IFPTE Applauds Bipartisan Kilmer/Fitzpatrick, Cardin Executive Order Repeal Legislation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON, DC – While calling for inclusion of the Kilmer/Fitzpatrick, Cardin legislation repealing the Trump Administration’s ideologically fueled Executive Orders into a COVID relief package, key officers of the International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers (IFPTE) issued the following statements:

IFPTE President Paul Shearon:
“First of all, IFPTE applauds Speaker Pelosi for including HR 6246, the bipartisan Kilmer/Fitzpatrick bill to repeal the Trump Administration’s Executive Orders aimed at eliminating collective bargaining rights in the federal sector and rendering federal workers as at-will employees into the House’s COVID3 relief bill. As IFPTE has stipulated since the inception of these Executive Orders, they have resulted in chaos in many government agencies and have emboldened rouge management practices in agencies ranging from the Social Security Administration to the Executive Office of Immigration Review. Sadly, but to no surprise, the chaos created by these Executive Orders have only hindered the government’s reaction to the COVID pandemic and should be repealed immediately.”

IFPTE Secretary-Treasurer/Legislative Director Matt Biggs:
“IFPTE thanks Representatives Kilmer and Fitzpatrick, and Senator Cardin, for authoring this much needed legislation. While the latest Senate COVID response bill does not include the Executive Order repeal legislation, we are pleased that Speaker Pelosi’s House bill does include the bipartisan language. We are hopeful that this will be a critical marker when it comes to future COVID relief bills, which are likely to come. There is little doubt that the agencies that have been emboldened by these Executive Orders have also been negligent in responding to the safety needs of their workers and the public. This is borne out in the ‘100 Ways the EOs are making the COVID Response Worse’ list.”

IFPTE Western Federal Area Vice President Lee Stone:
“The troica of anti-federal worker EOs are an ongoing unlawful and malicious attack on more than a million public servants who have dedicated their lives and considerable talent to serving the American people. Especially under the current dire circumstances, it is unconscionable for anyone to push policies that harm federal employees and undermine the federal government’s ability to provide critical services to its citizens. IFPTE therefore urges the repeal of these EOs and is grateful to those in the House and Senate who have been working so diligently to make that happen.”

IFPTE Eastern Federal Area Vice President Gay Henson:
“The upheaval and chaos brought about by the Executive Orders certainly added to the inability of many agencies to react quickly to the COVID-19 pandemic. Special thanks to Kilmer, Fitzpatrick and Cardin for your work bringing this bill forward with the aim at repealing these Executive Orders.”

IFPTE is an AFL-CIO affiliated labor union representing upwards of 90,000 workers in the United States and Canada, including tens of thousands of federal employees. 

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Contact: Candace Rhett
(202) 239-4880