| Cummings has vigorously, sometimes emotionally, fought against cuts in federal employee compensation. Many federal employees “have chosen to forgo opportunities for higher paying jobs in the private sector in order to serve the public,” he said. “Eliminating or reducing their pensions and gutting their pay would push skilled people out of the civil service and impair the recruitment of new talent.” Following the private sector practice in this area, as Republicans often have suggested, he added, “is simply a race to the bottom.” President Trump has imposed a hiring freeze with certain exceptions. Chaffetz has praised federal workers while adding “we have too many of them,” even though there are significantly fewer feds now, per capita, than in the 1960s. “Experience tells us that a hiring freeze will harm efficiency and cost taxpayers more money, not less,” Cummings said. “The effects of President Trump’s across-the-board hiring freeze will range from ineffective to harmful. For example, this hiring freeze impacts Offices of Inspectors General – the very people who are tasked with rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse, and saving taxpayer money…The Social Security Administration is headquartered in my district, and a freeze there could hurt more than 60 million seniors who depend on getting their Social Security benefits on time. The freeze will also hurt our veterans and minorities because the federal government hires more veterans and minorities than the private sector.” Although Republicans have been associated with attempts to lower federal employee compensation, through plans such as changes to the retirement system, Chaffetz said “there are some areas where we are probably going to have to pay people more money,” including cyber security experts. Cummings favors pay increases for the workforce “since they have given up about $182 billion in pay and benefits over the last few years to fund deficit reduction and other government programs.” But he is “not sure how Republicans plan to fund increased pay for a group of federal employees without impacting the pay and benefits of other employees.” Cummings said Chaffetz’s plan to go “full throttle” in seeking documents related to Hillary Clinton’s time as secretary of state “is another example of Chairman Chaffetz looking backwards at the Obama administration instead of conducting oversight over the most pressing national security challenges this country is facing. Chairman Chaffetz has refused to investigate President Trump’s conflicts of interest and Russian interference with our democratic elections, but looking at Secretary Clinton’s emails somehow remains a priority. “We are in an extremely target-rich environment for oversight and as the Chairman points out repeatedly, we are a Committee of unlimited jurisdiction. Chairman Chaffetz has stated he wasn’t going to be a ‘cheerleader’ for this Administration, but remaining entirely silent is also not an option,” Cummings added. “It’s ironic that Chairman Chaffetz wants to continue investigating Hillary Clinton—who is now a private citizen—but won’t investigate President Donald Trump…there is no doubt whatsoever that our Committee has direct jurisdiction over the President’s conflicts of interest. The public demand for this investigation has been incredible, but Chairman Chaffetz would rather resurrect partisan attacks on Hillary Clinton.” Read more: Beware: Chaffetz committee plans broad agenda affecting federal workers | 