Supporting Federal Workers

Floor Speech

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Mr. CASTEN. Mr. Speaker, last week I spent an afternoon at the National Air Traffic Control Center in Aurora, Illinois. I had been invited to discuss some work our office has been doing to make sure these folks are not penalized for seeking mental health care. None of us could have anticipated that our visit would be after the crash of American flight 5342 in Washington, but it is safe to say that that office was shook. Then we started talking about mental health.

One employee said that their staff still remembers the arson attack on the facility back in 2014 and that they were nervous that recent budget cuts have limited their ability to maintain security levels at the facility.

Another employee asked how should they interpret announcements from the Trump White House that Federal employees were going to get laid off. Would they have a job? If they got laid off, who was going to do their work? How would they continue to support their families?

A female air traffic controller asked why Donald Trump immediately blamed the crash on DEI hiring practices. It wasn't lost on any of us that our air traffic controllers, like our society, are not exclusively straight, White men. She was wondering if she was about to get fired solely on account of her gender.

Now, let that all sink in. These are hardworking Federal employees who have dedicated their lives to keeping our skies safe. They are overworked, underpaid, and now they are wondering whether the President of the United States, his Republican enablers, and his IT goons are about to fire them, curtail their pay, and blame them for airline tragedies because of the way they look, who they love, and how they pray.

What possible good comes to the American people by having a bunch of stressed-out air traffic controllers?

The United States Government can't function without these nonpartisan civil servants: our air traffic controllers, our TSA agents, our VA hospital workers, and the people who make sure your Social Security payments get through.

Why would we want to break that? Maybe you want to break it because you are carrying out Russia's foreign policy. Maybe you want to break it because you are just a grifter who has figured out that you are going to short the stock market after you tank it. Maybe you are just a coward. Maybe you are an idiot. Maybe you think it is better to be proximate to power than to stand up for whatever is right. Whatever it is, it ain't patriotism, and it scares the dickens out of me that standing up for America in 2025 is a partisan endeavor.

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