The Senate this week voted down a proposal by Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana to cut federal employees’ pay by 1% in 2016 and 2017 and use the savings to pay for additional brigades the Army doesn’t want.
The amendment was snuck in the debate only a few minutes before the vote. It went down by a 73-26 vote. Both Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain and Ranking Member Jack Reed opposed the amendment, which would require the Secretary of the Army to maintain at least 32 brigade combat teams in the regular and reserve components of the Army and 28 brigade combat teams in the Army National Guard.
“Effectively and deliberately, this amendment would prevent the Army from managing its own force structure, determining how many brigades it needs, how they are disposed in terms of Active, Reserve, and Regular forces,” Reed said. “In addition, the way the amendment is paid for, to maintain these additional brigades would be to mandate a 1-percent pay cut for all Federal civilian employees for 2016 and 2017--not a pay freeze, a pay cut. The Army does not support this amendment.”
AFGE took issue with the fact that this amendment was even allowed to be offered and that it was offered without prior notice.
Here’s a list of senators who voted to cut your pay:
Alexander (Tenn.) Blunt (Mo.) Capito (WV) Cassidy (La.) Corker (Tenn.) Cornyn (Texas) Crapo (Idaho) Cruz (Texas) Daines (Mont.) |
Ernst (Iowa) Gardner (Colo.) Grassley (Iowa) Heller (Nev.) Hoeven (N.D.) Isakson (Ga.) Lankford (Okla.) Lee (Utah) Moran (Kan.) |
Paul (Kenn.) Perdue (Ga.) Risch (Idaho) Scott (S.C.) Sullivan (Alaska) Tillis (N.C.) Toomey (Pa.) Vitter (La.) |