McCaskill urged Mulvaney in a letter to provide the rationale behind the proposed pay freeze, which will affect law enforcement officers.
Mulvaney was also asked to explain why OMB directed the Department of Homeland Security to recruit 1,000 more agents for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement than DHS requested and ordered the department to reduce its budget request for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection‘s field operations by $88 million.
McCaskill wrote a separate letter to DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, asking the latter about the potential impact of the pay freeze on DHS recruitment efforts and if she supports the proposal.