SEC pay raise deal collapses

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Michael Oxley, R-Ohio, announced late Wednesday he would not seek floor time to consider legislation designed to boost salaries paid to Securities and Exchange Commission employees.

As a result, plans by the House Rules Committee to issue a floor rule for the measure--which was slated for a vote Thursday-- were abandoned.

The decision by Oxley to pull the legislation was the latest twist in a series of controversies surrounding both the bill and an agreement reached late Tuesday between Oxley and House Government Reform Committee Chairman Dan Burton, R-Ind.

The agreement pertained to the portion of the legislation seeking a pay raise for SEC staff to make their compensation commensurate with the salaries paid at other financial regulatory agencies. The House Financial Services Committee had approved legislation that would have raised SEC salaries across the board, something to which Burton--whose panel oversees civil service pay--objected.

With House GOP leadership growing increasingly concerned about the highly visible dispute between two of its chairmen, Oxley and Burton struck a deal in which only a portion of the SEC workforce would be eligible for the increase.

However, no sooner had both House chairmen declared satisfaction with the arrangement than Senate Republican and Democratic sponsors of a similar securities bill came out swinging.

The Senate measure, already approved in that chamber, provides pay parity for all SEC employees. Senate officials made it clear Wednesday they had no intention of backing off their demands.

SEC officials Wednesday insisted the agency was "neutral" on the Oxley-Burton agreement, but also pledged to continue to work "toward the goal of pay parity."

Although he did not elaborate, Oxley in his statement hinted at other pressures, noting that the "agreement with the Government Reform Committee ... no longer holds."

A committee spokeswoman added, "Chairman Oxley is hopeful we might be able to do this [bill] this Congress, but it became clear that some [individuals] were completely opposed to pay parity."

On Thursday, Oxley indicated negotiations on the legislation would continue, and expressed confidence the measure would be signed into law in the near future.

"We're on the verge, on the doorstep of getting that completed," Oxley said at a conference hosted by the Securities Traders Association. "We are in a very strong position.... [T]here will be some disappointment, some time lost, but that's just the nature of politics."

Gramm, who spoke before Oxley at the conference, told reporters he was hoping for a resolution to the matter, and indicated he was sticking to his guns on complete pay parity for all SEC employees. Oxley said any negotiations with the Senate on the matter would take place in the context of a conference committee, and said the current talks were between himself, Burton and House leadership.

"Nothing in this town is easy," Oxley said.