2.7 Percent Pay Raise Advances

The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved the Transportation-Treasury spending bill for fiscal 2007 containing a 2.7 percent average GS pay raise in January, mirroring the figure in the House-passed version of the bill. However, the last word on the raise likely won’t come until the autumn, when that and other appropriations bills are expected to reach their final voting. The 2.7 percent figure was set on the assumption that military personnel would get that amount, after the House passed a DoD authorization bill containing 2.7 percent for the military. But since then, the Senate DoD authorization bill, as well as both the House and Senate versions of the DoD appropriations bill, contain just a 2.2 percent raise for the military—thus, Congress has effectively voted 3 to 1 for the lower amount. That already is putting pressure on the 2.7 figure for civilian employees, which very likely would be cut back to 2.2 percent if the military ends up with the lower figure.