OMB Director Mick Mulvaney testifies before a House Appropriations subcommittee Wednesday.

OMB Director Mick Mulvaney testifies before a House Appropriations subcommittee Wednesday. Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP

OMB Chief Defends Pay Freeze, Pay for Performance

In House testimony, Mulvaney sets May time frame for release of agency reorganization plans.

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney on Wednesday defended the Trump administration’s plan to freeze all federal civilian employee pay in 2019 and more broadly reduce the frequency of step increases moving forward in favor of performance-based pay.

In testimony before a House Appropriations subcommittee, Mulvaney, who splits time between OMB and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said the General Schedule pay scale is outdated and in need of reform.

“The proposal is rooted in data that we had . . . from analysis of the way we paid federal workers, and it seemed to indicate that we over-pay at the lower levels and under-pay at the upper levels,” he said. “Keep in mind that the General Schedule system was created in 1949, and hasn’t really been dramatically overhauled since then.”

The White House’s fiscal 2019 budget proposal freezes all civilian federal employees’ pay in 2019 and in part replaces the across-the-board pay increase with a $1 billion interagency fund for cash bonuses and performance-based pay pilot programs. But while the Trump administration proposed that the money in the fund be appropriated in fiscal 2018, it was omitted from the omnibus spending package enacted last month.

Mulvaney did not address the fact that Congress has not committed to providing money to reward high performers in lieu of step increases. But he argued it would be better than the current system at providing positive performance management incentives.

“What the proposal would say is: Look, we’re going to freeze everybody, and then put a bunch of money in this pot to try and give us the flexibility necessary to reward the people who are really performing well,” he said. “Again, I hope we can all agree that with 2 million non-defense federal workers, some might be really good at their jobs and some might not be, yet we come very close to paying them the same.”

Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., pushed back on that idea, arguing that removing step increases could effectively reduce workers’ motivation to excel and dissuade people outside of government from joining the federal workforce.

“It seems to me that what you do when you put the [pay] freeze there and remove step increases, you remove incentives to get people to work for the federal government who are highly skilled, who have hopes of a good career that will be remunerative to them,” he said. “It makes it less competitive with the private sector.”

Mulvaney countered that poor performers already have no incentive to improve, in part because managers are hamstrung in the degree to which they can increase employees’ pay.

“If you and I go to work at the Department of Commerce and we come in on the exact same day with the exact same background, and let’s say you do a great job and I dog it, the tools available to our managers to differentiate between our pay are extremely limited," he said. "We’re trying to fix that, so that we do reward folks like you in that circumstance who do good work, and then make it easier to pay me less or get rid of me if I’m performing poorly.”

In a statement on Wednesday, National Treasury Employees Union National President Tony Reardon again decried the White House’s plan to freeze employees’ pay in 2019 and called on Congress to enact a 3 percent across the board raise for feds.

“If the federal government is to have the ability to compete with the private sector in recruiting and retaining a skilled workforce, it is essential that the federal government provide its workers a pay increase,” he wrote.

Mulvaney also gave an update on the status of various agencies’ reorganization plans, which have been under wraps as “predecisional” since departments first submitted them last summer. He said much of the focus of the plans, which he anticipates will be released in May, is on eliminating duplicative services.

“I think we have 46 different federal workforce training programs across 16 different agencies, and that doesn’t make much sense,” Mulvaney said. “That probably opens the question as to whether or not there’s a duplication of services that could be more efficiently provided. We have data on some of them that actually work . . . but most don’t have that type of results-driven data. So we’ll try to redirect attention to programs that work, and then consolidate programs that don’t.”

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.