Congressional GOP tentatively agrees to raise fed worker pay

If passed, it would overrule Trump effort to freeze pay.

WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans have tentatively agreed to a 1.9 percent pay raise for the nation’s 2 million civilian federal workers, overruling President Donald Trump who sought to freeze their pay.

The preliminary deal between House and Senate Republicans is also likely to lift a salary freeze affecting hundreds of executive-level employees and appointees including Vice President Mike Pence and members of the Trump Cabinet, according to lawmakers and aides.

Democrats oppose that element of the deal, and the package could change when lawmakers return to Capitol Hill following the midterm elections and complete negotiations.

Republicans who had been pushing to give civilian federal workers a raise hailed the outcome. GOP lawmak- ers including Rep. Barbara Comstock, R-Va., had pushed Trump to reverse his initial decision in August to deny the raise.

Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ga., who chairs the spending subcommittee that handles the issue, credited Comstock for pushing for the result. Comstock is in a tough campaign to hang onto her northern Virginia House seat, and the salaries of the tens of thousands of federal employees in her district had become an important issue in her race.

“Thanks to Barbara Comstock’s tireless advocacy, there is an agreement in place on pay raises,” Graves said in a statement to The Washington Post. “This wouldn’t be resolved without her help, or without President Trump’s booming economy.”

Comstock said in an interview that she lobbied Vice President Pence for a raise for the civilian workforce, and that he was receptive. But the White House, citing budget constraints, never reversed its opposition.

“I’ve been making the case for the rank-and-file side,” Comstock said. “I’m confident we will get it.”

A White House spokesman did not respond to a request for comment, and a spokesperson for Pence said the vice president’s office was not involved in negotiations on the raise.

Around 15 percent of the nation’s 2.1 million federal workforce live in and around Washington. The majority of the 2.1 million work all over the nation at military bases, federal labs, national parks, veterans hospitals and other facilities scattered throughout the states.