Bush moves to limit 2005 pay raise to 2.5 percent

[The Straight Story]

Bush moves to limit 2005 pay raise to 2.5 percent

By Tanya N. Ballard
[email protected]

President Bush has moved to limit the pay increase for white-collar civilian federal employees under the General Schedule to 2.5 percent next year, with no additional pay for workers based on labor costs in the areas where they work.

Under federal law, the president had until the end of November to propose an alternative to pay levels set under procedures laid out in the 1990 Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act. Under the law, employees would have been due the 2.5 percent raise next year, plus locality pay increases averaging 10.6 percent. The act was designed to close the gap between federal and private-sector salaries, but raises under the law have never been fully funded.

Locality pay rates would remain at the 2004 level next year under the alternative plan Bush forwarded to congressional leaders on Monday. According to the president, funding the locality pay raise would cost about $9.8 billion in fiscal year 2005 and pull much-needed resources from other areas.


http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1204/120104t1.htm

[BayCityProgressive]

1. How about

a limit on congressional pay raises? All senators and congressmen should be making the average American workers wage and get the same in healthcare! That would get them to work pretty fast! We should ask Feingold to introduce such a measure in the senate. He was the only person who opposed the senate's last pay raise. I believe it was either Durbin or Dayton who introduced a "taste of your own medicine" bill that would have stripped the congres of many of it's healthcare benefits. The GOP whined like there was no tommorrow, especially Santorum.

[BayCityProgressive]

2. How about

a limit on congressional pay raises? All senators and congressmen should be making the average American workers wage and get the same in healthcare! That would get them to work pretty fast! We should ask Feingold to introduce such a measure in the senate. He was the only person who opposed the senate's last pay raise. I believe it was either Durbin or Dayton who introduced a "taste of your own medicine" bill that would have stripped the congres of many of it's healthcare benefits. The GOP whined like there was no tommorrow, especially Santorum.

[democrat in Tallahassee]

3. state workers in fla get NO raise this year. thanks jeb

[Contrary1]

4. WTF?

Guess he didn't realize this before the election, huh?

"A national emergency has existed since September 11, 2001, which now includes Operation Enduring Freedom (in Afghanistan) and Operation Iraqi Freedom," Bush wrote. "Full statutory civilian locality pay increases averaging 10.6 percent in 2005 would divert resources from and interfere with our nation's ability to fight the war on terror, with respect to which a national emergency is in effect under the law."

[MO_Dem]

6. Yeah, but

giving tax cuts to my rich family and buddies will not divert resources from....war on terror", said Smirk with a smirk!

[IndianaGreen]

5. Clinton also gave the shaft to federal workers

Nothing new here!