Darrell Issa: “Mr. Chairman, I just want to clear up some facts because I believe, in the effort to try to make a point, people have…”

“Mr. Chairman, I just want to clear up some facts because I believe, in the effort to try to make a point, people have failed to be quite as accurate as they should be. First of all, as for political appointees, the President has already frozen their pay. Second of all, awards, raises, and bonuses are not limited by this freeze. The fact is, if somebody is meritorious of a raise, award or bonus, he will still be able to get it. When they say that budgets have been cut, if budgets have been cut, not having this $500 million in the first year and another $500 million in the second year will, in fact, allow those budgets to go further. When they say that these are effectively meritorious, from the Office of Management and Budget of the Obama administration, we have received the figure. It is 99.94 percent of all eligible Federal employees, meaning only six out of every 10,000 employees, failed to get this automatic increase. This saves over $500 million in 7 months and over $700 million the next year. It is consistent with President Obama's freeze, and the freeze is exactly what we're trying to do--give the President what he said in the spirit in which he said it.”