Kilmer Statement on President Trump’s Decision to Cancel Federal Pay Raises
TACOMA, Wash.—According to CNN, President Donald Trump announced he is canceling a planned 2.1 percent pay increase for civilian federal workers. Representative Derek Kilmer represents Washington’s 6th Congressional District, where the federal government is the largest employer, made the following statement:
“I disagree with the notion that the main problem with government is the people working in government. That’s wrong — and it disrespects the important work done throughout our country by federal workers.
The President's choice today takes money out of the pockets of tens of thousands of people in our region. It robs the folks at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard working hard so the U.S. Navy can defend us. It rips off the people managing the submarines homeported up the road at Subbase Bangor, the park rangers guiding millions of visitors through Olympic National Park this holiday weekend, the nurses and doctors at the VA medical centers serving the large group of veterans who live in our region, and the Forest Service workers who literally grow local jobs by prepping timber harvests in our federal forests.
I will fight back as hard as I can against this decision which is bad for our economy and terrible for the people who serve our country.”
Earlier this year, Kilmer wrote an op-ed in support of federal workers in The Stand.
According to CNN, the president cited the nation’s fiscal sustainability as his rationale. The move comes a just months after he signed a tax bill that, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, gives the largest benefits to the highest income households and raises the federal debt by $7.2 trillion in this decade and by $20.9 trillion by 2036.