Score another for Congress in pay raise game

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

The press often reports ongoing stories -- wars, elections, gasoline prices and even federal news -- as if they were sporting events.

Doing so makes it easier, we journalists believe, for the public to understand the issues. It also adds drama to the issue and satisfies the secret urge of many reporters to be sports reporters.

With that in mind, let's take the long-running story of the next federal pay raise and the next federal retiree/military/Social Security cost-of-living adjustment.

By law, federal workers, military personnel and retirees are due a raise in January.

When it left the starting line earlier this year, the federal pay raise was running at a 2.2 percent pace. That was the amount that President Bush designated as the January federal/military salary increase.

But now Congress, the odds-on favorite to win the federal pay raise race, has moved up the pace to 2.7 percent. It did that when a congressional committee approved the higher amount for military personnel.

That gives a goal to members of the House and Senate who advocate for civil servants. They will demand equal pay-raise treatment. If the track record of the past dozen years holds up, federal civilians will get the same amount as what goes to military personnel.

Despite the miles to go, legislative hurdles to clear and certain conditions that must be met, the 2.7 percent pay raise for both groups appears to be in the lead.

For federal retirees, retired military personnel and people getting Social Security benefits, let's go to the boxing ring. Retiree raises aren't subject to political or budgetary considerations.

Congress can't KO the White House, and the president can't produce a haymaker that will change the amount of the retiree raise.