00:00Chair now recognizes Mr. Turner from Ohio. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I strongly support
00:06President Trump's efforts and voted for the fiscal year 2025 budget reconciliation
00:13effort in the House. I will be opposing this committee's bill today. I gave this committee
00:21prior heads up prior to this markup of my opposition to this bill and sought changes
00:27to this bill. I do not believe that this bill represents Republican values, and I don't
00:33believe that it represents American values. I believe that making changes to pension retirement
00:40benefits in the middle of someone's employment is wrong. Changing the rules, especially when
00:47someone has already been vested in their benefits, is wrong. Employee benefits are not a gift.
00:55They are earned. When someone goes to work every day, what they believe that they're earning
01:01includes the benefits both that they earn in their wages, but also the benefits that they
01:08are told that they are receiving. I have fought to try to get the Delphi's salary retirees'
01:15pension benefits restored that were taken away from them during the Obama administration, and
01:19I'm not going to fight to have one group's pension benefits restored and then vote to take away
01:24another group's pension benefits. I understand the need for reform, and certainly we can have
01:30changes that occur in benefits for new hires. We can certainly look prospectively, but I do think
01:37that for current employees to change the rules for people in the middle of the game is wrong.
01:46I have talked to enough people on the House floor that I do think that this will not be included in the
01:50final bill, and that this bill ultimately will have to be changed if it's going to be included in the
01:56ultimate budget reconciliation. So I will be voting no, and I certainly hope that this process as it goes
02:05through will be changed, because I do not think that it is fair and it represents either Republican values
02:12or American values. I think that we as a party stand up for pensions, and I don't think that we should
02:19say to the American public that we will change someone's pension in the middle of the process of their employment.
02:26I yield back.
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