By Alyssa Rosenberg arosenberg@govexec.com
March 20, 2008
It's starting all over again.
It's been just two and a half months since President Bush signed the 2008 omnibus spending package that gave civilian federal employees an average 3.5 percent raise. Then last month, Bush released his fiscal 2009 budget, calling for a 2.9 percent pay raise for civilian employees and a 3.4 percent raise for the military. Ever since, federal employee groups and lawmakers have beaten the drum steadily for pay parity between civilians and military members.
The drumbeat reached a crescendo last Thursday when the House passed a budget resolution requiring pay parity (the bill did not specify what the pay level would be). The day before, the American Federation of Government Employees said that the average raise should be 4.4 percent, following the National Treasury Employees Union's earlier demand for a 3.9 percent boost.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0308/032008pb.htm
