Pay Amendment Passes Panel

Language to set a January 2003 federal pay raise of 4.1 percent in law has been put in a key appropriations bill for the upcoming fiscal year. The language was added as a subcommittee amendment to the House version of the Treasury-Postal appropriations bill, the funding measure covering federal employment programs in general. While in some past years the raise figure was not made explicit but rather was assumed in the funding levels of the appropriations bills, supporters of the 4.1 percent increase for federal workers wanted to get a firm commitment in writing early in the process. The House previously voted as part of a budget resolution to maintain parity between federal employees-who would stand to get 2.6 percent raises on average under the White House’s budget proposal-and uniformed military personnel, who are in line for 4.1 percent. However, budget resolution language is not binding and the Senate has yet to vote on a counterpart budget resolution. The House panel’s vote is far from the last word on the subject, however.