With no federal employee raise amount for 2016 having been set by legislation yet, President Obama can use authority under federal pay law to set a raise that would be paid by default in January should no number, including zero, be enacted into law by the end of the calendar year. Such an order–which most likely would repeat his earlier proposal for 1.3 percent–must be issued by the end of August. Some years such orders have been issued and in others they haven’t, largely depending on how the budget is progressing. This year has been shaping up as a replay the last two years, when the White House’s early-year budget proposal had recommended a 1 percent raise for the following January, and appropriations bills moving through Congress afterward were silent on the issue. Neither the House nor the Senate version of the key bill, the financial services-general government appropriations bill, contains a raise figure but both essentially assume one will be paid, stating that political appointees would not get whatever raise is paid. Those bills also would continue the practice of capping a wage grade raise at a location at the increase going to GS employees there; wage grade employees are under a separate locality pay system but in practice their raises have been capped in that way for many years.