Civil service pay raise could be bigger than congressional raise

Civil service employees could take home a larger pay raise than the one members of Congress will receive next year if efforts by several lawmakers to increase the federal pay raise to 4.1 percent in 2003 are successful.

Annual raises for Congress members and civil service employees are tied to increases in the Labor Department's Employment Cost Index, which pegged the annual, across-the-board increase at 3.1 percent for 2003. But civil service employees are also eligible to receive an additional locality-based increase.

While annual pay adjustments for congressional salaries-which are included in the Executive Schedule-automatically take effect unless Congress votes to block them, lawmakers do not receive locality pay, and their annual increases cannot be more than the across-the-board annual pay increases received by civil service employees.

Under federal pay law, the president can offer an alternative plan for civil service raises, and limit locality pay. On Nov. 30, President Bush announced his intention to cap the pay raise for federal civilian employees at 3.1 percent in 2003 with no locality pay raise, contending that the war against terrorism called for belt-tightening.

Congress can override the president on civilian pay raises through legislation, and the House approved a 4.1 percent average raise for civilian employees as part of the fiscal 2003 Treasury-Postal Appropriations bill. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the pay raise in its version of the fiscal 2003 Treasury-Postal bill, but the full Senate adjourned without voting on the legislation. Agencies are now operating under a continuing resolution that expires on Jan. 11.

Several lawmakers have vowed to get federal employees a 4.1 percent increase that includes an additional 1 percent for locality pay. Last week, Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said he intended to push for the inclusion of a 4.1 percent pay increase in the 2003 Treasury-Postal Appropriations bill or an omnibus bill when Congress reconvenes next year. On Monday, Sens. John Warner, R-Va.; George Allen, R-Va.; Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.; and Paul Sarbanes, D-Md., made the same request in a letter to Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. Stevens is slated to head the Senate Appropriations Committee when Congress returns in January.

"Federal employees are an integral part in our fight against terrorism and protecting our homeland security," the senators' letter said. "They fully deserve the additional 1 percent increase to the 3.1 percent pay adjustment currently scheduled for federal employees in 2003."

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., who said during his reelection campaign in 1998 that he would not to take a pay increase while in office, had hoped to block the congressional pay raise in 2003. He offered an amendment to the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (H.R. 5005), but the Senate voted 58-36 to table the measure, allowing the raise to stand.