Treasury-Postal Spending Bill Still on Plate

With the start of fiscal 2003 just ahead October 1, Congress has yet to finalize the key spending bill for the fiscal year affecting federal employees, the Treasury-Postal appropriations bill. Both the House and Senate versions include a 4.1 percent average raise for general schedule employees effective in January, and both would bar the use of numeric goals in the contracting-out program. The White House has expressed displeasure over the former provision and has threatened a veto over the latter. Both bills also would continue several long-running policies, including the general requirement that Federal Employees Health Benefits program carriers pay for prescription contraceptives. However, while the House version (HR-5120) also would continue a general ban on coverage for abortions in the FEHB the Senate version (S-2740) is silent on that point. Both further would deny the White House’s request to change in the way FEHB and CSRS retirement benefits are accounted for in the federal budget by shifting those costs into individual agency budgets and out of government-wide accounts.