Agencies other than DoD and VA will be subject to budget caps under the recently enacted law that suspended the debt ceiling into 2025. Image: Lightboxx/Shutterstock.com
Two House committees have started advancing spending bills for the fiscal year that begins October 1, bills that could set policies affecting the federal workforce in a range of areas.
The Armed Services Committee is crafting the annual DoD authorization measure, which often contains personnel policy changes applying government-wide in addition to some affecting only employees of that department. The initial version, subject to change as the process continues, includes only relatively minor provisions such as expanding special hiring authorities for hard to fill positions at the department and extending several long-running pay provisions for employees working in areas of active military operations.
The bill also notably would accept the 5.2 percent raise that President Biden proposed for active duty military personnel. It is silent regarding the equivalent raise he proposed for federal employees; in most years both groups receive the same raise in the name of “pay parity.”
However, there are exceptions, and that could be the case for the January 2024 raise. Agencies other than DoD and VA will be subject to budget caps under the recently enacted law that suspended the debt ceiling into 2025, restricting the accounts that fund employee salaries. A group of the most conservative House Republicans meanwhile is pushing to have the upcoming spending bills adhere to even tighter limits for all agencies, including DoD and VA.
If Congress is to specify a federal employee raise—as opposed to allowing the President’s recommendation to take effect by default through inaction, a common practice of recent years—it most likely would be done through an appropriations bill. The Appropriations Committee this week is returning to work on those bills after a pause pending the outcome of the debt ceiling negotiations.
First on the list for attention is the measure covering the VA and military construction projects, one of four measures that advanced through the subcommittee level before that pause, with the others—affecting DHS, Agriculture-FDA and Congress—likely will be the next in line.
The general government spending bill, which typically is the vehicle for deciding on the pay raise through either action or inaction, is not yet on the schedule.
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