[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 945 Introduced in Senate (IS)]






108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 945

   To amend title 37, United States Code, to improve the process for 
   adjusting the rates of pay for members of the uniformed services.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 29, 2003

 Mr. McCain introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
        referred to the Committee on Armed ServicesYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend title 37, United States Code, to improve the process for 
   adjusting the rates of pay for members of the uniformed services.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. REVISED ANNUAL PAY ADJUSTMENT PROCESS.

    (a) Requirement for Annual Adjustment.--Subsection (a) of section 
1009 of title 37, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:
    ``(a) Requirement for Annual Adjustment.--Effective on January 1 of 
each year, the rates of basic pay for members of the uniformed services 
under section 203(a) of this title shall be increased under this 
section.''.
    (b) Effectiveness of Adjustment.--Subsection (b) of such section is 
amended by striking ``shall--'' and all that follows and inserting 
``shall have the force and effect of law.''.
    (c) Percentage of Adjustment.--Subsection (c) of such section is 
amended to read as follow:
    ``(c) Equal Percentage Increase for All Members.--(1) Subject to 
subsection (d), an adjustment made under this section in a year shall 
provide all eligible members with an increase in the monthly basic pay 
that is the percentage (rounded to the nearest one-tenth of 1 percent) 
by which the ECI for the base quarter of the year before the preceding 
year exceeds the ECI for the base quarter of the second year before the 
preceding calendar year (if at all).
    ``(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), but subject to subsection (d), 
the percentage of the adjustment taking effect under this section 
during each of fiscal years 2004, 2005, and 2006, shall be one-half of 
1 percentage point higher than the percentage that would otherwise be 
applicable under such paragraph.''.
    (d) Publication of Adjusted Rates.--Subsection (e) of such section 
is amended--
            (1) by striking ``(e) Notice of Allocations.--'' and 
        inserting ``(e) Notification and Publication Requirements.--
        (1)''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
    ``(2) The rates of basic pay that take effect under this section 
shall be printed in the Federal Register and the Code of Federal 
Regulations.''.
    (e) Presidential Determination of Need for Alternative Pay 
Adjustment.--Such section is further amended--
            (1) by redesignating subsection (g) as subsection (h); and
            (2) by inserting after subsection (f) the following new 
        subsection (g):
    ``(g) Presidential Determination of Need for Alternative Pay 
Adjustment.--(1) If, because of national emergency or serious economic 
conditions affecting the general welfare, the President considers the 
pay adjustment which would otherwise be required by this section in any 
year to be inappropriate, the President shall prepare and transmit to 
Congress before September 1 of the preceding year a plan for such 
alternative pay adjustments as the President considers appropriate, 
together with the reasons therefor.
    ``(2) In evaluating an economic condition affecting the general 
welfare under this subsection, the President shall consider pertinent 
economic measures including the Indexes of Leading Economic Indicators, 
the Gross National Product, the unemployment rate, the budget deficit, 
the Consumer Price Index, the Producer Price Index, the Employment Cost 
Index, and the Implicit Price Deflator for Personal Consumption 
Expenditures.
    ``(3) The President shall include in the plan submitted to Congress 
under paragraph (1) an assessment of the impact that the alternative 
pay adjustments proposed in the plan would have on the Government's 
ability to recruit and retain well-qualified persons for the uniformed 
services.''.
    (f) Definitions.--Such section, as amended by subsection (e), is 
further amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(i) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) The term `ECI' means the Employment Cost Index (wages 
        and salaries, private industry workers) published quarterly by 
        the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
            ``(2) The term `base quarter' for any year is the 3-month 
        period ending on September 30 of such year.''.
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