The House-passed budget outline for the upcoming fiscal year is silent on the federal pay raise for 2005, but leaders there have agreed to hold a separate vote on language to maintain parity between federal and uniformed military raises. A Senate-passed version of the budget outline recommends maintaining parity, effectively endorsing a 3.5 percent raise for both groups. For procedural and policy reasons that language was left out of the House version but House supporters of pay parity, including several leading Republicans on civil service issues, won the promise of a separate vote on a pay parity resolution. The language in such measures is not binding; the actual raise is set in the annual appropriations process, which is still to come. However, enactment of “sense of the Congress” language in favor of pay parity eases the way for passage of binding language in the appropriations bills.