The budget proposal repeats a request the White House made last year for authority to divide the pay raise not just by an across-the-board component and locality pay, but also to target raises to positions where the government is having trouble recruiting and retaining employees. Congress did not act on that proposal last year, largely due to concerns about short-changing other employees—the money for recruitment/retention pay would come from the same amount available for the other types of raises. In addition, the budget contains a new proposal to replace the special cost-of-living allowances paid to employees outside the 48 contiguous states—in Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. territories and possessions—with locality pay, to be set individually for each of those areas. Officials said that most affected employees would come out ahead, noting that overseas COLAs don’t count toward retirement computations but locality pay does.