{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.warner.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warner-colleagues-urge-congressional-leaders-to-reject-trumps-proposed-federal-pay-freeze/", "Warner, Colleagues Urge Congressional Leaders to Reject Trump\u2019s Proposed Federal Pay Freeze", "2026-09-21", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "VA", "Mark R. Warner", "W000805", "www.warner.senate.gov", "warner", "https://www.warner.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and a coalition of 110 bipartisan, bicameral lawmakers urged congressional leaders to reject the Trump administration\u2019s proposed federal employee pay freeze and deliver a meaningful pay increase in 2027.\n\nThe lawmakers urged Congress to enact the 4.1 percent increase provided under the Federal Adjustment of Income Rates Act, or FAIR Act, which would help federal pay keep pace with rising costs after two straight years of falling behind inflation. At a minimum, they wrote, civilian federal employees should receive the same 3.8 percent increase the Trump administration has proposed for federal law enforcement personnel.\n\nFederal employees received a 1 percent raise this year, well short of the 3.4 percent rise in consumer prices over the past 12 months.\n\nThe lawmakers wrote, \u201cThese challenges have come on top of just a 2 percent pay raise in 2025 and a 1 percent raise in 2026. Asking these public servants to now accept a pay freeze as the cost of living continues to rise amounts to an effective pay cut.\u201d\n\nThe lawmakers continued, \u201cThe Administration\u2019s own proposal on federal pay increases demonstrates why such an increase is necessary. President Trump has proposed that federal law enforcement personnel receive a 3.8 percent pay increase to improve recruitment and retention, and has proposed a 5-7 percent pay increase for service members given the critical support they provide our nation. The same rationale applies to all federal workers.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe federal government must recruit and retain skilled employees to care for our veterans, protect our national security, inspect our food and medicine, conduct lifesaving research, process benefits, secure federal networks, and perform countless other critical functions,\u201d the lawmakers added.\n\nThe letter, signed by 12 senators and 98 House members, urges congressional leaders to include the increase in Fiscal Year 2027 appropriations legislation.\n\nThe full letter is available here and below.\n\nDear Leader Thune, Speaker Johnson, Leader Schumer, and Leader Jeffries,\n\nWe write to urge you to reject the Trump Administration\u2019s proposed pay freeze and work to provide federal\n\nemployees with a meaningful pay increase in 2027 that keeps pace with the rising cost of living.\n\nFederal employees have endured an extraordinarily difficult period marked by government shutdowns and\n\nrepeated efforts to strip away longstanding civil service protections, all while continuing to deliver the benefits\n\nand services Americans rely on every day. These challenges have come on top of just a 2 percent pay raise in\n\n2025 and a 1 percent raise in 2026. Asking these public servants to now accept a pay freeze as the cost of living\n\ncontinues to rise amounts to an effective pay cut.\n\nThe Administration\u2019s own proposal on federal pay increases demonstrates why such an increase is necessary.\n\nPresident Trump has proposed that federal law enforcement personnel receive a 3.8 percent pay increase to\n\nimprove recruitment and retention, and has proposed a 5-7 percent pay increase for service members given the critical support they provide our nation. The same rationale applies to all federal workers.\n\nThe federal government must recruit and retain skilled employees to care for our veterans, protect our national\n\nsecurity, inspect our food and medicine, conduct lifesaving research, process benefits, secure federal networks,\n\nand perform countless other critical functions. If competitive compensation is necessary to recruit and retain\n\nqualified federal law enforcement officers, it is also necessary to recruit and retain qualified employees\n\nthroughout the federal government.\n\nWithout a meaningful pay raise, we risk further exacerbating staffing challenges at critical agencies like the\n\nDepartment of Health and Human Services, whose employees conduct lifesaving medical research, monitor\n\ndisease outbreaks, administer critical health programs, and protect the safety of our food and medicines. HHS\n\nhas already lost thousands of employees, including significant reductions at the FDA, reducing the agency\u2019s\n\ncapacity to conduct inspections essential to Americans\u2019 wellbeing. At a time when families are seeing repeated\n\nfood recalls and outbreaks, further weakening the federal workforce responsible for inspecting facilities and\n\nidentifying contamination could put even greater strain on our food-safety system.\n\nA pay cut could similarly exacerbate staffing challenges across other mission-critical agencies. At the Social\n\nSecurity Administration, further workforce losses could mean longer waits for seniors, people with disabilities,\n\nand families seeking benefits. And at agencies responsible for our national security, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a pay freeze could make it even harder to recruit and retain the highly\n\nskilled cybersecurity professionals needed to protect federal networks and critical infrastructure. That is\n\nespecially concerning as cyberattacks targeting critical infrastructure, including our energy, water,\n\ntransportation, and communications systems, continue to grow more frequent and sophisticated.\n\nAt a minimum, federal civilian employees should receive the same 3.8 percent pay increase the Administration\n\nhas proposed for federal law enforcement. We strongly believe, however, that Congress should go further and\n\nprovide the 4.1 percent increase called for in the FAIR Act, which would help federal pay keep pace with rising\n\ncosts while ensuring the government can continue to attract and retain the workforce necessary to serve the\n\nAmerican people.\n\nThere\u2019s precedent for Congress taking action when a President fails to ensure federal employee pay keeps pace\n\nwith the cost of living. In 2019, after President Trump initially froze federal employee pay, Congress rejected\n\nthe freeze and enacted a pay increase. Congress should once again exercise its authority to ensure federal\n\nemployees receive a fair and meaningful adjustment to their pay in 2027.\n\nWe therefore urge you to include a federal employee pay increase of no less than 3.8 percent, and preferably the 4.1 percent provided under the FAIR Act, in Fiscal Year 2027 appropriations legislation.\n\n###", 1, "2026-09-25T10:04:52Z", "2026-09-25T10:05:46Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.warner.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warner-colleagues-urge-congressional-leaders-to-reject-trumps-proposed-federal-pay-freeze/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8128047920763493, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}