National President Dougan Pens Congress in Opposition to Amendment Freezing Step Increases, Bonuses

(National Federation of Federal Employees)

Yesterday, NFFE National President William R. Dougan penned the a letter to the House of Representatives, opposing the Issa amendment to the 2011 Continuing Resolution. The amendment would bar all merit-based raises and bonuses for high-performing federal employees. The letter went as follows:

Dear Representative:

On behalf of the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) and the 110,000 federal employees our union represents throughout the United States and abroad, I am writing to strongly oppose the Issa Amendment #569 that may be offered during this week’s consideration of HR 1, the Fiscal Year 2011 (FY11) Continuing Resolution (CR). Again, NFFE strongly opposes this amendment.

The Issa Amendment would bar merit-based step increases for federal employees.  Federal civil service workers are currently working under a federal pay freeze which has already been enacted into law. The Issa Amendment would take that a step further and eliminate the merit-based step increases that successful and high-performing federal employees earn.  Eliminating these merit-based step increases could severely harm performance in federal agencies. It would also lead to a flight of talent that would be very harmful to the functioning of federal agencies in the short- and long-term.  Please oppose the Issa Amendment #569.

Thank you for considering our views.  Again, I strongly urge you to vote ‘NO’ on the Issa Amendment #569 that may be offered during this week’s consideration of HR 1, the FY11 CR.

Sincerely,

William R. Dougan

National President