House approves pay raise for law enforcement officers

The House last week approved a provision that would give Park Police and uniformed Secret Service agents a pay raise next year.

The provision, included in the fiscal 2003 Treasury-Postal Appropriations bill (H.R. 5120), reverses a law passed in 2000 that blocked special locality-based raises for these law enforcement officers. The 2000 Law Enforcement Pay Equity Act, aimed at improving recruitment and retention in the two agencies, raised pay for Park Police and members of the Secret Service Uniformed Division by 6 percent, but also ended locality-based raises.

"Fair is fair, and I think we can all agree that having one locality pay rate for most federal employees in our region and a lower rate for Park Police and Secret Service officers is a gross inequity in need of repair," said Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., who co-sponsored the legislation with Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md.

Giving the officers locality pay would increase the salary of an officer with 13 years of service by $1,375 a year, according to Hoyer's office. The locality pay will help the agencies stem their attrition rates, Hoyer said.

"At a time when the uniformed division [of the Secret Service] and Park Police are trying to increase morale and maintain top-rate officers, this is a small but significant signal that Congress cares about their welfare," Hoyer said in a statement.

In the first five months of this year, 103 uniformed Secret Service agents quit to work for other agencies in the Washington area and 32 members of the Park Police also left.

While the bill would boost pay only for the Secret Service division and the Park Police, several law enforcement agencies are facing staffing crises as the new Transportation Security Administration steps up its hiring efforts. Officials with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Bureau of Prisons and the Federal Protective Service have all reported that employees are quitting at higher rates this year than in previous years because of opportunities at the TSA.

The full Senate still needs to vote on its version of the fiscal 2003 Treasury-Postal bill.