House passes stopgap measure with 3.9 percent pay raise

The chamber voted for the raise as part of the fiscal 2009 Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance, and Continuing Appropriations Act (H.R. 2638) funding government through March 2009. The adjustment is 1 percentage point higher than the increase proposed by the Bush administration, which in February called for a 2.9 percent hike for civilian workers and a 3.4 percent boost for military personnel.

The 3.9 percent figure is identical to the amount the House specified for members of the military in the fiscal 2009 Defense authorization bill (S. 3001), which also passed Wednesday.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., praised the continuing resolution for granting civilian and military employees the same raise. "The Washington-area delegation works hard every year to provide employees of the federal government with a pay adjustment that recognizes the vital contributions they make," he said. "I am pleased that we have acted once again in the spirit of pay parity to secure a fair adjustment for all sectors of our federal workforce."

A portion of the 3.9 percent civilian pay hike would be allocated for locality pay; the rest would go toward an across-the-board increase.

The Senate is expected to approve the pay adjustments when it takes up the continuing resolution and Defense authorization bills later this week.