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Congressman Paul Tonko (D-NY) introduced this week an amendment to H.R. 1960, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014, which would lower the ceiling on taxpayer-funded executive pay for federal contractors from $763,029 to bring it in line with the $230,700 maximum amount military leaders and the Vice President earn. Without reform, the cap is expected to rise to more than $950,000 in 2013.

Tonko’s amendment was not accepted for floor debate of H.R. 1960 and did not receive an up-or-down vote before the full House of Representatives. This is the third time Tonko has submitted this amendment to a Defense Authorization bill, and once again Republicans on the House Committee on Rules have blocked legislation that would save taxpayers billions of dollars in reduced payments to federal contractors.

“I remain disappointed that this amendment has yet again been blocked by the majority party, particularly when the overarching legislation explicitly addresses contractor compensation,” said Tonko.“When taxpayer-funded federal contractors take home up to four times the amount our military leadership earns, it is a problem that needs to be addressed. I plan to continue this fight and I urge our allies in the Senate to stand firm on this important issue.”

The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) recognizes the accelerated annual increase of federal contractor salary caps, but the language included by HASC addressed the problem by making the current cap ($763,029) the new baseline and allowing smaller annual increases based on statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor.

“The existing approach by the House Armed Services Committee will not adequately rein in excessive contractor compensation, and the American taxpayer will continue to foot this exorbitant bill until we see real reform,” added Tonko.

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