President Donald Trump’s special salary bump has been extended to more federal law enforcement personnel, including some serving at energy and environmental agencies.
The pay hike, for example, will go to personnel serving on the protective details for various cabinet-level officials, including EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. At EPA, those agents will get a higher pay bump than their colleagues in the criminal enforcement division that investigate environmental pollution.
Last month, the president directed the Office of Personnel Management to identify which of the government’s law enforcement officers should get a wage hike of 3.8 percent in 2026. That pay raise was designed to award those carrying out his administration’s priorities, such as the ramped-up enforcement on illegal immigration, and was higher than the 1 percent increase in pay other federal employees received this year.
OPM initially picked agents, investigators and officers at the departments of Agriculture, Justice, Homeland Security, Interior and State, among others, for those special salary rates, according to a Dec. 31 memo last year. That pool now has been expanded, OPM said in new guidance sent to agency and department heads.
