Key Spending Bill Maintains Silence on Raise

The House Appropriations Committee could vote as soon as today (June 17) on the key funding bill for federal employment related programs that would continue a pattern of action by inaction that legislators have followed in recent years. Under federal pay law, if no figure is legislated by the end of a calendar year, the raise proposed by the White House—typically formalized in a message sent in late August—takes effect. That was the process followed when setting the 2014 and 2015 raises at 1 percent, and if the pattern continues, will result in a 1.3 percent raise in January 2016. One difference, however, is that while the past two raises have been paid entirely across the board, the 2016 raise might be divided into two parts: one paid across the board and the money for the remaining percentage divided up as locality pay. That’s because the administration plans to add 13 new GS localities in 2016, as well as to add certain outlying areas to existing ones. How much would go to each component and what the boosts would be by locality are issues to be determined later.