In a victory for federal workers, the Senate on Thursday of last week passed a bill providing for a 2003 pay raise of 4.1 percent for civilian employees of the federal government---dealing a major setback to attempts by President Bush to break with the long-held practice of valuing civilian and military employees equally (see WIT for June 27, 2002). Although the Senate's spending package must still go to the House of Representatives and the president, it appears that the Senate has trumped Mr. Bush's attempts to use "national emergency" powers to defeat a bipartisan recommendation of a 4.1 percent raise by the House Appropriations Committee (see WIT for Dec. 2, 2002). News of the likely impending defeat of the president's proposals for a 3.1, and earlier a 2.6 percent raise, was offset for federal workers by the continuing struggle over the Bush administration's attempts to hold 2004 raises to two percent (see WIT for Jan. 6, 2003), and the narrow defeat of a Senate bill aimed at preventing Bush's attempts to contract out a huge number of federal workers' jobs (see WIT for Nov. 4, 2002).
See STEPHEN BARR, The Washington Post, January 26, 2003