House Republicans proposed a bill today that would cut the pay of Vice President Joe Biden and other federal officials, noting that the executive order that President Obama signed to raise their pay costs $11 billion in new spending.
“The President has once again demonstrated his penchant for unrestrained spending by giving federal employees an across the board pay hike and sticking the rest of us with the $11 billion bill,” Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., the lead sponsor on the bill, said in a statement today. “At a time when the average federal worker compensation is nearly double the median U.S. household income, and attrition from the federal workforce is already at an all-time low, we simply cannot afford this unnecessary and unilateral action by the President.”
Obama’s executive order raises Biden’s salary $225,521 to $231,900. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, would see an $1,100 raise while the Senate majority and minority leaders would get paid an extra $1,000, according to Fox. “The House and Senate, however, voted down the congressional pay increase earlier this year,” the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee notes.
“The President’s pay hike even increases the salary for federal employees who receive poor performance reviews from their own supervisors,” committee chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said in a statement. “As President Obama continues to say one thing and do another on deficit spending, it is appropriate for Congress to challenge his unilateral decision to spend $11 billion on non-merit based pay raises for federal workers.”
The executive order ended a pay freeze that prevented automatic pay raises from taking effect.
