Federal Managers Association
Press Release
- FMA RESPONDS TO PRESIDENT'S FY13 BUDGET PROPOSAL
Alexandria, VA - Today, the President released the Administration's fiscal year 2013 budget request, which proposes a 0.5 percent increase to federal employee salaries, but also asks feds to contribute more to their retirement fund. The end result of these proposals is essentially another year of the federal pay freeze.
The proposals put forth by President Obama in his FY13 budget request include asking federal employees to contribute 1.2 percent more to their retirement plan over a three-year period beginning in 2013. Under this proposal, civil servants would see an immediate loss of 0.4 percent in take home pay, effectively canceling out the 0.5 percent increase in pay proposed by the President.
"Federal employees continue to play a disproportionate role in deficit reduction strategies," commented FMA National President Patricia Niehaus, "sending the message that those who serve our nation day in and day out are responsible for our government's spending problem."
"We at FMA continue to oppose any proposal which calls for federal employees to contribute more towards their retirement plan, which is an immediate decrease in the take home pay of two million hard working Americans. While Congress is simultaneously debating how to put more money into the paychecks of American citizens, it is incomprehensible that the same rationale does not apply to federal employees."
By including a 1.7 percent increase in pay for military members in the budget request, President Obama is following in the footsteps of his predecessor and ignoring over two decades of legislative precedent by proposing unequal pay raises for military and civilian federal employees. "In these challenging economic times, our members recognize the need to make sacrifices in order to strengthen our economy and are willing to make such sacrifices. We appreciate the President taking the steps to ensure federal employees are compensated after a two-year pay freeze; however, civil servants and their military counterparts often work side-by-side to ensure the safety our country. We ask the President to reconsider his decision to provide civilian and military employees disparate raises," Niehaus continued.
While the President's budget request is less detrimental to feds than many of the proposals circulating on Capitol Hill, asking federal employees to contribute more after they sacrificed $60 billion with the current two-year pay freeze is not in line with the notion of "shared sacrifice." Federal managers recognize that our country finds itself mired in economic uncertainty, and like many Americans, federal managers accepted the two-year pay freeze as a shared sacrifice in the collective effort to pare down our mounting debt. However, federal workers do not deserve to disproportionately shoulder the burden of the nation's economic problems.
"Federal workers are responsible for protecting our borders, providing care for our veterans, and assisting our troops abroad. Yet they are unfairly painted as scapegoats for the nation's deficit and budget crisis. We at FMA remain firm in our commitment to ensuring federal employees are not unduly targeted during deficit reduction talks while assisting our agencies in running more effectively and efficiently during this time of fiscal uncertainty."