Congressman Gerald E. Connolly was joined by Representatives Steny H. Hoyer, Eleanor Holmes Norton, John Sarbanes, Don Beyer, John Delaney, Anthony G. Brown and Jamie Raskin in sending a letter to congressional leadership urging them to reject President Trump’s plan to cancel a scheduled pay increase for federal workers.
“It is beyond cynical that the President would cite serious economic and fiscal concerns to justify his decision to cancel a pay adjustment for middle class workers while he tweets constantly about economic gains and touts a tax bill that exploded the deficit by $1.5 trillion,” the Members wrote.
“We request that Congress provide, at the very least, a 1.9 percent federal pay adjustment, which was included in the Senate-passed Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2019,” the Members added.
Federal employees were scheduled to receive pay increase of 2.1 percent, which would have taken effect in January 2019. However, last week the President sent a letter to congressional leadership stating, “I have determined that for 2019, both across‑the‑board pay increases and locality pay increases will be set at zero.” This is just the latest in a series of attacks the Trump administration has made on federal workers, including proposed cuts to pay and pension changes, and the erosion of union representation and some workplace protections.
“The men and women of the federal workforce are the same hardworking Americans we honored on Labor Day in communities across the country,” the Members wrote. “We urge you to recognize their dedicated service to our nation with a minimum pay adjustment of 1.9 percent, as already endorsed by an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote in the Senate.”
The full letter is available here.
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