2004 Pay Raise Battles to Begin Soon

With Congress still at work deciding whether the 2003 federal pay raise will be 3.1 or 4.1 percent, officials already are looking ahead to an upcoming fight over the January 2004 raise. President Bush is expected to release on February 3 his fiscal 2004 budget that will contain a pay raise recommendation that as in past years likely will be only the starting point for protracted deliberations. Several months ago, a trial balloon effectively was floated suggesting that he might recommend a raise of about 2 percent. That would be consistent with Bush’s late November order advocating a 3.1 percent 2003 raise rather than 4.1 percent on grounds that inflation and federal turnover are low, and that the nation is under emergency conditions.