[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 40 (Tuesday, April 8, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E595-E596]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      INTRODUCTION OF LEGISLATION

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. GEORGE W. GEKAS

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, April 8, 1997

  Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker, today I with my colleague Representative Ben 
Gilman, introduced a bipartisan bill to correct a fundamental 
unfairness to all Federal administrative law judges. The Administrative 
Law Judge Cost of Living Adjustment [COLA] Reform Act. Since 1992 
administrative law judges have not received a cost-of-living adjustment 
like other Federal employees in the General Schedule and Senior 
Executive Service. Enactment of the legislation introduced today will 
remedy this unfair situation.
  This legislation amends section 5372 of title 5, U.S. Code, and 
provides that the cost of living adjustment for administrative law 
judges will be adjusted by the same percentage and on the same date as 
the rates of pay for the General Schedule.

[[Page E596]]

  Through no fault of their own, ALJ salaries were included as a 
percentage of the Executive Schedule, which includes Members of 
Congress and Cabinet Secretaries. Since 1992 Members of Congress have 
prohibited themselves from receiving COLA's by appropriations bill 
riders that cover the whole Executive Schedules, including ALJ's. ALJ's 
in salary structure are more like other Federal employees hired at 
$75,000 a year and their average salary is about $89,000 a year, much 
less than Members of Congress or Cabinet Secretaries included in the 
Executive Schedule. The cost of the legislation is not significant, not 
even raising the $5 million point of order threshold under the Budget 
Act. In fact we estimate that the cost of the legislation is under $4 
million.
  As a matter of fairness, these Federal employees should receive pay 
adjustments at the same rate as other Government employees. The 
salaries of the younger administrative law judges are well below the 
pay level of Members of Congress. Many of the younger administrative 
law judges have fallen behind the rates of pay of their former 
Government colleagues. Senior Government attorneys paid under the 
General Schedule and the Senior Executive Service have received pay 
adjustments during the same period which has caused their rates of pay 
to exceed that of administrative law judges. The administrative law 
judiciary has traditionally recruited these senior attorneys as 
administrative law judges. The ability to recruit senior Government 
attorneys, experienced private practice attorneys, and to retain 
experienced administrative law judges is being impaired because of the 
disparity between the current pay of administrative law judges as 
compared with the pay of senior Government attorneys.
  We believe that it is important to keep the Federal administrative 
judge corps competitive with other senior Government attorney 
positions. The Federal administrative judiciary must be able to recruit 
from the most able and experienced legal practitioners in both the 
private and public sectors, able to adjudicate complex and contested 
legal disputes. Adjudication of citizens' administrative claims by the 
Government is often the first contact the public has with the justice 
system. We want to ensure by passage of this bill, that the public has 
the quality and standard of service that justice deserves.

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