After weeks of negotiations and multiple short-term continuing resolutions, lawmakers are set to approve a $1.4 trillion omnibus appropriations package to fund agencies through the end of fiscal 2021, although the measure would allow for only a 1% across-the-board pay raise for federal employees and fails to block implementation of President Trump’s controversial plan to politicize the civil service.
The bill, which was finalized and released Monday afternoon, is silent on federal employee compensation for next year, which effectively endorses the alternative pay plan that President Trump submitted in February. That plan provides civilian federal workers with a 1% across-the-board pay increase next year and no change to locality pay rates, a figure that falls far short of the 3% pay raise that military service members are slated to receive in 2021.
The provision marks an improvement over the pay freeze advocated by Senate Republicans and the White House in recent weeks. Trump must sign an executive order finalizing the pay raise before the end of the year.
The bill also makes no mention of Schedule F, the controversial plan unveiled by Trump in October that would strip the civil service protections of potentially hundreds of thousands of career federal workers, making them effectively at-will employees. Experts warn that even partial implementation of Trump’s executive order establishing Schedule F could have broad ramifications and will be difficult for the Biden administration to roll back.
In a statement, Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., blamed Republican intransigence for the failure of a provision blocking implementation of Schedule F to make it into the final bill.
“I am deeply disappointed Republicans were unw ..
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