[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 16 (Wednesday, February 1, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H228]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           FEDERAL PAY FREEZE

  (Mr. CHAFFETZ asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CHAFFETZ. Madam Speaker, the numbers are in. Once again, the 
Federal Government is going to achieve an annual deficit of more than 
$1 trillion.
  Now, how much is $1 trillion? Because we throw around that number far 
too often. If you spend $1 million a day every day, it would take you 
almost 3,000 years to get to $1 trillion, and our Federal Government is 
approaching $16 trillion in debt. We're spending more than $733 million 
a day as just interest on the debt.
  We have to change the trajectory. We can no longer borrow and spend 
the kind of money that we are. Please, ladies and gentlemen, we have to 
have systemic changes; and one of those things that we're going to talk 
about today is putting a freeze on pay.
  We have to understand that there are a lot of good Federal employees 
out there doing great, great work, but your Federal Government has more 
than 450,000 people earning a base pay of at least $100,000. These are 
going to have to change.

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