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Washington, D.C. - The House unanimously passed H.R. 2990, the Disabled Military Retiree Relief Act of 2009 which includes language from H.R. 1266, the Non-Foreign Area Retirement Equity Assurance Act of 2009.  An original cosponsor of H.R. 1266, Alaska Congressman Don Young worked with House Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton to include the language which will replace the cost of living allowances (COLA) for federal employees in Alaska with the locality pay system that has long been in place in the Lower 48.  H.R. 2990 will now head to the Senate for consideration.    

“This is a great day for Alaskan Federal Employees,” said Rep. Young.  “They are on their way to finally being treated equally to their counterparts in the Lower 48.  I have been working on this provision for a long time, in conjunction with my colleagues and the many Alaskans who have met with me on this issue, and I'm very pleased to finally see this come to the floor.  With the rising costs associated with living in Alaska, the pay gap between federal and non-federal employees continues to grow.  Switching from COLA to locality pay would cut this gap and at the same time, increase retirement benefits for federal employees in Alaska.  This is a good measure that benefits federal employees in Alaska, and allows them to stretch their retirement dollars and prepare for the future.”

“Now that we've passed it through the House, this bill will head over to the Senate where they must do everything in their power to keep the locality pay provision intact and pass the bill.  Alaskans have been patiently waiting for this provision to become law and we need to finish the job now!”

The U.S. Government pays a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) to white-collar civilian federal employees in Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  To set the COLA rates, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) surveys the prices of over 300 items, including goods and services, housing, transportation, and miscellaneous expenses, in each of the COLA areas and in Washington, D.C. and they compare these results to arrive at an adjustment for employees.  An alternative to COLAs is locality pay which is taxed and incorporated into base salaries.  The current locality pay system provides for pay adjustments based on surveys that compare federal and non-federal wages in a particular geographic location (e.g. Alaska and Hawaii).  Its goal was to narrow the pay gap but it only included federal employees in the continental United States.

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