In the worst possible optics, senior-level Trump administration appointees are slated to get $10,000 raises while about 800,000 federal workers don’t see a dime of their paychecks due to the shutdown.
According to a Friday Washington Post report, Congress has renewed legislation placing a cap on pay for top government employees every year since 2013. By failing to pass legislation to keep the government funded, they allowed the current pay freeze to expire. If lawmakers don’t take action by Saturday, the accumulated raises will begin showing up on the paychecks of Cabinet secretaries, deputy secretaries and even Vice President Mike Pence.
The Democratic-majority House included an extension of the pay freeze in a spending bills package passed Thursday night, but the Senate will likely not take it up since it omits wall funding and President Donald Trump would not sign it.
