1) This seems to be a bigger deal to them than other similar things.
2) The concern is about more elite civil servants because they might get mad and leave the government and we not have their expertise.
In other words, "this is a big deal for the top levels of the civil service, especially our neighbors and sources."
But of course most federal employees aren't the top civil service. They're just grunts who work in various federal government offices, and who get paid less than the elite ones.
This might be unfair, as I suggest in my first sentence, but federal civilian employees are mostly not the people at the top of the pay scales.