Two bills could decide fate of SES pay raise

Next year's pay raise for the Senior Executive Service rests in the fate of two pieces of legislation pending in Congress.

Members of Congress and members of the SES are paid under the Executive Schedule. By law, Executive Schedule pay is supposed to rise each year at the same rate as pay for employees on the General Schedule, but Congress can vote each year to block Executive Schedule raises. Congress has voted to block the raises every year since 1993, except for 1998.

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., recently introduced legislation that could end the annual automatic cost-of-living adjustment for members of Congress. Feingold's bill, if approved by Congress, would also eliminate salary increases for senior executives, who have seen only a 2.3 percent pay increase in the past seven years.

News of Feingold's bill was not received warmly at the Senior Executives Association (SEA).

"My understanding is that he doesn't accept any raise until he runs for re-election and that's his perogative, but he's running for re-election, the Senior Executive Service is not," said Carol Bonosaro, president of SEA. "I'll be charitable and say perhaps he does not understand the impact on the career civil service."

On the other side of Capitol Hill, a bill introduced by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., would allow SES salary caps to be raised. Senior Executive Service base pay plus locality pay is capped at Level III of the Executive Schedule. Davis' bill would allow some wiggle room in salaries for those high-ranking civil service employees who are trapped at the top of the current scale.

For the past few years, more and more senior executives have reached the top of the pay scale, causing more than 60 percent of the SES to all have the same salary, Bonosaro said.

According to Bonosaro, senior executives are trapped between a rock and a hard place.

"Some members of Congress are always reluctant to accept a pay raise because they have to explain it to the taxpayer who they believe will oppose it and they know that their opponent in the next election will beat them over the head with it and yet, no one else can raise their salary," Bonosaro said. He added that those same members of Congress are also reluctant to break the tie with SES because "without it, the feeling is that they will have no rationalization for a pay raise."

In past years, SEA has lobbied Congress relentlessly for a two-part solution to the pay cap. First, the association wants Congress to give senior executive staff members a catch-up raise this year to make up for previous years. Then the association wants Congress to let the law work the way it's supposed to work, granting both SESers and members of Congress pay increases each year. Congressman Davis' bill, H.R. 3147, encompasses both of those requests, Bonosaro said.

"If [H.R. 3147] doesn't make it through and they let the modest increase go, I think what we're going to see is ... more and more executives who are retiring on the very first day they are eligible," Bonosaro said.

The House bill is currently awaiting approval from the Government Reform Subcommittee on the Civil Service.