Duffy’s bill is separate from legislation the House approved in December that would continue the pay freeze to help pay for an extension of the payroll tax holiday.
“While private-sector workers face the squeeze and millions of families continue searching for work, the idea of asking that their hard-earned tax dollars go to fund a pay raise for government employees is just not right,” Duffy said.
Almost no one collecting a federal paycheck has seen a bump in basic pay in recent years. President Obama froze the salaries of top West Wing staffers and political officials after taking office in 2009. On Capitol Hill, lawmakers and their staffs have not had a raise in four of the past six years.
Federal worker unions have opposed any attempts to continue the two-year freeze on basic federal pay. Obama’s 2013 budget request is slated to propose the 0.5 percent increase.
Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, called the provisions that would freeze congressional pay “a political ploy” that would set up “a Hobson’s choice” that would require representatives to vote against extending the freeze for themselves in order to lift the freeze on federal employees.”
The White House estimates that the two-year freeze set to expire at year’s end will save taxpayers about $60 billion over the next decade.
During last year’s debate over extending the payroll tax credit, House and Senate Republicans proposed spending cuts that would have extended the pay freeze for one more year and forced workers to pay more for their federal retirement plans and separate proposals to cut the federal workforce by 10 percent in the next decade by attrition.
Just as Republicans will use the CBO report to advance their legislative agenda, the study disappoints federal labor leaders.
“This study is a missed opportunity for CBO to remind Congress that the personnel policies of the federal government should be about upholding the principle of equal pay for equal work, and ensuring that federal pay and benefits are sufficient to allow agencies to recruit and retain those with the skills necessary to perform government’s work,” Gage said.
Previous columns by Joe Davidson are available at wapo.st/JoeDavidson . Follow the Federal Diary on Twitter: @JoeDavidsonWP
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