News Journal: Federal employees should receive thanks and raises

Last week, many of us watched an NBC news clip of Representative Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) attacking a Park Ranger for enforcing the closing of the World War II memorial, a closing made necessary by the government shutdown.

“How do you deny them access?” the congressman asked.

“It’s difficult,” said the ranger.

“Well, it should be difficult.”

“I am sorry, sir.”

“The Park Service should be ashamed of themselves.”

“I am not ashamed.”

“You should be.”

That strange and painful exchange made a lot of us wince. But if you are a federal employee, it was one more morale-busting reminder of how your service to your country is held in contempt by some political leaders. Perhaps by the time this column appears there will be some resolution to the shutdown and the threat of defaulting.

Most of the federal employees I know could make more money working in the private sector. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, white-collar federal employees now make on average 35 percent less than employees in the private sector –up from a 26 percent gap last year. Time and again we are told that corporations must pay huge salaries to their officers in order to compete. Yet we continue to ask federal employees to do more for less pay and with fewer resources.

Take the IRS, where we can easily quantify the results of budget cuts. Even before the sequester, the IRS workforce had been reduced by 14 percent. As a result in 2012, IRS revenue from enforcement actions was $7.4 billion lower than in 2010.

In July House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) proposed appropriating $9 billion to the IRS, $3 billion less than allocated in 2013. Obviously this will reduce government revenues and increase the deficit. But it will also make already-thankless jobs even less appealing. Of all government employees, those in the IRS have probably the easiest time making the transition to the private sector and increasing their income. Do we really want to decimate an agency that performs an absolutely essential service?

Another agency where you can quantify what is happening is the FBI. On his first tour of field offices, James Comey, the new director, learned that the FBI had stopped training recruits at Quantico, and, as reported in the Washington Post, “new intelligence investigations were not being opened. Criminal cases were being closed. Informants couldn’t be paid. And there was not enough funding for agents to put gas in their cars.”

What is happening at the FBI, the IRS, and the Park Service is happening throughout hundreds of essential agencies. Max Stier, president of the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, summed it up in an op-ed in the Washington Post: “Congress is harming the federal workforce. People are being asked to do their jobs without appropriate resources. They are being furloughed. Pay freezes have been in effect for three years. Morale is plummeting. Would anyone run a business this way? Would you encourage your children to devote their careers to public service?”

For many years, perhaps the most enduring political argument we have had in this country has involved how great a role government should play in our lives. Until very recently, that healthy argument was between those who sometimes wanted government to do more and those who sometimes wanted it to do less. Until very recently, compromises were always reached because there was no disagreement that a functioning government was necessary.

That is no longer true. Instead of arguing for limited government, some in Congress seem to be against any government at all. Federal employees are paying a terribly high price for that right now. In the long run, we all will.

Ted Kaufman is a former U.S. Senator from Delaware.