Final Decision On Federal Pay For 2019 Delayed

Despite positive signs that pointed to an earlier and favorable conclusion, with nearly 200 lawmakers expressing support of a 1.9% federal pay raise in 2019 and Congress’ budget conferees also generally supportive of the proposal, federal employees will need to wait a bit longer before receiving final word on their pay for next year.

Over the past month, the administration and lawmakers have disagreed over whether to include in the 2019 budget a pay raise for civilian federal employees. On the defense side, members of the military are already slated to receive a 2.6 percent raise, their largest in nearly a decade.

President Trump recently vocally opposed the notion of providing either a pay raise or locality pay adjustments to federal employees in 2019, proposing instead that the proposals, such as the one included in the Senate spending bill, be zeroed out for next year.

Despite the Senate’s inclusion of the language, and many House members’ support for a similar provision in the House, conferees ultimately failed to address the issue during negotiations over a third “minibus” bill, which does not contain reference to the pay raise. Federal News Radio has reported that one House Democratic staffer confirmed the proposed pay raise was one of the issues behind stalled negotiations.

Lawmakers are currently scheduled to return to D.C. and resume negotiations after November 13th.