Cancels pay raises for almost 2 million federal workers

Trump cancels pay raises for almost 2 million federal workers

‘In light of our nation’s fiscal situation, federal employee pay must be performance-based,’ the president wrote in a Thursday letter to congressional leaders.

By SARAH FERRIS and IAN KULLGREN

President Donald Trump announced Thursday he was canceling across-the-board pay raises for civilian workers across the federal government, citing the “nation’s fiscal situation.”

“We must maintain efforts to put our nation on a fiscally sustainable course, and federal agency budgets cannot sustain such increases,” the president wrote in a letter to congressional leaders.

Under Trump’s policy, roughly 1.8 million people wouldn’t get an automatic pay boost next year, including Border Patrol and ICE agents.

That stance puts vulnerable GOP lawmakers representing northern Virginia — home to tens of thousands of federal workers — in the political crosshairs. And it sets up an all-but-certain funding fight with Congress next month, as party leaders attempt to reach a sweeping agreement to keep the government open before the start of the next fiscal year on Oct. 1.

Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.), an endangered GOP incumbent in the House, said she would work to reverse the pay freeze.

“We cannot balance the budget on the backs of our federal employees and I will work with my House and Senate colleagues to keep the pay increase in our appropriations measures that we vote on in September,” Comstock wrote in a sharply worded statement.

“Our office opposes this and will be working with other offices next week on this issue,” Rep. Scott Taylor (R-Va.), who is also facing a tough reelection, wrote on Twitter.

The Senate has already backed a 1.9 percent pay raise for civilian federal employees this year, but House Republicans have approved their own spending bill that endorses the White House’s pay freeze.

Most civilian workers are slated to receive a 2.1 percent increase under a years-old government formula. But the president argues that pay raises should be tied to “performance” rather than “across-the-board” increases.

Trump would also nix extra pay for federal workers living in more expensive parts of the country, including Washington, D.C., where the cost-of-living adjustment amounted to a pay increase of just less than 1 percentage point. This adds up to about $25 billion next fiscal year, according to the White House.

The backlash on Thursday was evident from union leaders across the federal government.

Robert Martinez Jr., president of the Machinists Union International, called it a “slap in the face” for workers.

“We are approaching a dangerous national security situation when we will be unable to attract the best and brightest to fill important roles within our federal government,” Martinez said in a statement.

Rank-and-file Democrats, including Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), are pushing negotiators in both chambers to agree to override Trump‘s proposal by the deadline.

“Congress can and must stand up to the President and reject this assault on our federal workers by passing the 1.9 percent pay raise that the Senate approved on August 1,” Warner said in a statement.

White House administrations typically issue pay orders at the end of August — often with a small raise — to avoid costly automatic pay increases in the absence of a spending bill in place by Oct. 1, said Tim Kauffman, a spokesman for the American Federation of Government Employees.

Union officials say Congress should avoid that outcome by approving at least the 1.9 percent increase already approved in the Senate.

“Federal employees deserve the full measure of pay comparability provided by the law, and a 1.9 percent increase is the minimum that Congress should consider,” American Federation of Government Employees President J. David Cox said in a statement.

Last year, Congress and the White House agreed to an average pay raise of 1.4 percent for federal civilian workers and 2.1 percent for uniformed service members. This year, members of the military are slated for a 2.6 percent raise — the largest in a decade.

Under the Obama administration, civilian workers were subjected to multiple years of pay freezes as the federal government weathered the recession. Trump’s move is unexpected, though, in a soaring economy that surged 4.2 percent last quarter.

It’s the latest example of the Trump administration’s ongoing battle against government employee unions.

This spring, Trump signed executive orders to make it easier for managers to fire underperforming federal employees and to order the renegotiation of collective bargaining agreements.

This week, a judge struck down key parts of those orders, arguing that Trump exceeded his authority by intentionally seeking to hamstring unions’ ability to negotiate.