Norton to Keynote the National Treasury Employees Union Luncheon Thursday as Sequestration Looms

Washington, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will be the keynote speaker at the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) luncheon today, Thursday, February 28, 2013, at noon at the L'Enfant Plaza Hotel, about the fight to avoid the effects of the pending sequester on middle-class and low-income Americans, including federal workers, and on the slowly recovering economy.

"The $85 billion across-the-board budget cuts triggered by sequestration would add particular insult to injury for federal workers, who have already been targeted by two-plus years of pay freezes even before sequestration," said Norton. "Federal employees, who have dedicated their careers to serving the public, have repeatedly been on the front lines for cuts. However, sequestration also draws in the larger public, whom federal employees serve, in addition to the threat to the economic recovery from a spending cut-only approach to deficit reduction, which will further damper the demand from consumers the economy is thirsty for today."

Led by the Tea Party, the House majority has switched from an emphasis on avoiding defense cuts to encouraging across-the-board cuts as the only way to avoid revenue generation.

Norton, a senior member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has long been at the forefront of the fight to protect federal workers and prevent sequestration, which will go into effect on Friday and force more than a million federal workers to face unpaid leave if Congress cannot reach a resolution.

Published: February 28, 2013