Budget: 2.3 Percent Raise, No Benefit Cuts

President Bush’s fiscal 2006 budget proposal seeks a 2.3 percent federal raise in January 2006, continuing a pattern of White House proposals for raises linked to general inflation, not to the employment cost index measure under federal pay law and for raises below the amount recommended for uniformed military personnel. Supporters of continued parity between federal and military raises, though, will work again this year in the congressional budget process to bring the federal raise up to the targeted military amount–which under a separate pay law is set at 3.1 percent, a figure the White House backed. Resolutions to continue “pay parity” already have been introduced in both the House and Senate. Meanwhile, in what came as something of a surprise to employee organizations, the budget does not recommend any cuts in spending on federal employee benefits; those groups had been bracing for legislative battles over the retirement and health insurance programs, the two big-ticket federal benefits.