Raise, Contracting Provisions Also Opposed

The measure also recommends a 3.5 percent January 2008 military raise, a figure that could be applied to federal employees later in the budget process in the name of pay parity. It further includes several continuing or new restrictions on contracting out studies. The administration opposed those changes as well, although it did not threaten a veto over them. It called boosting the raise “unnecessary” and said the changes to contracting policy would delay, complicate and restrict the use of that policy while hampering management’s ability to decide where to obtain needed services. The House passed the bill by a margin easily large enough to override a veto, although the annual DoD spending bill typically commands such bipartisan support so the margin does not necessarily indicate the outcome of a veto and override fight.