{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.warner.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/on-senate-floor-warner-asks-for-unanimous-consent-to-pass-the-protect-americas-workforce-act/", "On Senate Floor, Warner Asks for Unanimous Consent to Pass the Protect America\u2019s Workforce Act", "2026-09-24", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "VA", "Mark R. Warner", "W000805", "www.warner.senate.gov", "warner", "https://www.warner.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "BROADCAST-QUALITY VIDEO IS AVAILABLE HERE\n\nWASHINGTON \u2013 On the floor of the United States Senate today, Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) asked for unanimous consent to pass his Protect America\u2019s Workforce Act (PAWA), legislation that would repeal two union-busting executive orders and restore collective bargaining rights and workplace protections for federal workers.\n\nIn his remarks, Sen. Warner explained how the Trump administration \u201chas wanted to traumatize the federal workforce.\u201d The president \u201csigned two executive orders, one that ripped away collective bargaining rights from more than a million public servants and the other that unilaterally canceled hundreds of thousands of existing union contracts under, frankly, what I think are a false national security pretext to make it easier, frankly, to fire experienced, nonpartisan civil servants and, candidly, replace them with political loyalists.\u201d\n\nSen. Warner continued, \u201cThese executive orders reclassify entire departments and agencies \u2013 for example the whole Department of Treasury, the whole Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Communications Commission.\u201d\n\n\u201cAs I mentioned, this has already passed with a large margin, bipartisan in the Republican-controlled House,\u201d Sen. Warner said.\n\nHe then urged his colleagues to \u201cstand up for these vital and dedicated workers, protect long-standing labor protections, and the integrity of the civil service.\u201d\n\nSen. Rick Scott (R-FL) objected, blocking the bill from Senate passage.\n\nSen. Warner\u2019s full remarks as prepared are below:\n\nI rise today to remind my colleagues that federal workers do indispensable work to keep Americans safe, healthy, and informed.\n\nThey inspect our food, support our troops, respond to natural disasters, and protect our safety. They deserve basic workplace protections that prevent retaliation, discrimination, and wrongful terminations.\n\nSince taking office, the Trump Administration has treated federal workers with incredible cruelty \u2014 stripping them of basic employment rights, insulting their work, questioning their integrity, and indiscriminately firing hundreds of thousands of hardworking civil servants. This is a shameful way to treat the individuals that keep our country running every single day.\n\nI\u2019ve said this a hundred times, but federal workers are not interchangeable widgets that you can fire and replace with the snap of a finger. They are dedicated experts with irreplaceable knowledge and experience.\n\nWhen we treat these people as disposable, air traffic becomes more dangerous, our food supply becomes less safe, the health and safety of our coal miners and firefighters becomes compromised, scientific progress is halted, and our national security is placed at risk.\n\nAs part of his rampage against federal workers, last year President Trump signed two executive orders, one that ripped away collective bargaining rights from more than a million public servants and one that unilaterally canceled hundreds of thousands of existing union contracts under a false national security pretext to make it easier to fire experienced, nonpartisan civil servants and replace them with political loyalists.\n\nThrough these executive orders, President Trump has blatantly abused the authority granted to him under the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, which allows the president to limit collective bargaining agreements when there is a national security concern.\n\nNow let me be clear, as the Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I thoroughly understand the importance of making occasional exceptions to protect our national security.\n\nHowever, the Trump Administration has not utilized these exceptions in good faith.\n\nInstead, the president has inappropriately classified two-thirds of the federal workforce as having national security missions without any explanation whatsoever.\n\nThese executive orders reclassify entire departments and agencies \u2013 including the Department of Treasury, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Federal Communications Commission \u2013 stripping their employees of collective bargaining rights without explanation because, clearly, the decision was made without any reasoning.\n\nToday I urge my colleagues to join me in reversing these reckless executive orders that have stolen long-standing labor protections from our workforce by passing my bill, the Protect America\u2019s Workforce Act.\n\nOur colleagues in the House have already taken a stand against this administration\u2019s union-busting campaign by passing this bill on a bipartisan basis.\n\nNow it is our turn, here in the Senate, to pass this legislation and repeal these harmful executive orders.\n\nLet\u2019s stand up for these vital and dedicated workers, restore long-standing labor protections, safeguard the integrity of the civil service, and ensure the federal workforce can continue serving the American people.\n\n###", 1, "2026-09-25T10:04:52Z", "2026-09-25T10:05:46Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.warner.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/on-senate-floor-warner-asks-for-unanimous-consent-to-pass-the-protect-americas-workforce-act/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8420788217335939, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}