Democrats Demand Salary Details For Trump's Political Appointees

Yahoo

28-05-2025

WASHINGTON — Democratic senators on Wednesday asked a top Trump administration official for details on the salaries of President Donald Trump's political appointees and raised questions about the administration's urging of agency leaders to max out the amount of taxpayer dollars allowed for these jobs while ignoring the standard hiring process.
In a new letter to Charles Ezell, the acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, eight senators asked for the salary information of all so-called 'Schedule C' appointees, or people who Trump appointed to lower-level policy roles across federal agencies.
Led by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the senators asked Ezell to justify an April 10 memo he issued to the heads of all agencies, reminding them of the 'great flexibility' they have when setting the pay for Schedule C employees. In sending this memo, Ezell bypassed the authority of each agency's human resources department to set the terms for these appointments.
Between the memo and the administration's efforts to purge tens of thousands of career civil servants from the U.S. government, it 'makes clear your intention,' the senators wrote to Ezell. 'Fire dedicated public servants in droves, cut essential government services, and use taxpayer dollars to instead hire underqualified and overpaid political cronies.'
The senators also asked for the job descriptions of any Schedule C employees the administration has hired at the highest pay grade in the government's general pay system, which maxes out at $195,200.
The letter is signed by Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine (Va.), John Fetterman (Pa.), Chris Van Hollen (Md.), Mark Warner (Va.), Angela Alsobrooks (Md.), Alex Padilla (Calif.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) and Murray.
Here's a copy of their letter, obtained by HuffPost:
Most of the senators on the letter represent states near Washington, D.C., that are home to large numbers of current or recently fired federal employees. Murray, though, is likely leading the effort as the top Democrat on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, which decides how much money federal agencies get.
'OPM's April 10 memo makes clear the Trump Administration's ultimate goal is to decimate the nonpolitical career civil service and use taxpayer dollars to enrich and reward political allies, all at the cost of the government services that people rely on,' the senators wrote. 'Padding the pockets of political operatives while firing food safety inspectors is nothing short of an egregious abuse of taxpayer dollars and massively wasteful.'
They give Ezell until June 4, one week from Wednesday, to provide salary information on all Schedule C employees.