Trump Wants to Freeze It. But Federal Pay Isn’t Driving Deficit

‘There’s a misconception that federal employees are all affluent,’ one advocate says

Rep. Barbara Comstock and other vulnerable House Republicans might have difficulty explaining a federal pay freeze to their constituents. Credit: Bill Clark, CQ Roll Call file photo

Federal worker compensation, repeatedly used as a piggy bank to fund other priorities earlier this decade, is once again in budget cutters’ crosshairs. The latest catalyst is President Donald Trump’s desire to shrink costs associated with the “administrative state,” both by freezing civil workers’ pay next year and making them contribute more to their pensions.

The pay freeze issue is coming to a head as soon as this month, when Congress decides whether to incorporate Trump’s proposal or allow a 1.9 percent boost to federal worker pay next year, as contained in a bipartisan Senate spending package approved on a 92-6 vote last month.

Meanwhile, uniformed military personnel are set to receive a 2.6 percent pay raise in fiscal 2019, courtesy of the defense authorization law Trump signed earlier this summer.

More on the Roll Call website here.