Close this Advertisement
EmbedEmbed

Federal Daily News

Bill would forbid step increases for the remainder of 2012

A House lawmaker last week introduced a bill she claims will “put an end to the budget gimmicks and procedural trickery” in Congress—but which also would put an end to step increases for federal employees for the rest of 2012.

According to a Feb. 2 release issued by the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Martha Roby (R-Ala.), the Honest Budget Act of 2012 (H.R. 3844) would “make it harder for Congress to pass spending bills without first passing a budget, would reveal the real cost and commitment of federal government spending, and would prevent Congress from claiming savings unless those savings are real and genuine.”

Among the other measures contained in the legislation, the bill also specifies that no periodic step increases—which are unaffected by the current federal pay freeze—would take effect for federal employees during the period beginning on the date of enactment until Dec. 31, 2012. The bill has 29 co-sponsors.

The bill is a companion measure to legislation (S. 1651) introduced in October by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee.

“The Honest Budget Act takes Sen. Sessions’ commonsense approach to the problem and extends it to the House of Representatives, where revenue and spending bills are first considered,” Roby said.


 

Reader comments

Thu, Sep 13, 2012 Darryl Johnston El Paso Texas

I Agree with above comments we as federal workers have sacrifice enouph. We have to stand up and vote. We should vote for the Obama administration because they are promising not to freeze our wages and give us a 5 percent increase. I know you cannot always trust what others say but remember before this administration there were real problems with the economy cause by the previous administration and this is the fall out we all have to live with. I am tired just like you all are but I for one do not trust the Romney and Ryan campaign. They are planning on marginilizing the federal government workers and streamlining the the veteran's administration. This in turn will mean improper care for our nation's veterans. We must vote for the one who will not lie to us but tell us the truth.

Wed, Feb 22, 2012

As a Department of Veterans Affairs employee and a OIF veteran I am furious with this. I am still serving my country by caring for vets and my pay is very similar to the private sector. How about Congress take a deduction based off their performance. There are so many other parts of the budget that could be cut...... Food stamps is one example, "you don't work! you don't eat!"

Thu, Feb 16, 2012 Guest Lexington, ky

I for one am so angry about this. I barely make $32,000. Everything is going up and we are all struggling to make ends meet. I doubt any of our elected officials would work for that little money. I doubt any of them make less than $100,000. I am so sick of them trying to balance the budget on the backs of the federal employees. I am sick of hearing about how overpaid we are. that is only because when they average it out, they have to include those elected officials that make way too much money so when that is taken into consideration, it makes us all look like we make a good deal of money. Why don't we just stop giving money to all the countries we give it to? They hate us anyway. Besides taking care of all the illegals that come over here from Mexico, we send Mexico loads of money! Getting rid of the illegals would help this country as far as money goes. They are a burden on our economy. There are so many other ways to cut the budget besides on the backs of federal workers. We are tired of being a scapegoat for the bad decisions our lawmakers have made.

Mon, Feb 13, 2012 Ron

I will not vote for a republican, ever. They are elitist and cater to the rich. I don't care how bad Obama is, the republicans are worse. Let congress take a pay cut.

Mon, Feb 13, 2012

If the GOP keeps using Federal Employees as their scape goats, there will be a max exit of Republican Federal Workers supporting these stupid ideas they keep coming up. Unfair and wrong. $800 M for aid to Egypt, but no step increases for Fed Employees? The last time I got a raise, the beginning of the year COL raise that every employee receives across the board, when it was all said and done I gained 85 cents extra on my paycheck.

Show All Comments

Please post your comments here. Comments are moderated, so they may not appear immediately after submitting. We will not post comments that we consider abusive or off-topic.

Your Name:(optional)
Your Email:(optional)
Your Location:(optional)
Comment:
Please type the letters/numbers you see above