Pay, Health Proposals Criticized, Too

The committee also said that it is "unfortunate that the President has not embraced Congress’ longstanding policy of pay parity for military and civilian employees" by proposing a January 2009 raise of 3.4 percent for military personnel and 2.9 percent for federal employees. "Congress has expressed strong bipartisan support for parity in pay adjustments between military and federal civilian personnel due to the essential service military and civilian employees provide to our nation and the vast wage gap that exists between public and private sector wages," it said. The letter also was cool to the idea of allowing Blue Cross/Blue Shield, the largest FEHB carrier, to add a third option, which presumably would be a high-deductible plan of the sort the White House has been advocating.