Budget Contains Few Surprises

The administration’s budget proposal unveiled yesterday contains relatively few surprises for federal employees, since administration officials had announced many of the key elements in advance. As indicated earlier, the White House is seeking a 1 percent pay raise in January 2015 and does not propose any increases in required employee contributions toward retirement. Employee organizations are happy about the latter although less than enthusiastic about the former. They are calling for repeal of previously enacted increases in retirement contributions for employees hired in 2013 and later, and are advocating a 2015 raise in the 3-4 percent range—both very difficult challenges. The budget further proposes another round of base closings, to be carried out in 2017—a proposal that Congress has rejected several years running. Also, agencies are to keep reducing overhead spending in areas such as conferences, travel, advisory contracts, printing, promotional items, and transportation; consolidation of office space and functions such as HR, IT and finance also will continue. Agencies including IRS, SSA and VA would add employees for program integrity and to address customer service problems and benefits application backlogs. Law enforcement jobs, including in the Border Patrol and FBI, and cybersecurity jobs also would be added. The plan is only the start of a long process, one that is supposed to culminate in appropriations bills being enacted by the start of the new fiscal year October 1—a deadline that has been missed for many years.