Raise, Other Issues Await Lame Duck

Congress returns next week for a post-election lame duck session that has among its chief orders of business completing a budget for the fiscal year that started October 1. The government is operating on a “continuing resolution” good through November 17 that funds departments and agencies whose regular appropriations haven’t passed—meaning all except for Defense and Homeland Security. For federal employees, the key bill is the Transportation-Treasury appropriations measure (HR-5576) that recommends a 2.7 percent average federal pay raise in January. That bill might be passed on its own or merged into a larger catchall spending bill for the remainder of the fiscal year; either way, there’s a strong chance that the raise will be reduced to 2.2 percent to make it equal to that already approved for the military. The spending bills also contain a number of policy issues affecting federal employment, including proposed restrictions on contracting out of certain categories of jobs.