Bush signs 4.1 percent pay raise into law

President Bush on Friday signed into law the omnibus spending bill, which includes a 4.1 percent average pay raise for civil servants and military personnel.

House lawmakers passed the legislation in early December and the Senate approved the bill last Thursday. Bush initially sought a 2 percent pay raise for civil servants, coupled with a new $500 million Human Capital Performance Fund managers could use to raise the salaries of star employees based on performance reviews. At the same time, the administration proposed a 4.1 percent boost for military personnel.

Lawmakers from both parties overruled the White House and approved a 4.1 percent pay increase for both groups. Washington-area lawmakers have begun lobbying Bush to include equal pay raises for military and civilian federal employees when he submits his fiscal 2005 budget request to Congress next week.

"This is great news for our hard-working federal civilian employees who deserve a pay increase," said Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Susan Collins, R-Maine.

The White House has not yet announced how it will divide the 4.1 percent salary increase between the across-the-board portion of the pay raise and locality-based pay. In October 2003, the Federal Salary Council recommended that federal employees receive a 2.7 percent across-the-board increase and a 1.4 percent locality pay increase in 2004.

The president is not required to follow those recommendations and must issue his own executive order detailing how he will split the pay raise.

"We are waiting on the president to sign the executive order," said an official at the Office of Personnel and Management.

In a Dec. 30, 2003, executive order, Bush assigned civilian federal workers a 2 percent across-the-board raise for 2004. After the new executive order is issued, civil servants will receive retroactive pay for the difference between the existing 2 percent pay increase and the pay raise approved last week, the official said.

Last year's pay raise also took several months to become official, and some employees waited into the summer to receive their retroactive pay.