Lawmakers announced last week that they had reached an agreement for a short-term stopgap spending bill. This pushed back the deadline to Dec. 21 in order to reach a larger agreement on how to fund the government through next September.
SEE ALSO: 2019 Federal Retiree COLA Announced
The spending package in negotiation will likely be the deciding factor of whether federal employees receive the Senate-approved 1.9 percent 2019 pay raise — or whether there is a pay freeze as proposed by President Trump in August.
While the House was silent earlier this year on a pay raise, in October the House signaled that it had reached a tentative agreement with the Senate to pursue the 1.9 percent pay increase. If enacted, the Senate’s pay plan would override the president’s proposal to freeze pay.
As of now, the determination for a pay raise — or freeze — remains uncertain. In recent history, the White House has issued an executive order in late December defining the next year’s pay plan. The Office of Personnel Management then releases the official pay tables.