Bush Rejects Pay Parity in ’05: Tries to Pull a Fast One on Feds

Washington, DC ­­– President Bush’s fiscal 2005 budget proposal, submitted last week, includes a 1.5 percent pay raise for civilian workers and a 3.5 percent increase for military personnel.  This proposal disregards calls for military-civilian pay parity from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

A bipartisan group of 10 Representatives sent a letter to President Bush in late January requesting that he propose equal pay increases for military and federal civilian employees in 2005; the lawmakers argued that an equal pay adjustment would help recruit and retain quality employees at a time when the federal government is facing a “human capital crisis.”  “We cannot express strongly enough the importance of continuing the tradition of pay parity between military and civilian employees.  We believe anything less than the pay adjustment proposed for military employees in 2005 sends the regrettable message that the services [civilian employees] provide to America every day are not highly valued,” the letter stated. 

National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE, FD 1, IAMAW) President Richard N. Brown sent these legislators a letter commending their efforts and pledging to work with Congress to pass pay parity for civilian federal employees again in 2005.  As President Brown stated in his letter, “Federal employees play a vital role in keeping our nation safe and running smoothly, and it is important that their hard work and dedication be recognized.  By passing military-civilian pay parity, Congress symbolically stands behind the federal workforce and acknowledges that the contributions they make to our country every day are truly valued.”

President Bush’s 2005 budget proposal ignores these requests.  When questioned, he rationalizes the two percent disparity between military and federal civilian pay increases by pointing out the $300 million allotted in the Human Capital Performance Fund.  According to Bush’s proposal, federal employees who are working particularly hard and performing well can be compensated on top of the across-the-board 1.5 percent with money available through this fund.

The unequal pay adjustments proposed by President Bush did not come as a surprise to legislators, who expected the decision to eventually fall to Congress. “This is ultimately a decision for Congress to make,” said David Marin, a spokesman for House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-VA).

Congress has provided pay parity in 16 of the last 18 years.  Due to manipulation on the part of President Bush, Congress almost did not have the chance to counter his proposal for 2005.  Hidden well inside, the fiscal 2005 budget includes a proposal for a new rule which requires that Congress specify military and civilian pay raises in the annual budget resolution.  Any attempt to change the raise after that point could be stopped if a member of Congress raised a point of order against it.

Legislators from both parties vowed to fight Bush’s initial proposal and institute pay parity again in 2005.  Many legislators, including Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) are confident that the language will be removed now that it has been caught.  [Had the language not been noticed in time] we would have been stuck,” Moran said.  “We would have been up there on the floor talking confidently about why we need pay parity,” and someone could have called a point of order and the debate would have been over.  “It was actually a very clever move,” he said.

“I am disgusted by President Bush’s sneakiness and deception,” said President Brown.  “He realizes that pay parity has widespread bipartisan support in Congress, and he resorted to underhanded maneuvering to cheat the federal workforce out of a fair salary increase.  NFFE will continue to fight, alongside our numerous allies in Congress, to make sure that federal civilian employees receive pay parity in 2005."