A statement endorses “pay parity” with military personnel. Image: Mehaniq/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffIn the first formal action in Congress regarding the 2024 federal employee raise, the Senate Armed Services Committee has backed the 5.2 percent that President Biden proposed, mirroring its acceptance of the same raise for military personnel.
A summary of the annual DoD authorization bill passed by the committee late last week says the bill—which hasn’t yet been released in full—“Provides for a 5.2 percent pay raise for both military servicemembers and the DoD civilian workforce.” While that committee doesn’t have a role in raises for federal employees working for agencies other than DoD, annual raises always have applied across all agencies.
The committee’s statement in effect endorses “pay parity”—setting equivalent raises for uniformed and federal personnel—a practice that generally has been followed for years, although there have been exceptions.
The House counterpart committee also has backed 5.2 percent for military personnel but a summary of its bill that also was approved last week contains no mention of a raise for federal employees.
The DoD authorization bill does not set the federal employee raise but does send a message of intent that often has held up through the budgetary process. Raises typically are set in the annual general government appropriations bill, either by specifying a figure in that bill or by taking no position and allowing the White House proposal to become effective automatically.
The House subcommittee that handles that bill has approved it on a party-line voice vote, with no mention of a raise. However, an amendment to set a figure could be made when the full Appropriations Committee takes it up. The counterpart Senate committee has not yet released its version of that bill.
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