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发帖数: 897 | 1 WASHINGTON -- For a guy who insists that federal bureaucrats make too much
money, incoming House Majority Leader Eric Cantor sure doesn't mind handing
out handsome government raises of his own.
Cantor, the Virginia Republican who has led the GOP charge this year to
freeze federal salaries, has boosted his congressional office's payroll by
81 percent since coming to Congress in 2001 - about 8 percent per year
through 2009. When he became minority whip last year, the office's personnel
expenses went up by at least 16 percent.
Cantor and other GOP leaders are now pledging to cut their budgets by 5
percent when they take over the House in January - a symbolic gesture aimed
at showing a commitment to slowing Washington spending. But the lawmakers
suddenly calling for wage cuts often haven't practiced what they're
preaching.
Overall, congressional payroll expenses have climbed much faster than the
civilian federal work force costs that lawmakers are now clamoring to freeze
. Many of the most vocal federal critics have overseen growth that rivals or
outstrips the executive branch's, according to data from Legistorm, a
website that tracks congressional salaries. For example:
- Firebrand Republican Michele Bachmann of Minnesota has for months pushed
legislation to freeze what she calls "unconscionable" federal salaries.
Meanwhile, her own payroll jumped 16 percent between 2007, when she came to
Congress, and 2009.
- Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the Utah Republican set to chair the House
subcommittee overseeing the federal work force, says Washington must "figure
out how to do more with less." But the freshman lawmaker gave his own
employees an average raise of about 9 percent this year.
- Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who has long criticized federal pay, has
overseen an average jump of 8 percent per year in his office employee costs
between 2006, his first full year in the Senate, and 2009.
The lawmakers offered various explanations for their rising costs, with many
saying they were simply going along with the budget allowances that
Congress sets each year for its members. Some said they were working to hire
the best staffs they could to serve their districts or had new demands such
as the need to hire a social media coordinator.
Chaffetz and Coburn emphasized that while they may have spent more on
salaries, they still came in well under the overall budget for House and
Senate expenditures.
"What's important to me is that we drive the overall number down," he said.
Cantor spokesman Brad Dayspring said his boss deserves credit for
recognizing the issue now and working to address it.
"The new Republican majority will cut spending, and Eric believes that
effort starts with his team," Dayspring said.
The issue of federal salaries came to a head last month when President
Barack Obama took a page from the Republican playbook and proposed freezing
civilian federal wages for two years. Cantor and other Republicans had
offered similar plans earlier in the year that were widely panned by
Democrats.
Conservatives argue correctly that federal payrolls have outstripped the
private sector's in recent years. Total U.S. private personnel costs rose
just 25 percent from 2001 to 2009, compared with 39 percent for the civilian
federal workforce's.
But the comparison doesn't account for the explosion in federal homeland
security hiring that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that has
helped fuel the federal increase. And even with that jump, the number of
federal employees has fallen over the past 20 years from 1 for every 110
residents in 1988 to 1 for every 155 residents in 2008, according to the
latest federal budget.
While studies show that the federal work force overall earns a higher
average salary, that's because the government has more professional
employees than the private work force, which includes a heavy contingent of
lower-paid service employees such as fast-food workers and hotel
housekeepers.
When similar high-skill jobs in the public and private sectors are compared
- engineers, physicians or scientists, for example - the government workers
generally make less than their private-sector counterparts. A 2002 study by
the Congressional Budget office found that for 85 percent of federal
professional and administrative personnel, their pay was more than 20
percent below private salaries.
Meanwhile, congressional payroll costs have climbed at a far faster pace
than either the federal government's or the private sector's.
Between 2001 and 2009, Congress boosted its personnel costs by 51 percent,
according to Legistorm, increasing it steadily under both Democratic and
Republican leadership.
A recent House survey found that lawmakers doled out merit raises averaging
nearly 6 percent in 2008. Most of them also gave cost-of-living adjustments
of 3 or 4 percent, and one-time bonuses averaging several thousand dollars,
the survey found. Most federal workers get raises of 3 or 4 percent per year.
Colleen M. Kelley, head of the National Treasury Employees Union, said the
congressional practice shows that lawmakers understand they need competitive
salaries to get good employees.
"The federal government needs to be able to hire and keep talented and
skilled employees, and worsening federal pay will make that much more
difficult," she said. |
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