Fedweek

A budget measure that now is within days of final voting in Congress would allow a 1 percent across the board federal employee raise in January, the culmination of a Capitol Hill strategy pursued all year of letting that raise happen by default by remaining silent. The budget measure would fund all agencies except DHS through the rest of the fiscal year; DHS would be funded only through February, when the new Congress would revisit immigration policies. The raise, to be effective at the start of the first full pay period of the new year (January 11, for most), would not apply to political appointees, political SES members or members of Congress. The measure also continues: a long-standing ban on starting new A-76 contracting out studies; reporting requirements and spending limits on conferences; and a ban on training not directly related to an employee’s job duties. A temporary funding measure in place since the beginning of the budget year in October is due to expire at the end of the day Thursday (December 11); Congress may enact another stopgap in order to give itself time to vote on the budget before it adjourns for the year in upcoming days.