SUMMARY: Today members of the House sent letters to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees in support of a pay increase for federal employees next year and urging them to stop the implementation of President Trump’s Schedule F Executive Order and preserve the rights and protections provided to the career civil service.

Today Representative Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations, led several members of the House in sending two letters to the Chairs and Ranking Members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees in support of federal employees.

In the first letter, Chairman Connolly was joined by 10 of his colleagues in urging the Appropriations Committees to provide a fair pay increase to federal workers next year. The members wrote, “We firmly believe that our federal civilian workforce deserves at least a 3 percent pay increase, which would be parity with the military. Absent an agreement on pay parity for federal employees, we respectfully urge you to retain the 1 percent pay increase for federal civilian employees in FY 2021 appropriations legislation as requested by the President and agreed to by the House of Representatives.” As you know, while the Senate bill proposed a pay freeze for employees next year, the House-passed bill was silent on the issue of pay, thus deferring to the President’s proposed 1 percent increase without any amount for locality pay. Citing the continued service of federal workers during the pandemic, some at risk to their health and safety, and the increased costs employees will face in their health insurance premiums, the members argued Congress to recognize the hard work of federal employees and ensure that they are treated with respect and provided the pay raise they deserve.

Chairman Connolly was joined by 12 of his colleagues in a second letter, which requests that the upcoming continuing resolution or omnibus spending bill include language that reverses the implementation of the Schedule F Executive Order (EO) and requires the immediate return of any federal employee reclassified pursuant to it. As you know, this potentially far-reaching EO could move tens of thousands of federal employees into the new Schedule F, which would strip them of their civil service protections and allow them to be hired and fired at will. Schedule F would be broadly composed of “employees in confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating positions.”

In addition, on Monday House Committee on Oversight and Reform Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Representative Connolly, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Ranking Member Gary Peters (D-MI), and Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office requesting regular briefings to inform Congress about the implementation status of the Schedule F Executive Order. This follows legislation introduced by Representative Connolly and Senator Peters to rescind the Schedule F EO and block the use of funds to implement it.

As Congress continues to work on a spending deal for Fiscal Year 2021, NTEU will continue to work with our allies on the Hill to ensure that federal workers receive a pay increase and that your rights and protections are preserved. For more information download the attachment.

Anthony M. Reardon

National President