Bush Cites ‘National Emergency’ to Limit Federal Workers’ Raises
President Bush said Wednesday he will cut the pay raises that most civilian federal employees were to receive in January.
In a letter to congressional leaders, Bush said he was using his authority to change the pay structure in times of “national emergency or serious economic conditions” to limit raises to 2%.
Federal employees covered by the government’s general schedule pay system were to receive a 2.7% across-the-board boost of basic pay and also an increase based on private-sector wages in the areas where they work, called locality pay.
Bush said granting those full raises would cost about $11 billion more than he had proposed in his budget.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said the president’s action was “shameful and makes clear that Bush is making federal employees pay for his own fiscal recklessness.”
The government faces a record $480-billion shortfall in 2004, congressional budget analysts said this week.
Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter
Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond. In your inbox three times per week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
