Biden has proposed only a 2 percent January raise for federal employees, which would break pay parity with a 4.5 percent military raise. Image: Jim Lambert/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffCongress has started to craft the appropriations bills and the annual DoD authorization bill, the key measures for decisions on the upcoming year’s federal employee raise and on workplace policy changes.
While it’s generally expected that none of those measures will be enacted into law before the elections — when Congress returns next week from its current recess, it will have only nine scheduled working weeks before November — the measures for the meantime will serve to stake out positions.
The House Armed Services Committee last week approved the DoD measure, which notably agrees to the general 4.5 percent January raise that President Biden recommended for military personnel—lower-ranking personnel would receive still more. Biden meanwhile has proposed only a 2 percent raise for federal employees, which would break the longstanding but informal practice of “pay parity” between the two groups. Federal employee organizations and friendly members of Congress likely will push to maintain that parity as the measure moves forward.
For federal employees, the DoD measure for now contains mostly routine extensions of various special hiring and compensation authorities, along with a new provision to let civilian employees voluntarily serve longer overseas assignments than current policy allows. But because the measure is considered a “must-pass,” it often becomes the vehicle for floor amendments seeking more substantial workplace policy changes, some affecting only DoD employees and others applying government-wide.
Spending Bills Start to Move
House Republican leaders meanwhile are pushing ahead with appropriations bills, although it’s likely that stopgap funding will again be needed to continue agency funding past the September 30 end of the current fiscal year.
The primary bill affecting federal workplace policies, the financial services-general government measure, is set for voting next week at the subcommittee level and the following week for at the committee level.
That bill is where a raise could be legislated, although in most recent years Congress has allowed the President’s recommendation to take effect by default by remaining silent. However, the measure also commonly turns into a vehicle for proposals affecting the federal workforce.
For example, last year the House added language to roll back telework to pre-pandemic levels and require agencies to make a business case for increasing above those levels; defund the administration’s DEI initiatives in the federal workplace; ban coverage of gender-affirming care in the FEHB program; and more.
While those provisions ultimately were dropped in conferences with the Senate, they could be revived, and other proposals could be attached, as well—for example, a House-passed bill triggering a process of consolidating agency buildings if occupancy levels fell below 60 percent for more than a year.
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., head of the Oversight and Accountability Committee, meanwhile has asked the Appropriations Committee to limit the budgets of agencies that haven’t been fully responsive to his information requests—a list that includes OPM.
Republicans also could use the bill to target recently finalized rules to prevent the return of an excepted service Schedule F through an executive order, while Democrats might use it to attempt to lock those rules into law.
Both telework and Schedule F were discussed at a recent hearing in the oversight committee with acting OPM director Rob Shriver, with the arguments falling along much-trodden lines.
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OMB Says Federal Workforce RIFs are Starting as Shutdown Drags On
Financial Impact of Shutdown Starts to Hit Home; WH Threatens No Back Pay
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See also,
TSP Takes Step toward Upcoming In-Plan Roth Conversions
5 Steps to Protect Your Federal Job During the Shutdown
Over 30K TSP Accounts Have Crossed the Million Mark in 2025
The Best Ages for Federal Employees to Retire
