Silverman noted that he had just completed a round table event with Attorney General Pam Bondi and emphasized the AG’s “passion,” adding that he feels “bad for some of the criminals that are out there right now.”
He explained, “I'll tell you, man, she started very calm and peaceful. And there were moments that you could see her fire and her passion kick in, because that woman is so passionate and so dedicated to, number one, bringing back law and order here in America, making America safe again, but number two, supporting law enforcement all across the country.”
Describing his key takeaway for the FLEOA from the roundtable, Silverman effused praise on Bondi, saying, “she's absolutely amazing,” and adding, “She cares about one thing and one thing only, and that's making America safe again. So, she's going to put bad guys behind bars. She's going to put people who think they're good guys behind bars if they did something bad as well. We all need to just be careful, watch our P's and Q's and make sure that we're doing the right thing. We do the right thing every single day, like there's a camera on us every single day. We're fine.”
Reyes asked what difference Silverman and the FLEOA has seen between the four years under the administration of former President Joe Biden and the second term of President Donald Trump, and he was quick to answer: “It has to be morale.”
Silverman explained:
“Morale is on an all-time high right now Every single officer every single agent that I talked to has nothing but positive things to say that they can get out there and actually do their jobs right now. That's the big thing. They can get out there and do their jobs.
They were hired for a reason and for the last four years, unfortunately, they felt like they were handcuffed themselves, couldn't get out there, couldn't make a difference, couldn't get the bad people off the streets. And now the tide has turned, and they know they have the backing of this administration. They have the backing of the people that this administration has put in to lead the organizations that they're working for. And they're ready to kick ass and take names.”
“We've seen recruitment step up,” he continued. “All of a sudden, people are going, ‘You know what? I want to come out of retirement; I want to go back into law enforcement; I want to be a cop.’ But we still see some retention issues. I know you guys have been on the Hill all week fighting for benefits for federal law enforcement.”
Shifting to the topic of benefits for law enforcement officers, Reyes asked about the prospect of eliminating taxes on overtime, which came to be a more nuanced conversation about the differences between overtime for law enforcement versus other fields.
Reyes asked, “If you could go back to your members and say, ‘Hey guys, good news. They are eliminating tax on overtime.’ How would that go over?”
At first blush Silverman answered, “I think that would be amazing.” Then he began to describe the industry differences seen in law enforcement.
“We have to remember, federal agencies are different than state and local agencies. We get what's called law enforcement availability thing. That's 25 % of quotation mark over time that is put into our pay every single paycheck. The problem is, I don't know if they're going to exempt that.
So, what we need is we need Congress. We need them to step up. We need them to look at the federal law enforcement, see that our paying benefits are going down as state and locals are going up. They need to look at our health benefits, our retirement, which is 1.7% every single year that we work for the first 20, and then it drops down to 1% after that.
There's no reason for us to stay after 20 years when other agencies out there are getting 2.7% or 3% every year they work. It's not on the same level. We need to change the federal system. That's what we're up on Capitol Hill for. That's what I just talked at the around table with Attorney General Bondi for, and I fell them in on some of the issues that we're having. Retention is gonna be a big thing.”
Comparing to the type of restrictions on overtime pay and salary, Reyes noted that if the private sector were to adopt similar changes, “you would see a mass exit pretty quickly in the private sector.” He asked Silverman why these policies are permitted in the public sector.
Silverman noted this is a common question among law enforcement officers and posited: “If FedEx, if Amazon, any other corporation did what the federal government does to federal law enforcement, they would be arrested. They would go to jail. The company would be shut down.”
“Our overtime rate is not what a true overtime rate is,” he continued. “It should be time and a half. It's not. It's a regular, straight time. We're capped at a certain amount of money that we're allowed to make.
They can force us to work a thousand hours a week, if there was a thousand hours in a week and we're gonna get the same pay as we did for our normal pay. Why it’s there? Congress signed bills. They put things into law that federal agents are not allowed to do anything about it.”
When asked what he hopes for, Silverman replied he hopes, “The administration and Congress is gonna step up, do the right thing. Give us the pay and benefits that we're supposed to have, and we're gonna be a much safer community. We need those long-term law enforcement officers in the federal government who have been around for 20 years to want to stay another 10 years, not want to run out the door because their pay and benefits are gonna be cut. I can leave my job right now and go make more money in the private sector.
We don't want that to happen. We want people to stay. A, 'cause they love the job. I don't do this job for the money. I do it 'cause I love the job, all right? But I'm gonna leave as soon as I'm eligible to leave because there's no incentive for me to stay, and I don't wanna, God forbid, have something happen where I lose that pension.”
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Comments
2025-05-28T10:35-0400 | Comment by: Laurence
As the Bible states plainly, "A laborer is worthy of his hire" - which means if a person does good work they deserve to be paid. Why should dedicated people work for nothing. That is slavery. If members of law enforcement agencies work and do a good job, they deserve to be properly compensated.