Pay Fight is On-With a Twist

As in recent past years, members of Congress active in federal employee issues have introduced resolutions in both the House and Senate advocating “pay parity” between federal and uniformed military raises. That would mean boosting the January 2005 federal raise from the 1.5 percent sought by the White House to 3.5 percent, the number tabbed for the military (military raises are set by an employment cost index formula that, unlike the formula for federal pay, is followed routinely). The resolutions typically aren’t moved as separate legislation but instead are attached to the first draft of the upcoming year’s budget, which the House and Senate Budget Committees will start writing in upcoming weeks with a goal of passage by April 15. While that language doesn’t lock in the raise, it does set a strong precedent for later action on binding spending bills that do specify the raise. However, it’s still unknown whether Congress will adopt a procedural change the White House supports which would make it harder to follow that process this time around by requiring that the budget draft set aside money for the raise. Also, the head of the House appropriations subcommittee that oversees the raise, Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., told colleagues in a letter that he opposes pay parity for 2005.