Pay Raise Battle Is On

Congress has reconvened facing an unusually heavy workload for so early in a year, since it must resolve budget disputes left over from last year-including a proposal to boost the 2003 federal raise to 4.1 percent from the 3.1 percent figure effective by default in lieu of a specific raise being legislated in the budget process last year. One possibility being mentioned on Capitol Hill is to pass another stopgap spending measure, possibly running a few weeks, to give Congress a bit of time to reorganize and decide how it wants to handle the raise and other budgetary issues.