Members of Congress from the Washington area say they don't buy President Clinton's reasons for only increasing federal pay by 3.1 percent next year, and they intend to push for much larger increases.
In his State of the Union address last month, Clinton said the nation's economy is strong. But in the last five years Clinton has cut federal raises, citing a suffering economy.
"We want to know what exactly the economic crisis is that won't allow the proper federal raises," said Chris McCannel, a spokesman for Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
Hoyer will introduce legislation later this month that will provide for a much larger raise than Clinton proposed. Hoyer has yet to decide exactly what level of increase to propose. "Basically what we'll be trying to do with this legislation is put some pressure on the administration to follow the [1990] Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act," said McCannel.
The Federal Salary Council, a body that recommends raises each year under FEPCA, has called for a 13 percent pay raise in 1999. But the Clinton administration has never accepted the council's recommendations because officials disagree with its methodology.
Federal union leaders, who had asked the administration for a 6 percent raise, have also expressed disappointment with Clinton's 1999 pay proposal.
"The president's continued abuse of the law, which calls for equitable pay raises for federal employees, is inexcusable," Bobby Harnage, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees said. "And the attempt to keep pay at its current low levels--as was done in times of supposed economic emergency--is absurd."
McCannel said Hoyer's legislation will attempt to bring federal workers "to parity" with the private sector. As it stands now, studies show that federal pay lags an average of 24 percent behind non-federal pay, despite FEPCA's goal of closing the pay gap by 2002.
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