WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. House of Representatives will continue floor consideration of the National Defense Authorization Act, including hundreds of individual amendments to the bill. However, Congressman Paul Tonko’s amendment to rein in billions in runaway spending on defense contractors will not be one of them. Republican leadership in the House refused to allow floor debate and a vote on the measure.

Co-authored by a member of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Jackie Speier of California, the Tonko-Speier amendment would close the loophole on lavish government salaries for contractor executives by capping it at the rate of pay of the President of the United States, $400,000 per year. Currently, taxpayers can end up footing a nearly $770,000 bill for private contractor executives each year, more than three times the pay of the Secretary of Defense and nearly twice that of the Commander in Chief.

“I am deeply disappointed that for the second time in as many years, Republican leadership in the House has turned their back on America’s taxpayers and stood firm with defense contractors and D.C. lobbyists to continue wasteful spending with no end in sight,” said Congressman Tonko. “While advocating to cut spending on the one hand, House Republicans have shown they will go to any length to protect private contractor executives on the other. This D.C. double-talk is exactly the type of antic that has lead to out of control spending in the first place and public frustration with Congress.”  

This amendment deals exclusively with taxpayer dollars spent to reimburse government contractors. It would not affect salaries funded through private revenue streams.

“Private firms pay their executives and their employees whatever they like from private revenue streams, but Congress simply cannot afford to continue spending taxpayer dollars to pay contractors federal salaries that skyrocket at a rate of 10% a year and now total nearly twice the pay of the President,” said Congressman Tonko.

The cap on contractor pay is governed by a formula adopted in a 1998 law, enabling private contractor executives, including defense contractors, to more than double their pay in the past twelve years, rising 53% faster than the rate of inflation. This year that cap was raised by $70,000 as required by law. That marks a 10% increase for top contractors in contrast to the 1.7% pay raise that troops will receive this year and the current pay freeze for civilian personnel.

The Tonko-Speier Amendment is part of a bipartisan push for reform led by Congressman Tonko and Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Charles Grassley (R-IA). Boxer and Grassley recently introduced legislation in the Senate similar to Congressman Tonko’s Stop Excessive Payments to Government Contractors Act of 2011, H.R. 2980.

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