In one of its last actions before Congress took its annual summer recess, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a measure covering the Defense Department that endorses a 1 percent federal employee raise in January and designates money to cover the cost, as recommended by the White House. That is the only spending bill to progress so far that has directly addressed the issue of a raise; all the rest have been completely silent or have said that if a raise is paid, the cost would have to come from other accounts. The recess will continue until September 9, leaving only several weeks of working time before the October 1 start of the next fiscal year. With most of the regular appropriations bills only half finished or less, there’s a general expectation that Capitol Hill once again will resort to a temporary funding measure, called a continuing resolution, that commonly lasts several months and generally keeps spending and other policies unchanged for the meantime—although the warnings about a partial government shutdown that commonly arise in such situations already are being raised. Before recessing, another Senate committee approved the nomination of Katherine Archuleta as OPM director but a floor vote was delayed pending a demand from Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., for information on whether Hill staff will lose the employer contribution toward health insurance when they switch from the FEHB to Affordable Care Act coverage in January. The House meanwhile approved numerous bills cracking down on employee awards, conferences, travel and more–see the July 31 FEDweek issue for a listing; the Senate committee took up only a shortened list and pared down a bill to apply more scrutiny to security clearances, while leaving the door open to adding back wider provisions later.
