Federal Civilian Workforce Pay Raise Fairness Act Goes Around President to Provide Across-the-Board Raises to Federal Employees

At the end of 2018, President Trump elected to freeze pay for civilian federal employees in an effort to help keep federal agencies on a more sustainable fiscal course. This past week, House Democrats proposed the Federal Civilian Workforce Pay Raise Fairness Act to go around the president’s order and provide across-the-board raises to federal employees.

As a former business person and job creator, I do not approve of across-the-board raises because they reward all employees – whether good or bad – equally. My real-world business experience proves that all raises should be merit-based. House Republicans also worked to amend the bill to prevent raises from going to any federal employee who has been disciplined for sexual misconduct.

Unfortunately, this amendment failed to pass as only 17 Democratic members voted in support. Additionally, we were prevented from offering an amendment to improve the bill by prohibiting raises going to those employees who were delinquent on their taxes. Congress must be better stewards of taxpayer dollars and our commonsense solutions are ignored because of partisan politics.