Backers of parity between federal civilian and uniformed military pay are expected to offer an amendment to the Transportation-Treasury bill at the full committee level to set the 2005 pay raise at the 3.5 percent slated for the military. Congress has backed pay parity in all but a few years in the last two decades, and earlier this year the House voted in favor of continued pay parity, although in a non-binding measure. The bill also typically caps pay raises for blue-collar employees, who are under a separate locality pay system than general schedule employees. Traditionally that cap was set at the average national GS pay raise but last year that language was changed to assure that wage grade employees get at least the same raise as GS employees in a given area.