Democrats say Trump to seek federal pay freeze and cuts to domestic security

Source: The Washington Post




By Joe Davidson | December 14 at 7:08 AM

President Trump will propose a pay freeze for federal employees and cut domestic security programs in fiscal 2019, according to reports released by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Democrats.

The two reports are based on budget guidance from the Office of Management and Budget, dated Nov. 28, overruling Department of Homeland Security requests. The guidance was leaked to the panel’s Democratic staff by a whistleblower. Sen. Claire McCaskill (Mo.), the committee’s top Democrat, had the staff issue summaries of the OMB document. One report focuses on personnel, the other on counterterrorism programs.

Although the budget documents concern DHS, the personnel summary says “OMB intends to issue a pay freeze for federal civilian employees in 2019.” Quoting the administration’s document, the staff report adds: “OMB has instructed DHS: ‘Per governmentwide guidance, no civilian pay raise is included in the recommended level for the FY 2019 Budget.’ ”

The counterterrorism report says the administration “intends to seek $568 million in cuts to counterterrorism programs” from 2017 levels. That would include decreases in programs on violent extremism, port and public transportation security, domestic nuclear detection and emergency management grants.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/12/14/democrats-say-trump-to-seek-federal-pay-freeze-and-cuts-to-domestic-security/?undefined=&utm_term=.52106a613f86&wpisrc=nl_politics&wpmm=1