GOP/GOVERNMENT/SPENDING/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump announced Thursday [8-30-28] he was canceling across-the-board pay raises for civilian workers across the federal government, citing the ‘nation’s fiscal situation’…roughly 1.8 million people wouldn’t get an automatic pay boost next year, including Border Patrol and ICE agents. That stance puts vulnerable GOP lawmakers representing northern Virginia — home to tens of thousands of federal workers — in the political crosshairs. And it sets up an all-but-certain funding fight with Congress next month, as party leaders attempt to reach a sweeping agreement to keep the government open before the start of the next fiscal year on Oct. 1. Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.), an endangered GOP incumbent in the House, said she would work to reverse the pay freeze. The Senate has already backed a 1.9 percent pay raise for civilian federal employees this year, but House Republicans have approved their own spending bill that endorses the White House’s pay freeze…Most civilian workers are slated to receive a 2.1 percent increase under a years-old government formula. But the president argues that pay raises should be tied to ‘performance’ rather than ‘across-the-board’ increases. Trump would also nix extra pay for federal workers living in more expensive parts of the country, including Washington, D.C., where the cost-of-living adjustment amounted to a pay increase of just less than 1 percentage point. This adds up to about $25 billion next fiscal year, according to the White House.”
–Sarah Ferris and Ian Kullgren, “Trump cancels pay raises for almost 2 million federal workers,” Politico, August 30, 2018 4:42 pm