House committee approves civilian-military pay parity

The House Appropriations Committee Tuesday voted to provide pay parity for civilian federal employees and members of the military for next year.

Committee members included a 2.7 percent raise for civilians as part of the fiscal 2007 Transportation-Treasury appropriations bill.

President Bush proposed a 2.2 percent raise for both military and civilian employees, but in May, the full House approved a higher 2.7 percent military raise as part of the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 5122).

Shortly after that action, 10 members, led by Reps. Tom Davis, R-Va., chairman of the Government Reform Committee, and House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., sent a letter to appropriators asking for the same hike for civilians.

On Wedensday, Hoyer applauded the response.

"I am pleased that the appropriations committee has recognized the vital contribution that federal civilian employees make to our country's strength and security by including pay parity in…the bill," Hoyer said.

This year was the first time that President Bush proposed equal pay raises for both groups. But the move did not forestall the annual pay parity battle in Congress, in which federal employee advocates in Congress -- many of whom represent districts in the government-employee-heavy Washington area -- push to match the civilian pay raise with the higher military one.

Because the 2.2 percent proposed 2007 raise was comparitively low - last year military members received a 3.1 percent raise and the year before that they received a 3.5 percent adjustment - Congress voted to raise the military rate on its own, initiating the pay parity battle.

National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley applauded the parity measure.

"It has long been recognized that federal employees lag behind their private sector counterparts in pay and in the fight for the best and the brightest, [and] this works against the federal government," Kelley said. However, "There is a growing understanding among members of Congress that the competition for skilled and talented employees will continue to accelerate in coming years, and fair pay is a critical component in that competition." Also included in the bill was an amendment, offered by Rep. Steve Rothman, D.-N.J., that would block the Internal Revenue Service from outsourcing portions of its debt collection to private companies.

The IRS awarded contracts to three companies in March in the first stage of an initiative to shift collection of some uncontested tax debts to private companies that would then take between 21 percent and 24 percent of the debt in payment. NTEU has fought the initiative, arguing that IRS employees do the same work at a fraction of the cost.

Kelley has highlighted the private collections industry's poor reputation. "That egregious and well-publicized cases of data theft and loss are occurring with increasing frequency," she said, "sharply underscores the clear risks in turning taxpayer information over to debt collection companies."

The committee also kept union-backed restrictions on the Bush administration's competitive sourcing initiative that were first enacted as part of the fiscal 2006 Transportation-Treasury measure. The American Federation of Government Employees praised the move, with John Gage, the union's president, stating that the provisions give the public the "best of both worlds: Federal agencies get the services they need and at the quality they need, but at the lowest possible price for taxpayers."

The bill would require agencies to let in-house employees form a team and bid to keep their jobs any time more than 10 full-time positions are at stake. To win those contests, contractors also would need to show savings to offset costs of competition.

The Bush administration has been opposed to such requirements, arguing that they hurt agencies' ability to run effective competitions.

Jenny Mandel contributed to this report.