President Trump said Friday he’s reconsidering whether to freeze a scheduled pay raise for more than 2 million civilian federal employees, a day after he announced plans to kill the pay raise.
“I’m going to study that over the weekend,” Mr. Trump said at an event in Charlotte, North Carolina. “It’s a good time to study it — Labor Day. I’m going to take a good hard look over the weekend. A lot of people were against it.”
On Thursday, Mr. Trump notified congressional leaders in writing that he intended to rescind the 2.1-percent pay raise that’s scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1. He said the federal government can’t afford it.
Democrats, labor unions and some Republicans such as Rep. Barbara Comstock of Virginia immediately said they’ll oppose the move in spending negotiations. Virginia is home to some 175,000 civilian federal employees.
Mr. Trump suggested he might change his mind.
“As we head into Labor Day, our nation pays its gratitude to the hardworking men and women who make our country run,” he said. “And I’m going to be doing a little work over the weekend. I’m going to be studying, you know, the federal workers in Washington that you’ve been reading so much about. People don’t want to give them any increase. They haven’t had one in a long time.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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