Follow the Leader

So far, lawmakers are following President Obama's lead on the fiscal 2011 federal pay raise.

On Tuesday, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government included a 1.4 percent cost-of-living increase for federal employees in the fiscal 2011 Financial Services and General Government spending bill. The figure mirrors Obama's request.

When Obama announced his 1.4 percent pay raise recommendation for civilian and military employees in February's 2011 budget request Office of Management and Budget Director Peter R. Orszag said the proposal was smaller than previous increases because inflation has not been as high. He also tried to head off potential complaints by saying, given the economy, even a minor increase "to a lot of Americans sounds pretty good."

The House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee has marked up a version of the Defense appropriations bill, which also would respect the president's request. In late May, the House passed its Defense authorization bill with a 1.9 percent fiscal 2011 pay raise for service members. An authorization bill represents what Congress intends to spend, but appropriators hold the actual purse strings and allocate spending.

If Congress approved a 1.4 percent pay raise for the military, it would be the smallest increase since 1973. In fiscal 2010, the president requested a 2.9 percent raise for military personnel and Congress bumped it up to 3.4 percent.

Civilian workers also saw a bigger raise in fiscal 2010 -- 2 percent -- than they are likely to see in fiscal 2011. So far, few, if any, lawmakers have come out in favor of a larger raise in federal pay. In fact, there have been repeated attempts during the last few months to freeze federal pay.

When the president's request was announced, federal employees unions were not thrilled, but tempered their criticism, given economic realities.

"At best, 1.4 percent is a modest adjustment. But in this economy, a modest increase is better than no increase at all," National Federation of Federal Employees President William Dougan, said at the time.

As the adage goes, something is better than nothing.