House moving toward 4.8 percent pay raise

The House Armed Services Committee Wednesday will decide on how large the military pay raise will be in 2000, following actions last week that signal growing consensus on Capitol Hill for a 4.8 percent pay raise for both military and civilian personnel.

Last Thursday, the House committee's military personnel panel recommended a 4.8 percent military raise in 2000 as part of the fiscal 2000 Defense Authorization Bill (H.R. 1401). The bill originally included only a 4.4 percent raise, mirroring President Clinton's fiscal 2000 budget request. But military personnel panel chairman Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., bumped the raise up to 4.8 percent.

The House panel's action came on the same day the Senate Armed Services Committee approved a 4.8 percent raise as part of its version of the 2000 Defense Authorization Bill. The Senate committee also included boosts to retirement benefits and military officer pay in its bill, mirroring pay and benefits boosts the full Senate had already approved in a bill in February (S. 4.)

S. 4, which has been folded into the authorization bill, also called for equal pay raises for military and civilian personnel. Both houses of Congress echoed the call for civilian-military pay parity in the fiscal 1999 emergency supplemental bill, which was approved by a House-Senate conference committee on Thursday. The supplemental also re-endorsed the 4.8 percent pay raise and earmarked $1.8 billion toward military pay and retirement benefits next year.

The Clinton administration has not said it is opposed to a 4.8 percent raise, but did note in a statement of administration policy on S. 4 that it is "inconsistent with the 4.4 percent increase for civilian employees included in the President's budget." The administration said the larger pay raise and other proposed military benefit boosts beyond what the administration recommended "would potentially drain critical resources from other defense programs."