House panel backs 3.5 percent civilian pay raise

A House subcommittee voted Tuesday for a 3.5 percent average salary increase for civilian federal employees, echoing actions in both the House and Senate to raise pay for military service members by that amount next year.

Last month, the full House voted in favor of a 3.5 percent military pay raise in approving the fiscal 2008 Defense authorization bill.

On May 24, the Senate Armed Services Committee passed its version of the bill, which also contained a 3.5 percent increase for the military.

The White House has proposed a 3 percent raise for both military and civilian employees. The Bush administration said in a policy statement that it strongly opposes the extra 0.5 percent the authorization bill would grant the military, on the grounds that it is unnecessary.

Tuesday's vote by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services marks the first time next year's civilian raise has come up for a vote on Capitol Hill, and confirms federal labor unions' hopes that Congress would move to enact equal civilian and military raises next year.

The vote "signals that Congress is … supporting pay parity between military and civilian employees," said Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, adding that she was "pleased" by the subcommittee's action.

The fiscal 2000 and fiscal 2004 Defense authorization acts called for military pay raises equal to 0.5 percent more than the rise in the Employment Cost Index. The administration followed that standard every year until 2007, when military and civilian employees received a 2.2 percent increase -- the lowest in many years.