Shared sacrifice:
President Barack Obama plans to return 5 percent of his salary to the Treasury in solidarity with federal workers who are going to be furloughed as part of the automatic budget cuts.
WASHInGTOn — President Barack Obama plans to return 5 percent of his salary to the Treasury in solidarity with federal workers who are going to be furloughed as part of the automatic budget cuts known as sequester, an administration official said Wednesday.
The voluntary move would be retroactive to March 1 and apply through the rest of the fiscal year, the official said. The White House came up with the 5 percent figure to approximate the level of spending cuts to non-defense federal agencies that took effect that day.
“The president has decided that, to share in the sacrifice being made by public servants across the federal government that are affected by the sequester, he will contribute a portion of his salary back to the Treasury,” the official said.
Word of the president’s decision came a day after Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter disclosed they would return a share of their salaries commensurate with the pay lost by the department’s civilian employees who are expected to be furloughed for 14 days before the end of the fiscal year.
The president’s salary of $400,000 is set by law and cannot be changed during his term, so he will write a check to the government starting this month, the official said.
Obama and his wife, Michelle, reported adjusted gross income of $789,674 in 2011, the last year such figures were publicly available. Much of the additional money came from royalties from his books. The Obamas donated $172,130, or nearly 22 percent of their adjusted gross income, to charity. Obama gives after-tax proceeds from his children’s book to a scholarship fund for children of slain and disabled soldiers.
The White House said this week that several offices under the president had sent furlough notices to workers, including 480 employees of the Office of Management and Budget, which is managing the sequester. The White House said it had also delayed filling vacant positions and that pay cuts or additional furloughs remained possible for White House employees.
Beyond personnel, the White House said it had scaled back purchases of equipment and supplies, curtailed staff travel and reduced the use of Internet air cards.
“Everybody at the White House and the broader” executive office of the president “is dealing with the consequences both, in many cases, in their own personal lives but in how we work here at the White House, which is true across the federal government because of the impact of the sequester,” Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said Monday.
The moves by the president and defense secretary may put pressure on other federal officials to follow suit.
On Wednesday, even as the president’s decision was being reported, Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, announced he would voluntarily give back part of his salary as well and that more than half of his staff members will have their pay cut this year even though the sequester does not include members of Congress or their aides.