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Trump cancels pay raise due federal workers in January citing budgetary constraints

Trump cancels pay raise due federal workers in January citing budgetary constraints
Posted at 2:10 PM, Aug 30, 2018
and last updated 2018-08-30 16:47:11-04

President Donald Trump has told Congress he is canceling a pay raise that most civilian federal employees were due to receive in January, citing budgetary constraints.

Trump informed House and Senate leaders in a letter sent Thursday.

Trump says in the letter that locality pay increases would cost $25 billion, on top of a 2.1 percent across-the-board increase for most civilian government employees.

He cites the costs and says: "We must maintain efforts to put our Nation on a fiscally sustainable course, and Federal agency budgets cannot sustain such increases." Trump says he's determined that for 2019 "both across-the-board pay increases and locality pay increases will be set at zero."