Obama notified Congress that he won’t increase the “locality pay” adjustments for federal salaries based on the local cost-of living in different parts of the country.
“As the economic recovery continues, the time has come to put our nation back on a sustainable fiscal course, an effort that requires tough choices and shared sacrifice,” Obama wrote to lawmakers.
Congress would have to act on Obama’s call to freeze the base pay of all federal employees for two years, which the president is backing as a step toward reining in the U.S. budget deficit.
The freeze would save more than $5 billion over the next two fiscal years ending Sept. 30, 2012. The administration has forecast the deficit will total $2.3 trillion over that time.