Lieberman Backs Pay Parity

The head of the Senate committee that handles federal employee issues, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., has endorsed parity between federal civilian and uniformed military personnel raises in January 2010, saying he found the Obama administration’s proposal for 2 percent for the former group while 2.9 percent for the latter to be "disappointing." In an annual statement of plans for the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, he said that he plans to work "to see whether we can find our way clear to provide a pay increase for federal employees on a par with that for military personnel." Pay parity has been the practice in nearly all years over the last two decades. In many years, language endorsing it is written into a spending outline that is produced each spring called the budget resolution, while in other years the issue isn’t addressed until later when appropriations bills are written. Several House members active in civil service issues also have called for parity in the next raise.