Congress's Agenda Includes Pay Raise, Personnel Issues

Congress returns this week from its summer break with the 2007 federal pay raise as one of several issues up in the air.

The House and Senate have drawn up plans to provide a 2.7 percent raise for white-collar and blue-collar civil service employees. But the Senate has not voted on the spending bill that contains the proposed raise, leaving open the possibility that the raise could be lower.

The civil service raise remains unsettled because House and Senate appropriators, faced with budget constraints, have recommended a 2.2 percent increase for the armed forces and some higher raises for hard-to-fill positions, especially in the mid-career ranks. Typically, members of Congress approve "pay parity" raises for the military and the civil service.

The Senate hopes to wrap up a defense-spending bill soon, and congressional aides say that if the proposed military raise is not increased, it will be difficult to give civilians a higher raise than military personnel, especially during wartime.

It's also possible that a decision on the pay raise could be shoved off until after Election Day.

Congress will try to break for the campaign season by Oct. 1, the start of the next fiscal year, according to the aides. That timetable suggests that as many as eight appropriations bills, including the one that contains a pay raise, would be put off until Congress convenes a lame-duck session. In that case, some parts of the government would be placed on interim funding, through a "continuing resolution," until final 2007 budget decisions are made.

Also up for resolution is next year's funding for a new civil service personnel system at the Department of Homeland Security. The House and Senate would provide money to keep the system, known as MaxHR, under development, but the proposals fall several million dollars short of what the White House wants.

Congress appears to be holding off on full support of MaxHR until litigation ends over new labor-management rules. Unions have denounced the rules as an effort to gut collective-bargaining rights. The department is trying to move forward, however, on other personnel changes, and on Friday announced the appointment of Marta Brito Pérez , a policy official at the Office of Personnel Management, as the department's chief human capital officer, a job that has been vacant.

In a separate lawsuit, unions have blocked new labor rules for the Defense Department's National Security Personnel System. That case, too, is on appeal. The House signed off on a provision that would bar the Defense Department from spending money on that labor system; the Senate has not taken a position.

The National Security Personnel System will undergo a review in the Senate this month, according to aides for Sens. Susan M. Collins (R-Maine) and George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio). Voinovich has tentative plans for a hearing on the new pay-for-performance system that covers federal executives, an aide said.

Rep. Jon C. Porter (R-Nev.), chairman of the House federal workforce subcommittee, plans to hold a hearing on trends in Cabinet and other senior-level pay and may support a commission to review top government salary scales to see if they have kept pace with inflation and private-sector compensation practices.

House aides also are looking into whether to allow federal employees to contribute their bonuses as lump sums into the Thrift Savings Plan, a 401(k)-type retirement program. If performance-based pay systems spread across government as planned, an increasing number of employees will be getting their raises in bonuses rather than as salary adjustments, the aides said.

Another idea under consideration by House aides would permit federal agencies to offer housing allowances to employees who are required to move on a regular basis, such as FBI agents.

Senate aides, meanwhile, hope to get a bill on track for approval that would renew authority for the General Services Administration to set up pilot projects on relocation expenses. The test program expired last year but showed promise in reducing federal travel costs. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the test program saved about $15 million annually by reducing moving costs for employees at the FBI and Customs and Border Protection.

Porter also hopes to mark up a bill that would create electronic health records for the 8 million Americans covered by the federal employee health insurance program. Participation by employees and retirees would be voluntary and could be accomplished without raising health-care premiums, according to Porter aides.

Stephen Barr's e-mail address isbarrs@washpost.com.