[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 83 (Friday, May 28, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H4201]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 HALT PAY RAISES FOR FEDERAL EMPLOYEES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Minnesota (Mrs. Bachmann) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. BACHMANN. Mr. Speaker, today this Congress had a chance to save 
our American taxpayers $2 billion next year by halting another 
scheduled pay raise for Federal employees, but this Chamber refused 
once again to listen to the cries of the American people.
  Today, we know that our budget deficits are clearly unsustainable. 
They are falling off the cliff, dropping off the cliff of financial 
sanity, and we simply can't afford anymore to continue the out-of-
control spending policies that have marked both Republican and Democrat 
leadership here in Washington, DC.
  I thank my colleague, Representative Eric Cantor, for spearheading 
the new program called YouCut, where we reach out to the American 
people and ask them to tell us what they would like us to cut here in 
Washington from the Federal budget.
  Clearly, the government doesn't create the wealth or the jobs in this 
country. It's the private sector that does that. And when the 
government taxes and spends the way it has been the last several years, 
then innovators and entrepreneurs are stripped of the flexibility that 
they need to create jobs by excessive taxes and burdensome regulations.
  We're now at the point, Mr. Speaker, where we have over $13 trillion 
in debt. Who ran the debt up? This is under Democrat leadership, but 
this is under Republican leadership. Both parties have been at fault 
with increasing the debt that the next generation has to pay. It isn't 
a Republican or Democrat issue. And the American people are outraged by 
all of the out-of-control spending that's been going on in this city by 
both political parties.
  Under President Bush, the Federal employees received across-the-board 
raises of 3 percent in January of 2008 and 3.9 percent in January of 
2009. The same thing happened under President Obama. He recommended 
increases in pay for Federal employees in each of the years he's been 
in office. In fact, since the year 2000, Federal workers have received 
annual pay raises of 3.6 percent a year. But we could have, today, 
eliminated the latest Federal employee pay raise and also put the 
kibosh on the pay raises for Members of Congress, but that was voted 
down, unfortunately, primarily by the Democrat majority of this body.
  According to the newspaper USA Today this week, they reported the 
typical Federal worker is paid 20 percent more than a private-sector 
worker in the same occupation. In fact, Mr. Speaker, in 83 percent of 
all job categories between the government worker and the private 
worker, 83 percent of the time Federal employees are paid more, in 
fact, substantially more, than their private counterparts. This doesn't 
include the value of benefits like health care and retirement. When you 
take them into account, this graph shows Federal employees are making 
double what people in the private sector are making.
  In fact, the numbers, Mr. Speaker, show the average wage and benefit 
package for a government employee today in America is almost $120,000. 
For their counterpart in the private sector, their average wage and 
benefit package is just under $60,000 a year. Double is what people who 
are government workers are making over those in the private sector.
  This Chamber today couldn't even bring themselves to freeze the pay 
increases of these government workers that are making double what 
people in the private sector are making today.
  Here's one example. Federal employees making over $100,000. When the 
recession started 18 months ago, 14 percent of Federal employees made 
over $100,000. The recession has been very kind to government workers. 
Now it's 19 percent of government workers make over $100,000 a year.
  Here's an even more specific example. In the Department of 
Transportation, only one government worker made over $170,000 a year. 
Eighteen months of the recession and we have 1,690 employees now making 
over $170,000 a year in the Department of Transportation. That's even 
before you consider overtime and bonuses.
  The recession has been very kind to the government worker, not so 
much for those in the private sector.
  My proposal today would have prevented Members of Congress from 
getting pay increases. Unfortunately, the majority party did not want 
to prevent their own pay increases. We would have kept in place the pay 
increases for our military. Why? Because they deserve it. At 1.4 
percent increase during a time of war, we should not ask our military 
to make that sacrifice.

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