What Bucco and a few others do not realize is that the step increases for the General Schedule (GS) grades of the Federal Government employees is locked in by law. It is the Classification Act of 1949 and is written into Federal law. A president (no matter which party) can undo that.

What Pres. Obama did was no different that other presidents have done about freezing Federal pay (no Cost of Living Adjustment or COLA). Other presidents have done this (both Republican and Democrat) as well as freezing the hiring of new employees (except for political appointees - again, both parties have done this).

There was no Cost of Living Adjustment or COLA for Federal retirees this year.

Step increases - or within grade increases - take place on a periodic basis of satisfactory work by an employee. There are 10 steps within each grade. These steps range from 1 year apart for the first 3 to 2 years apart for the next 3 and 3 years apart for the steps 8, 9, and 10.

An employee can also get a promotion to the next higher grade based on Merit Promotion where they compete with other employees or by an accretion of duties to their present job.

This quick course in Federal Human Resources was provided by me (a former HR Officer at the Dept of Veterans Affairs) at no cost. You are welcome.

This was not meant for either a defense of what Obama said nor as a slur in any way on what else was posted. Please do not take it that way. I just wanted to clear up what seemed to be confusing information. Hope it helped.