Our congressman values and supports all of Southern Maryland’s federal workers

As former federal employees and constituents of House Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md., 5th), at this most critical time, we would like to validate Congressman Hoyer’s leadership and support of our federal community.

District 5 is home to thousands of federal civil ser vants, often unsung heroes, who daily demonstrate courage and patriotism on behalf of the American public. Feds process our Social Security checks, keep our food supply and airports safe and secure, assist in natural disasters, promote public health and protect our homeland, among millions of other services.

Hoyer has voted in favor of several bills and amendments that would have: replaced the cost-of-living adjustment through a switch to Chained Consumer Price Index; increased federal employees’ contribution toward retirement with no benefits increase; based federal retirement benefits on the highest five (rather than the previous highest three) years’ salary; vouchered the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program; and eliminated the Federal Employees Retirement System annuity supplement, among others.

Mr. Hoyer and our Mar yland lawmakers most recently sent an urgent letter to the Republican leadership to reject the proposal to rescind a modest 1.9 percent pay increase for federal workers. This increase was already included in the bipartisan, Senate-passed appropriations bill for fiscal 2019.

Mr. Hoyer repeatedly reminds Congress that the federal community has already contributed more than our fair share.

He opposes any efforts to balance the budget on the backs of public servants. He continually states that feds bring extraordinar y value to the citizens we ser ve and should be compensated with pay and benefits to enable our U.S. government to attract the best and the brightest.