On the Hill, Sensitive Severance Issues

Here's a can't-miss tidbit from Peter Cohn's CongressDaily piece on the latest congressional effort to pass yet another continuing resolution and put off actually passing fiscal 2007 spending bills. Referencing the fact that the budget uncertainty has led some agencies to postpone bonuses for some employees, Cohn writes:

Sensitive to the plight of their own staffs as well, House leaders and the Appropriations Committee spent Thursday trying to figure how to provide for two-month severance packages for aides losing their jobs in January.

Aides to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and GOP committee staff will receive severance under a deal with Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and leaders initially wanted to write the cost into the CR. But they decided to handle the matter administratively using existing funds, out of concern that using the CR as a vehicle would appear to favor congressional staff over federal employees impacted by stagnant agency budgets.