GovernmentExecutive.com

Is it just me, or has the response to the administration's annual effort to push bigger pay raises for the military than the civil service been more muted than usual? It occurs to me that there are three factors at play here:

• The gap (3.1 percent military, 2.3 percent civilian) is actually smaller than a lot of people expected. In the fiscal 2004 and 2005 budgets, the gulf was at least 2 percentage points.


• Whatever the size of the gap, by now there's simply an assumption that Congress will close it. Even Republican leaders like Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., don't pretend to take the administration's proposal seriously.


• For federal employees and their union representatives, there are simply bigger fish to fry--such as the pay-for-performance systems at the Defense and Homeland Security departments that the administration wants to extend governmentwide.