President Obama announced a two-year pay freeze for all federal employees today, describing it as part of a “broad sacrifice” necessary to help cut the deficit, which “must be shared by the employees of the federal government.”
Obama announced the freeze in a press conference just after noon, saying that he wants to work with Republicans to find ways of “cutting spending we don’t need in order to invest in things we need.” We need to “make sure,” he said, “that in the future we’re not dragged down by long-term debt.”
The pay freeze will apply to all civilian federal workers, Obama said, specifying that members of the armed forces are excluded. He said that the freeze will save $2 billion over the rest of this fiscal year, and $28 billion over the next five years.