The Senate Budget Committee has approved language that effectively amounts to endorsing a 3.5 percent January 2005 federal raise. The committee, in approving a budget resolution, included “sense of the Senate” language saying that the “rate of increase in the compensation of civilian employees should be equal to that proposed for the military in the President’s fiscal year 2005 budget.” The White House budget proposal seeks 3.5 percent for the military but only 1.5 percent for federal employees plus $500 million in performance pay funding. The budget resolution now moves to a full Senate vote; a counterpart measure is to move in the House soon. While a budget resolution is not binding, similar language has been a major factor in recent years in bringing federal raises up to the increases for military personnel in the name of parity between the two groups.