Senate moves to close pay gap for feds called to military duty

The Senate last week approved a measure that would provide full federal salaries to civil servants called to military duty.

The Senate unanimously passed the language as an amendment to the fiscal 2006 Defense appropriations bill (H.R. 2863). The amendment requires agencies to supplement the military salary of federal employees called to the Reserves or National Guard, bringing their income to the level it was before their employment was interrupted.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who introduced the amendment, said this is the fourth attempt in two years to close the pay gap for federal employees in the military. Similar amendments were included in the Senate versions of the April 2005 supplemental appropriations bill, the 2005 Defense authorization bill and the October 2003 supplemental appropriations bill. Those amendments were removed during House-Senate conference negotiations, Durbin said.

There are about 120,000 federal employees in the Reserves and the National Guard, and about 17,000 have been mobilized to Iraq, Afghanistan and other locations, Durbin's office reported.

One of those employees is Jim Daum, a safety engineer with the Federal Aviation Administration who has been serving in Iraq in the Delaware National Guard for almost a year.

Daum's wife, Mary, said her husband took a 48 percent pay cut when he was called to active duty. As an FAA engineer, he earned more than $100,000. But the pay cut forced Mary Daum, who is a stay-at-home mother, to rent out the family home and move with her four children-triplets and one younger son-to her sister's house.

"It's been a constant worry, but we've held on," she said. FAA employees have donated annual leave to the family, which has helped considerably with budgetary problems, but has not helped enough, she said.

A spokesman for the Office of Personnel Management said until there is specific legislation to close the pay gap, neither OPM nor individual agencies can supplement pay for employees called to military duty.

Durbin said he hopes that this time around, the amendment won't perish in conference.

"When the lights are on, the Senate continues to overwhelmingly support this bipartisan measure," Durbin said in a statement. "Unfortunately, I have watched on three occasions as this important amendment went into the darkness of a conference committee and disappeared."

Durbin said many private companies, including Boeing Aerospace, State Farm Insurance and Sears, Roebuck & Co., close the pay gap for employees called to military duties.