Although Congress has been working sporadically since the start of the year, the legislative year is set to begin in earnest next Monday (February 7) when President Bush is to release his fiscal year 2006 budget proposals. The annual battle over the size of the federal raise for the following year is expected to follow largely familiar lines—with the administration recommending a relatively low across-the-board figure plus advocating pay for performance, and with congressional civil service leaders of both parties backing continued “parity” with raises for military personnel. One change this year, though, is that the battle will be fought against the backdrop of pay for performance systems rolling out at two of the largest departments, Defense and Homeland Security. Supporters of a closer link between performance and pay are expected to point to those changes as the model for the rest of the government, while skeptics—including federal unions—likely will argue that such systems should be given time to operate before any conclusions can be drawn about them.