Congress Targets Your Wallet Once Again with New Bills Freezing Step Increases; Reducing Workforce
Monday, February 6, 2012(National Federation of Federal Employees)
Two new bills
targeting your pay and jobs were introduced
last week, adding more measures to the litany
of anti-federal worker bills already under
consideration in this Congress. As you recall,
lawmakers voted to extend the federal pay
freeze through 2013 on
Wednesday, February 1st, sending the bill over
to the Senate for their approval. The new
measures, however, take an even more draconian
approach to slashing federal compensation.
On Tuesday, Rep.
Martha Roby (R-AL) introduced a bill to freeze
federal workers’ in-grade step increases
through 2012. If passed into law, the measure
would reduce eligible workers’ pay by hundreds
or even thousands of dollars this year.
“Federal workers
have already sacrificed enough,” said NFFE
National President William R. Dougan. “The
current two-year pay freeze will save $60
billion over the next decade, in addition to
billions more in agency budget cuts. Federal
workers are doing more with less in the
workplace and at home. If we are serious about
reducing the deficit we need a shared
sacrifice, not another pot-shot at federal
employees.”
Just two days
later, on Thursday February 2nd, a handful of
senior Republican Senators led by Sen. John
McCain (R-AZ) introduced a separate bill
targeting federal jobs and pay. Co-sponsored by
Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John Cornyn
(R-TX), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH),
and Marco Rubio (R-FL), the measure seeks to
extend the federal pay freeze through 2014 and
slash 100,000 federal jobs over the next decade
through attrition. At a press conference
announcing the legislation, McCain argued it
was necessary for federal workers to take an
additional two years of frozen pay and job cuts
in order to prevent sequestration cuts at the
Department of Defense next year. The automatic
cuts he references were the result of the
Congressional Super Committee’s failure to
reach a deficit reduction deal during the
debt-ceiling negotiations late last year.
“This is just
another example of Congress trying to paper
over its own failures by reaching into the
pocket of federal employees,” said Dougan.
“Federal employees did not cause our deficit
problem; they didn’t prevent Congress from
reaching a deal to lower the deficit last year;
yet federal workers are being put forward as a
sacrificial lamb once again. This has to stop
now.”
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