16 Things Seniors Born Between 1941-1969 Could Take Advantage OfSix Democratic Senators — Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) — sent a letter to President Trump one Monday urging him to reverse a planned pay freeze for civilian federal employees in 2019.
“We write to urge you in the strongest possible terms to reverse your decision to freeze pay rates for non-military federal workers in 2019,” the Senators wrote. “After months of indecisiveness and mixed signals, your decision further penalizes hard-working federal employees already straining under the impact of the unnecessary government shutdown that began on December 22nd. Freezing pay for federal workers adds insult to injury for dedicated public servants already subject to political attacks and gamesmanship.”
While the White House’s 2019 budget proposed an across-the-board pay freeze for non-military federal workers, in August the Senate approved appropriations legislation providing for a 1.9 percent pay increase for federal workers. Because the House did not take up the Senate’s version of the bill with a pay increase, the president signed an executive order on December 28 freezing pay for civilian federal employees according to his original alternative pay plan issued on Aug. 30.
In Monday’s letter, the Senators urged Trump to change course and highlighted bipartisan support for the Senate-passed 1.9 percent pay raise. The Senators also indicated their commitment to working towards a pay adjustment for 2019 if the president does not reverse his decision on the pay freeze.
The full text of today’s letter is below.
December 31, 2018
President Donald J. Trump
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
We write to urge you in the strongest possible terms to reverse your decision to freeze pay rates for non-military federal workers in 2019. After months of indecisiveness and mixed signals, your decision further penalizes hard-working federal employees already straining under the impact of the unnecessary government shutdown that began on December 22nd.
Freezing pay for federal workers adds insult to injury for dedicated public servants already subject to political attacks and gamesmanship. In February 2018, your administration’s budget proposed freezing federal civilian pay for 2019. In August 2018, the United States Senate included a 1.9 percent pay raise for civilian federal employees in the appropriations bill that passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. This action recognized the many contributions of federal workers and rebuked your unsubstantiated proposal to further hinder their economic security and our collective ability to compete with the private sector. There should be a particular sense of urgency in bolstering, rather than undermining, the competitiveness of the federal workforce considering that the share of federal employees eligible for retirement is expected to jump to 30 percent in five years.
As a businessman, we would expect you to understand the importance of human capital investments in recruiting and retaining talented employees. We are deeply troubled that you would abdicate your responsibility to ensure the sustainability of the federal workforce—particularly while so many federal employees are actively working without pay during a shutdown triggered by your own equivocation.
We strongly encourage you to take immediate action to reverse your ill-advised pay freeze and lift federal workers from this added layer of financial insecurity. Should you choose not to change course, we will continue working on a bipartisan basis to ensure federal workers receive a pay adjustment for Fiscal Year 2019.