Talked about a salary amount in an initial phone call, which is now being reduced when I get my official offer letter. What to do?

So I'm being contracted by a company to work in a science position for the federal government. Essentially, I go to the government facility every day to work and they tell me what to do, but my check is being signed by this other company.

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I originally applied for a federal job, and got rejected but in the same email got offered this contract position by the government employee. So, essentially, I just had to go through the contracting company's hiring process to get the job because the government agency had already decided they wanted me.

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The purpose of the initial phone call that I had with a representative from the contracting company was to see if I was interested so that he could submit my information to the federal government and go through the security process if they wanted me (which, I knew they did, as they had referred me to the position to begin with). In this phone call, he offered me 50k WITH health insurance. I'm still young and on my parent's insurance, so I told him I wouldn't need it and asked if there would be a salary change if I didn't require health insurance. He kind of did an "ummm" thing like he didn't have the information in front of him, and then said "probably closer to 60k". I agreed to begin the security clearance process.

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I am now in transit to my new location (very long drive) and have just received confirmation that the security clearance went well and my start date has been coordinated between me and my (federal govt) bosses. I relayed this to the same representative from the company, and in his reply, he said "We also still need to finalize a compensation figure. That will be in your offer letter so do you have time tomorrow or Friday for a quick call? Ideally you will have some type of mobile phone service on your drive west and north? I know when we last spoke, I'm fairly sure I had mentioned a $55-$60k range. It is more along the lines of $50-$55K so that is why i'd like to connect on the phone. You had also mentioned that you didn't need health insurance and were still going to be covered on your family's plan - is that still correct?"

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Essentially my question is, what do? and what say? pls help. I am notoriously spineless. it might be helpful to mention that 50k is about 10k more than I originally expected to be making, so I'm not that mad, but it does seem shady to make an unofficial salary offer and then reduce it once your candidate is already in transit to the new job location

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EDIT: it also might be helpful to mention that I originally had a different job lined up at this location, so it's not like I'd have nothing to fall back on if I declined (and they know this). However, I already know I'm not going to decline either way. Not to mention, with my original job I'd be making ~30k less per year. And they probably know that.

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