President Bush has issued an order setting the average January general schedule pay raise at 2.2 percent, with 1.7 percentage points to be paid out across the board and the funds for the other 0.5 percentage points to be divided up as locality pay. He issued that order because Congress still has not legislated a raise; under federal pay law, a larger raise would have kicked in automatically had Bush not issued the order. The 2.2 percent amount is the same number the White House originally proposed for federal employees in its budget plan issued early this year. Another order, typically issued at the end of December, finalizes pay rates and new pay tables are issued at that time. The raise would take effect with the first full pay period in January.