Trump orders federal worker pay freeze, impacting thousands in region

President Trump says ‘we must maintain efforts to put our nation on a fiscally sustainable course.’ Local Congressman Mike Turner and Senator Sherrod Brown criticize president’s action.

Thousands of federal workers in the Dayton region might not get a raise after President Donald Trump ordered a pay freeze.

Trump's executive order to freeze federal employee salary rates comes after previously saying there should not be a pay increase. The pay increases would have happened by default if he had not issued the executive order, according to Washington Post.

There are more than 12,000 federal civilian workers at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and over 15,000 in the Dayton region.

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Trump said earlier this year that the move is needed to deal with rising federal deficits for 2019.

“We must maintain efforts to put our Nation on a fiscally sustainable course,” Trump previously stated in a letter to the House and Senate. “I view the increases that would otherwise take effect as inappropriate.”

Local Congressman Mike Turner, whose district includes Wright-Patt, called the president’s action “imprudent.”

"As I advocated in August, Congress must reject the President's imprudent decision to cancel the percent pay increase for our valuable federal civilian employees," Turner said Sunday. "Congress still has the ability to override this executive order as we work to end the partial government shutdown. I will continue to fight to retain the federal civilian employee pay increase that was promised to our government's dedicated public servants."

Congress could still pass legislation that would enact pay raises.

The Office of Personnel Management says employees would remain eligible for raises in 2019, as they were from 2011 to 2013, through promotion or advancing up pay grades.

Members of the military will not be impacted and are set for a 2.6 percent pay increase.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said federal workers have earned the raise and should get it.

“Our billionaire president is denying these workers the cost of living increase they have earned. It’s no surprise that after handing out more than $1 trillion in tax breaks to wealthy corporations and the top 1 percent, President Trump is now proposing to pay for the hole he blew in the deficit by denying federal workers their pay increase,” Brown said Sunday. “These 15,000 Dayton area workers help support Wright-Patterson’s national defense efforts, and they deserve to have their wages keep up with the cost of living.”

Credit: Drew Angerer

Credit: Drew Angerer

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