Much Lies Ahead on Raise

The subcommittee’s recommendation likely will be voted on in the full Armed Services Committee this week and House floor voting would follow. While the amount could yet change, military raises tend to be set early in the budget process and remain unchanged throughout. Civil service leaders in Congress who favor parity typically work through the appropriations bills—funding bills that have not yet started through the budget process this year—to set the federal raise at an amount equaling the military’s. They have generally been successful despite White House objections about costs that in many years have resulted in a protracted back-and-forth over the federal raise before final enactment. The subcommittee’s military raise plan also includes additional raises targeted for certain mid-grade military personnel, but such raises typically are not factored into the discussions of the “parity” figure.