Transportation-Treasury Bill the Key

The key bill in the budget deliberations will be the Transportation-Treasury appropriations bill, which is ready for a House vote but which has not seen even subcommittee action in the Senate. The House Appropriations Committee added language on a bipartisan vote with relatively little dissent to set the January 2004 federal raise at 4.1 percent, but there is considerable potential for maneuvering on the raise ahead. Similarly, while the committee approved the concept of creating a fund to reward high-performing employees, it set aside only $2.5 million for that fund; during House or Senate voting, the administration could prevail on some members to advocate boosting that amount, possibly to the $500 million the White House originally requested. Similarly, a battle could be ahead on language added in House committee voting to impose new reporting requirements on agency efforts to consider federal jobs for private sector performance. The administration already has signaled its opposition to several agency-specific restrictions on contracting-out that House members added to other pending appropriations bills.