Full Senate panel backs 4.1 percent raise, rejects outsourcing quotas

The Senate Appropriations Committee voted Tuesday to give federal employees a 4.1 percent pay raise in fiscal 2003. The committee also approved an amendment preventing the Bush administration from requiring agencies to designate a percentage of their jobs for possible outsourcing.

Last week, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Treasury Department, Postal Service, and General Government Operations approved the same provisions, which are both included in the fiscal 2003 Treasury-Postal appropriations bill.

The pay raise, which has also been approved by the House Appropriations Committee, would provide civilian employees with the same percentage increase as military service members. The Bush administration had proposed a 2.6 percent raise for civilian workers.

The outsourcing provision, sponsored by Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., would prevent the Office of Management and Budget from requiring that agencies put 15 percent of their commercial jobs up for competition with private firms by October 2003.

During a mid-session budget review last Friday, OMB Director Mitch Daniels said he would recommend that President Bush veto any legislation that curtails the competitive sourcing initiative.

Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, praised the Senate committee's move to reject the outsourcing quotas.

The job competition targets "do not allow for any consideration to be given to the unique situations of agencies-and they are having a devastating impact on employee morale at a time when the government already is in a recruitment and retention crisis," Kelley said.

Sen. Dorgan's amendment is identical to one offered by Rep. James Moran, D-Va., which the House Appropriations Committee rejected last week.