Washington, D.C. –Today, House Republicans demonstrated once again that it is no longer business as usual in the People’s House by passing H.R. 139, SHOW UP act of 2023. This legislation demands that federal employees show up to work and do their job. Congressman Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (R-TX), Vice Chairman of the House Rules Committee, released the following statement after voting in support of this legislation. 

“It is astonishingly arrogant that federal agencies choose not respond to either me or my staff in a timely fashion,” said Burgess. “Americans sent their representatives to Washington to work on their behalf. Receiving out-of-office messages or no response at all from a federal agency prevents us from serving those who elected us. 

“My office in the Rayburn House Office Building overlooks the Hubert H. Humphrey Building that houses the Department of Health and Human Services. For three years now, I have not seen a single light on, so no one must be home. The pandemic is over. It is past time that federal employees show up to work and turn the lights back on.”