After an almost year-long battle, civilian federal employees---including civilian workers at the Pentagon---will receive the full value of a 2003 pay raise of 4.1 percent that the Bush administration had long sought to deny them, favoring a 3.1 percent raise instead (see WIT's for Jan. 27, 2003, Dec. 2 and June 27, 2002). Having already approved on February 20 the 2003 Congressional budget bill including the raise, President Bush last Friday issued an executive order providing for retroactive payments dating back to the first of the year on the difference between the two raises. Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress argued that the dangers faced by government workers in a post-9/11 world made the precedent of equal pay raises for civilian and military employees more important than ever, and a fight is already growing over administration plans for reduced civilian raises next year (see WIT for Jan. 6, 2003).
See STEPHEN BARR, The Washington Post, March 23, 2003