.R. 903, H.R. 2499 and H.R. 5129

Hearing

As delivered during today's hearing:

Today's hearing covers three items. The first I'll discuss, H.R. 903, the Rights for the TSA Workforce Act of 2022, should be familiar to our returning members since we considered a very similar bill two years ago. Unfortunately, the progression of time has not made this legislation any better today than it was then.

H.R. 903 would completely alter the statutory framework covering employees of the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA. If passed into law, the bill would move TSA employees onto the General Services pay scale and would bring them under Title 5 with most other federal employees.

While it may be well-intentioned, this bill does come with certain costs. It removes the flexibility that TSA has enjoyed since its inception and will limit the TSA's ability to move screeners where they are needed in order to meet security threats or passenger demands. It removes TSA's ability to immediately dismiss employees that commit serious violations of law, such as sexual assault, sexual harassment, fraud or theft.

And the policies contained in the bill are directly contrary to the recommendations contained in the 2019 report of the Blue Ribbon Panel for the Transportation Security Administration on Human Capital Service Delivery, which specifically recommended that TSA not switch to the General Services system, calling it overly rigid and outdated.

I understand that Republicans on the Committee on Homeland Security, which has jurisdiction over this measure, have expressed additional concerns about this bill. I look forward to hearing those concerns this afternoon.

The second bill I will discuss is H.R. 2499, the Federal Firefighters Fairness Act of 2022. This bill would grant federally employed firefighters a presumption that certain illnesses are proximately caused by their employment. This would make it significantly easier for these employees to receive compensation for diseases they have developed on the job.

While I am a co-sponsor of this legislation, I understand that Republicans on the Education and Labor Committee have concerns, which I look forward to hearing about today.

The final bill for today is H.R. 5129, the Community Services Block Grant Modernization Act of 2022. This bill would reauthorize the Community Services Block Grant program, or CSBG, for 10 years.

Unfortunately, the bill has significant flaws in achieving our shared goal -- lifting people out of poverty rather than trapping them in a perpetual cycle of reliance.

Again, I look forward to discussing this with my colleagues on the Education and Labor Committee. I want to express my thanks to today's witnesses, both on this bill and our other two items.

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