Hoyer pushes Congress for a 4.1 percent civilian pay raise

Civilian federal employees should get the same raise that military workers get in 2003, Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told members of the House Budget Committee Thursday. The Bush administration's 2003 budget proposal called for a 4.1 percent military pay increase and a 2.6 percent civilian pay raise in January 2003. Military and civilian pay increases have been the same for 14 of the last 16 years, but in its first budget proposal, the Bush administration said the two raises should not be automatically linked. When the budget was released, Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels defended the military-civilian pay raise split, saying, "We believe that a distinction can and should be made between [civilians and] people who are in harm's way at time of war." While Hoyer agreed with the administration's pay raise request for the military, he argued that federal employees were entitled to a similar pay increase. Last fall, the legislator successfully pushed through an amendment to the 2002 Treasury-Postal appropriations bill, mandating a 4.6 percent average pay raise for civilian employees. The Bush administration had called for a 3.6 percent raise for civilians in 2002. "I strongly disagree with this proposal for our federal civilian employees, most of whom are contributing to our homeland defense efforts," said Hoyer, who serves as ranking member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Treasury, Postal Service and General Government. "To think that it is only the military that's involved is a mistake." Hoyer told his fellow legislators that almost every federal agency plays some role in the fight against terrorism and that those employees should be fairly compensated. He specifically cited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Customs Service and the Coast Guard for their roles in homeland defense. "We need to make sure they are paid competitively," he admonished, adding that numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show the pay gap between federal civilian employees and the private sector has grown to 32 percent. "No Fortune 500 company would stand for it, and we shouldn't either," he said. Federal pay raises are supposed to include an across-the-board increase based on the change in the Employment Cost Index and varying locality-based increases based on labor costs in 31 metropolitan areas across the country, according to a formula created under the 1990 Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act. The formula would result in a 3.1 percent across-the-board increase for 2003 plus double-digit locality-based increases. The administration's current budget proposal would cut both increases and grant only a 2.6 percent average pay raise. Unless Congress increases the raise, the Bush administration will decide how to divide up the 2.6 percent between an across-the-board pay hike and locality-based increases. Earlier this month, Reps. Jim Moran, D-Va., Tom Davis, R-Va., Connie Morella, R-Md., Frank Wolf, R-Va., Albert Wynn, D-Md., and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C. joined Hoyer in sending a letter to President Bush urging him to endorse military-civilian pay parity in 2003.