Thread: Bush to Raise Civil-Service Pay

BUSH GOT THIS ONE RIGHT, BY BEATING THE 1990 LAW!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bush to Raise Civil-Service Pay by 3 Percent

By Stephen Barr
Thursday, November 29, 2007; Page D04

President Bush, in a letter to congressional leaders yesterday, said he will raise federal pay by an average of 3 percent next year, slightly less than what Congress is proposing.

Bush's announcement was triggered by a 1990 federal pay law, which set Friday as a deadline for a decision. Bush said he would provide 1.8 million employees covered by the General Schedule pay system with a base pay increase of 2.5 percent and an average "locality pay" supplement of 0.5 percent.

Congress, however, is on track to provide most federal employees with a 3.5 percent raise and will likely override the president's decision. The congressional pay proposal has been on hold for several weeks, trapped in crossfire between Congress and the White House over spending priorities for fiscal 2008.

"I am confident that when Congress returns next month to complete our legislative work for the year, we will secure the 3.5 percent pay raise that our hard-working federal workforce deserves," Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), the House majority leader, said yesterday.

Bush recently signed a defense appropriations bill that provides for a 3.5 percent raise for the armed forces, though he began the year by proposing 3 percent pay raises for the military and the civil service.

Congress traditionally supports providing equal raises to the military and the civil service, and Hoyer said yesterday that he was "extremely disappointed that the president has rebuffed the principle of pay parity." He added, "Military and civilian employees work side by side to provide essential services to our nation, and their contributions ought to be adequately recognized."

Bush said turnover in government jobs is "very low" and wrote that "I do not believe this decision will materially affect our ability to continue to attract and retain a quality federal workforce."

If Bush had not sent Congress his pay plan, the 1990 law would have required him to give locality pay adjustments averaging 12.5 percent. Locality pay is added to the base pay of federal employees, and Congress envisioned that it would bring federal salaries more in line with private-sector pay. But the law has never been fully implemented, in part because of its cost.

Bush's letter to Congress said that adhering to the law would be too expensive. He exercised a waiver provided by the law, saying that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have caused a "national emergency" that continues to exist.

A full pay raise as called for by the law would cost $16.4 billion in 2008, or $12.7 billion more than the cost of a 3 percent raise, Bush said.

Providing the funds for a full raise "would force deep cuts in discretionary spending or federal employment to stay within budget. Either outcome would unacceptably interfere with our nation's ability to secure the homeland and pursue the war on terrorism," Bush wrote.

The Bush administration's formula distributes the largest share of locality raises to metropolitan areas where federal employees' salaries lag the most behind their nongovernmental counterparts', as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

If Bush's 3 percent raise holds, federal employees in the Washington-Baltimore area would receive a 3.49 percent pay raise in January. Federal employees in New York would receive a 3.23 percent raise, in Chicago, a 3.07 percent raise, and in Los Angeles, a 3 percent raise.

Federal employees in other cities would receive lower raises. Employees in Richmond would get a 2.94 percent raise, for instance. Employees who do not work in one of the 31 locality pay areas would receive a 2.75 percent raise under the plan announced yesterday.

Federal unions have urged Congress to provide at least a 3.5 percent raise next year. Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said she was "very optimistic" that Congress would approve a 3.5 percent raise.

Kelley said pay is a critical factor in the government's ability to hire talented workers. "When you consider all the important contributions that civilian employees make each day to the federal workplace, a 3 percent salary increase is simply inadequate," she said.

The American Federation of Government Employees also pledged to push for a 3.5 percent pay raise. "Bush's decision to nickel-and-dime federal employees is, unfortunately, no surprise," the union said in a statement.

Stephen Barr's e-mail address isbarrs@washpost.com.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... newsletter


BUT ALL THE HARD-WORKING RETIRED PEOPLE WHO HELPED BUILD THIS COUNTRY FOR THE CURRENT CONGRESS TO TEAR DOWN, WILL GET ONLY A 2.5% INCREASE IN THEIR SS CHECKS. AND DON'T FORGET, EVERY TIME THEY GET AN INCREASE, THEY ALSO RAISE THE COST OF THE MEDICARE!

2.5 percent. That's awfully big of him. Wouldn't want to take away their chances of voting themselves in another huge pay raise. Because you know those politicians in Washington, they are the real war heroes, they are the ones fighting the real wars.