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The US Capitol Monday, as a partial government closure, spans its second week. An ambitious decision to reopen the government will be the first major battle between the new majority in the Democratic House and President Trump.
J. Scott Applewhite / AP
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J. Scott Applewhite / AP
The US Capitol Monday, as a partial government closure, spans its second week. An ambitious decision to reopen the government will be the first major battle between the new majority in the Democratic House and President Trump.
J. Scott Applewhite / AP
President Trump issued a decree on Friday stopping wage rates for federal workers. The order was not a surprise, but for some 800,000 federal public servants on partial leave during the partial closure of the government or without paid work, it was as if they were putting their hair in a wound.
The president had telegraphed his plans to freeze wages for nearly a month. year – first in its annual budget and again last summer in a letter to Congress. Trump pointed to the disastrous financial situation of the government. Thanks to tax cuts and increased spending, the deficit has soared to more than $ 1 trillion this year.
The Trump Ordinance only applies to civilian workers. Military personnel, who are covered by a separate funding measure, will receive a 2.6% increase.
Jacqueline Simon of the US Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal labor union, told NPR that "the military deserves their salary increase, and we are all in favor of that. for many years, even decades, there was a parity between civilian and military labor forces with respect to wage adjustments. "
In the last two years However, the salaries of civilian government employees have grown more slowly than those in the army. And the President's salary freeze would aggravate this gap if it persists.
Federal workers must not lose hope – they have the opportunity to receive an increase. The Senate has already accepted a 1.9% wage increase for federal employees. And the new Democratic House should do the same. The president would have to sign the measure.
The Washington Post reports: "Federal pay increases are effective at the beginning of the first full biweekly pay period of the New Year, which will begin Jan. 6. From here it will not be a lot of time to enact an increase, but the increases were paid retroactively – in 2003 and 2004 last, the funding of the agencies was not solved either before the beginning of next year. had been paid by default in early January, but had been canceled by a larger sum contained in a credit bill for the full year. "
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