WASHINGTON — Congressional budget cutters have tentatively decided that their deficit-reduction package will deny a planned 2% raise for members of Congress and as many as 10,000 other top-level federal officials, congressional aides say.
The decision seems almost certain to trigger a battle over the traditional linkage between congressional pay and that of judges and upper-level civil servants.
House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) has told members that he will schedule a vote to scuttle the 2% raise for members of Congress, judges and upper-income executives and civil servants.
Sen. Lawton Chiles (D-Fla.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, is leading an effort to preserve raises for judges, federal executives and members of the Senior Executive Service, the nation's top civil servants.
