Raise Bill Up for Vote

A House vote could come this week on the financial services-general government appropriations bill (HR-2829) that would set the January 2008 general schedule pay raise at an average 3.5 percent. As in past years, the bill does not specify how the amount would be split among across-the-board raises and locality raises for GS employees, and would cap raises for wage grade employees—who are under a separate locality system—at the local GS amount. The bill meanwhile specifies that DHS employees would get the same raise as employees of other agencies, language that would effectively bar the department from applying any revised pay-setting system there. It also would do the same for employees at DoD who are union-represented or eligible for union representation; all employees under the DoD national security personnel system are in positions ineligible for union representation.