© Yuri Gripas/Abaca Press/TNS U.S. President Donald Trump walks out of the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C. before departing for a campaign rally in Manchester, N.H. on Monday, Feb. 10, 2020.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has proposed a 1% raise for civilian federal workers next year — an increase that’s less than half of what was scheduled.

The White House said in a message to Congress this week that Trump views the planned 2.5% pay increase for federal workers as “inappropriate,” noting that presidents can put in place alternate pay adjustment plans in case of “national emergency or serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare.”

“We must maintain efforts to put our nation on a fiscally sustainable course. Federal agency budgets cannot sustain such increases.” Trump’s message said, adding that under his plan locality pay rates will remain at 2020 levels.

“Why must President Trump start every budget cycle with a slash-and-burn approach to federal government?” National Treasury Employees Union president Tony Reardon said in a statement. “Not only does 1% do nothing to close the gap between federal employee salaries and their higher-paid private sector counterparts, it won’t keep up with inflation, it won’t keep up with private sector wage increases and it is meaningless if they are forced to simultaneously shave money off their paychecks for higher retirement contributions.”

© Yuri Gripas/Abaca Press/TNS U.S. President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C. before departing for a campaign rally in Manchester, N.H. on Monday, Feb. 10, 2020.

Trump’s explanation for the modest pay raise proposal comes as he trumpets a strong economy and low unemployment.

On Tuesday, a day after citing “serious economic conditions” for the proposed cap on federal pay increases, Trump proclaimed the “BEST USA ECONOMY IN HISTORY” on Twitter.

Trump similarly highlighted the economy at his State of the Union address last week.

“In just three short years, we have shattered the mentality of American Decline and we have rejected the downsizing of America’s destiny. We have totally rejected the downsizing,” Trump said, according to CNN. “We are moving forward at a pace that was unimaginable just a short time ago, and we are never, ever going back.”

Still, Trump’s proposed 1% federal worker raise is more than he has offered in the past, according to Government Executive, which reports that “in each of the last two years, Trump pushed for a pay freeze before ultimately agreeing to a raise” — with “average 1.9% and 3.1% increases … enacted for 2019 and 2020, respectively.”

© Yuri Gripas/Abaca Press/TNS U.S. President Donald Trump waves to the media on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C. before his departure for a campaign rally in Manchester, N.H. on Monday, Feb. 10, 2020.

———

©2020 McClatchy Washington Bureau

Visit the McClatchy Washington Bureau at www.mcclatchydc.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.