Budget Measures Quiet on Pay

Both the House and Senate have drafted budget blueprints for the upcoming fiscal year that are silent on the question of the January 2008 federal pay raise. The budget “resolutions” are only guidelines and typically do not address the raise specifically; that is left to the later process of writing appropriations bills. In many past years, though, the budget resolutions stated Congress’s support for granting equal-sized raises to federal and uniformed military personnel, since the White House most commonly proposed a larger raise for the military than for civilian employees. However, pay “parity” is not an issue in this budget cycle since President Bush proposed a 3 percent raise for both groups; some federal and military organizations are advocating 3.5 or 4 percent for both.