Raise, Other Spending Issues Unresolved

Congress has gone on recess through Labor Day having made only partial progress on spending bills that will be needed to fund the government in the new fiscal year that starts October 1, including the key measure affecting federal employee benefits, the financial services-general government appropriations bill. The House has passed its version of that bill which effectively endorses a 2 percent raise in January, but before recessing the Senate did not take up its version, which provides for 2.9 percent. The House has cleared all 12 of the needed appropriations measures but the Senate just four, and there already is a general belief on Capitol Hill that not all of them will be finished on time and that a short-term continuing funding measure will be needed to keep the government operating. Budget leaders say they remain committed to enacting each of the 12 as separate bills, though, rather than combining bills into a package as has often been done in the past.