President Trump issued an executive order on Friday freezing pay for federal civilian workers in 2019, even as about 800,000 of them were either furloughed or working without pay because of a partial government shutdown.
The executive order follows a proposed pay freeze that the president outlined in the budget he sent to Congress last February, and in a letter he sent to Congress in August stating that he would cancel pay increases.
Federal workers may still receive a raise in 2019 if Congress approves it and the president signs it, perhaps as part of legislation to reopen the federal government. But that scenario would require resolving a fight between Democrats in Congress and the president over funding for a border wall, the issue at the heart of the shutdown.
[President Trump blamed Democrats on Saturday for the deaths of two detained migrant children.]
Some union officials representing federal government workers said they expected Congress to pass a nearly 2 percent increase, which the Senate has already done in a bipartisan vote, and the incoming Democratic House appears likely to do.
