Federal employees will get a pay raise if President Bush’s budget passes Congress.
Bush’s budget proposal, released Monday, calls for a 3 percent raise for the nation’s civil servants. Last year, Bush was criticized for offering only a 2 percent increase.
Hundreds of thousands of federal employees live in the D.C. area. The federal government is the region’s top employer.
The federal pay raise drew compliments from congressional Democrats, who otherwisewere critical of the president’s budget.
“We face serious budgetary pressures this year due to the Iraq war and the president’s tax cuts, but our federal civil servants are deserving of a pay increase,” said U.S. Rep. James Moran, D-Va.
Moran’s district is home to some 50,000 federal employees.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., also said he was glad to see the pay increase in the budget. But he said he worried that last year’s low raise would get in the way of recruiting top employees to the government.
“Last year federal employees were shortchanged with the lowest pay adjustment in nearly 20 years,” Hoyer said in a news release.
Hoyer’s district is home to some 55,000 federal employees.
Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va. — whose district is home to 54,000 federal employees — said he expected the 3 percent raise to pass Congress.
