Many Twists Still May Lie Ahead

The late-year maneuvering on spending bills could produce a variety of outcomes: Congress could try to pass all the bills individually, some or all of them could be combined into an “omnibus” measure covering the rest of fiscal 2007, or a “continuing resolution” carrying funding until sometime in early calendar year 2007 could be passed, leaving final action to the new Congress that convenes in January. From the Capitol Hill perspective, each option has pros and cons; but in any case, time is short, with members trying to wrap up by mid-December. Under a continuing resolution, there may still be no definitive word on the raise before the end of December. In that case, a default raise of 1.7 percent would be paid in January, and Congress would have to decide afterward whether to increase it, and if so by how much. Similar scenarios played out regarding the 2003 and 2004 raises; in both cases, Congress boosted the raise retroactively, although it took months for agency payroll systems to make employees whole.