Legislation Report
May 2010
Budget process could be a slow one: Congressional leaders have warned that this year's budget process could be a slow and dragged-out one, in part because of the autumn elections. By this time of year, Congress often has drafted a budget outline called the budget resolution that typically includes a statement of support for parity between military and federal civilian raises. However, there have been years in which no outline is passed and this may be another of them due to the sensitivity of deficit and spending issues. In any case, actual policies and the raise amount are set in later appropriations bills, which are supposed to be enacted by each October 1. Many of those bills slip past that deadline in many years, and leaders have suggested that the same will happen this year, anticipating that there will be a post-election lame duck session. That means it could be late in the year before the January 2011 raise is set. However, the military raise is determined in a separate annual bill that typically is enacted by early fall, providing a strong indicator for the federal raise on the assumption that there will be parity between the two. from FEDweek
Archived reports are available for viewing.