House Lawmakers Aim for Civilian Pay Parity with DoD

In a letter to House Appropriations Committee members on Friday, several lawmakers advocated for pay party with the Department of Defense (DoD). In the FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), House lawmakers included a 3.0 percent pay increase for service men and women. The House lawmakers argued Congress should provide civilian federal employees with the same pay raise.

The letter, led by Representative Gerald Connolly (D-VA), explained, “The federal civilian workforce is comprised of dedicated individuals who have demonstrated their critical value to this nation each day throughout this pandemic. During this global crisis, our federal government never shut down. Instead, its civilian workforce ramped up: delivering mail, providing healthcare to veterans, inspecting meat and poultry facilities, and researching cures for COVID-19. We should not take these dedicated employees for granted.”

The letter continues to note that in the January 2019 bipartisan Federal Civilian Workforce Pay Raise Fairness Act, passed by the House, and in the December 2019 budget deal, Congress supported pay parity between the civilian and military workforces.

“We feel strongly that federal employees have demonstrated they are invaluable to this nation and that they deserve parity with respect to pay increases provided by the federal government. The pay increase equates to less than one-tenth of one percent of the federal discretionary budget – spread across 12 appropriations bills. And Congress has historically maintained this pay parity,” the letter notes. “This year, in particular, our federal civilian workforce has served this nation at the time when services were most needed. Congress must step up and ensure that the federal workforce is treated with the respect it deserves.”

In February, President Trump announced his intention to give civilian employees a 1 percent federal pay raise in an official pay plan submitted to Congress. The plan keeps locality pay frozen at 2020 levels.

House appropriators did not include a federal pay raise proposal in their draft legislation for FY 2021, which has been taken as an endorsement of the president’s 1 percent proposal.

Ken Thomas, National President of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE), urged House appropriators to reconsider inclusion of a pay raise in a statement to Federal News Network.

“Over the past few months, Congress approved spending trillions of federal dollars in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to fund the federal and community response to the outbreak — and to provide financial relief to businesses and individuals,” Thomas said. “And the House continues to vote in favor of additional relief, health care spending, infrastructure investments and soon, annual appropriations. But when it comes time to provide a modest pay adjustment to the federal workers it relies on to carry out that federal policy and spending, House appropriators find themselves empty-handed and poverty-stricken.”