海角大神

Federal workers can be a favorite punching bag. Government shutdown? Furlough? Frozen pay? No problem, many Americans say, suggesting that those employed by Uncle Sam (outside the military) are overpaid and underworked.

The White House's budget director, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, sees things differently, and she has made maintaining and developing a high-quality federal workforce a top priority as head of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 鈥� a problem that needs to be addressed now, she says.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a very challenging issue,鈥� Ms. Burwell told reporters Friday at a breakfast sponsored by 海角大神. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 tell you the point in time when we crash. It鈥檚 important enough we need to bear down.鈥�

President Obama鈥檚 fiscal 2015 budget proposal, released Tuesday, calls for a 1 percent pay raise for federal workers and includes a new initiative to improve workforce hiring and development. Civilian federal workers got their first pay increase this year 鈥� 1 percent, by presidential executive order 鈥� after three straight years of frozen pay.

The pay freeze, last fall鈥檚 partial government shutdown, and unpaid furloughs resulting from across-the-board spending cuts have all tried the patience of the federal workforce, which numbers a bit over 2.7 million people. Burwell says the federal government is still attracting high-quality people to its workforce, but attrition is a concern. The question is when and if there will be a 鈥渃rash.鈥�

鈥淵ou see people getting ready to make choices,鈥� Burwell continued. She says she hasn鈥檛 seen numbers showing 鈥渉igh-potential people鈥� leaving at a much higher rate. 鈥淪o I鈥檓 not sure when it鈥檚 going to happen,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 just want to prevent it.鈥�

Burwell acknowledged that she thought long and hard before agreeing to move to Washington, D.C., last year to head OMB. Before that, she was president of the Walmart Foundation in Bentonville, Ark.

鈥淚 sat there with the yellow pad and like, OK, what are the pros and cons, what will be the things that will be difficult, let me think through this before we make a decision as a family,鈥� said Burwell, who is married and has two young children.

Burwell says that when she got to Washington, she realized she had underestimated the impact that the budget battles had had in her department. 鈥淥MB had more furlough days than any other department or agency in the federal government,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hen OMB not only participates in the shutdown, we run most of the shutdown.鈥�

The uncertainty takes a toll. Look at the federal employee survey scores, she says. 鈥淭hose are scores we have to work on and change.鈥�

Burwell was asked why the budget requested only a 1 percent raise for federal workers, and didn鈥檛 stake out a higher number, such as 2 or 3 percent, and then negotiate down.

鈥淲ouldn鈥檛 3 percent be nice,鈥� she said. But 鈥渢he question of how it relates to strategy is actually how it relates to reality in terms of numbers.鈥�

Proposing a federal pay increase above 1 percent would have meant cutting other areas that are priorities, too, such as veterans benefits. She doesn鈥檛 know yet if the 1 percent pay increase will meet opposition on Capitol Hill.

The federal government employs 2 percent of the nation鈥檚 workforce, and in fact is at , as a percentage of the total workforce. In August 1966, the federal government had 2,721,000 civilian employees, or 4.3 percent of the workforce. In September 2013, before the shutdown, the figure was 2,723,000 employees, or 2 percent.