The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Senators and representatives are chosen through direct election, though vacancies in the Senate may be filled by a governor's appointment. Congress has 535 voting members: 100 senators and 435 representatives. The U.S. vice president has a vote in the Senate only when senators are evenly divided. The House of Representatives has six non-voting members.
The Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP) comprises the offices and agencies that support the work of the president at the center of the executive branch of the United States federal government. The office consists of several offices and agencies, such as the White House Office, the National Security Council, and the Office of Management and Budget.
The national debt of the United States is the total national debt owed by the federal government of the United States to Treasury security holders. The national debt at any point in time is the face value of the then-outstanding Treasury securities that have been issued by the Treasury and other federal agencies. The terms "national deficit" and "national surplus" usually refer to the federal government budget balance from year to year, not the cumulative amount of debt. In a deficit year the national debt increases as the government needs to borrow funds to finance the deficit, while in a surplus year the debt decreases as more money is received than spent, enabling the government to reduce the debt by buying back some Treasury securities. In general, government debt increases as a result of government spending and decreases from tax or other receipts, both of which fluctuate during the course of a fiscal year. There are two components of gross national debt:
Cost of living is the cost of maintaining a certain standard of living. Changes in the cost of living over time can be operationalized in a cost-of-living index. Cost of living calculations are also used to compare the cost of maintaining a certain standard of living in different geographic areas. Differences in cost of living between locations can be measured in terms of purchasing power parity rates. An sharp rise in the cost of living can trigger a cost of living crisis where purchasing power is lost and the previous lifestyle is no longer affordable.
The Salary Grab Act, officially known as the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Expenses Appropriation Act, was passed by the United States Congress on March 3, 1873, and sparked a firestorm of controversy among members of the government, the general public, and the press. President Ulysses S. Grant signed the act the day before his inauguration for a second term to double the salary of the president and those of Supreme Court Justices. The proposal for a salary increase was fueled by what was considered low pay for members in government, while the salary for the president was the same as it had been for George Washington. The bill subsequently included a 50 percent salary increase for the president and for members of Congress, retroactive to the beginning of their term, which was the most highly contested provision in the bill. Public outcry led Congress to rescind the congressional salary increase. As a protest against the act, the Ohio General Assembly ratified what later became the Twenty-seventh Amendment. The controversy surrounding the bill was one of the contributing factors to the Republicans losing many seats in the 1874–75 United States House of Representatives elections, resulting in a Democratic majority in the United States House of Representatives which began one of the most competitive two-party periods in American history.
The Senior Executive Service (SES) is a position classification in the civil service of the United States federal government equivalent to general officer or flag officer rank in the U.S. Armed Forces. It was created in 1979 when the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 went into effect under President Jimmy Carter.
The General Schedule (GS) is the predominant pay scale within the United States civil service. The GS includes the majority of white collar personnel positions. As of September 2004, 71 percent of federal civilian employees were paid under the GS. The GG pay rates are identical to published GS pay rates.
The Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act of 1990 or FEPCA was an attempt to address the need for pay reform in the executive branch of the United States Government that became apparent in the 1980s as Federal civil service salaries fell behind those in the private sector. FEPCA provided guidelines to achieve pay comparability between Federal and non-Federal jobs. FEPCA was enacted as Section 529 of the Treasury, Postal Service and General Government Appropriations Act, 1991.
The United States federal civil service is the civilian workforce of the United States federal government's departments and agencies. The federal civil service was established in 1871. U.S. state and local government entities often have comparable civil service systems that are modeled on the national system to varying degrees.
The National Rural Letter Carriers' Association (NRLCA) is an American labor union that represents the rural letter carriers of the United States Postal Service (USPS). The NRLCA negotiates all labor agreements for the rural carrier craft with the USPS, including salaries, and represents members of the rural carrier craft in the grievance procedure. The NRLCA's stated goal is to "improve the methods used by rural letter carriers, to benefit their conditions of labor with the United States Postal Service, and to promote a fraternal spirit among its members."
The United States House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together, they comprise the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The House is charged with the passage of federal legislation, known as bills; those that are also passed by the Senate are sent to the president for signature or veto. The House's exclusive powers include initiating all revenue bills, impeaching federal officers, and electing the president if no candidate receives a majority of votes in the Electoral College.
The Saxbe fix, or salary rollback, is a mechanism by which the president of the United States, in appointing a current or former member of the United States Congress whose elected term has not yet expired, can avoid the restriction of the United States Constitution's Ineligibility Clause. That clause prohibits the president from appointing a current or former member of Congress to a civil office position that was created, or to a civil office position for which the pay or benefits were increased, during the term for which that member was elected until the term has expired. The rollback, first implemented by an Act of Congress in 1909, reverts the emoluments of the office to the amount they were when that member began his or her elected term.
The Senior Foreign Service (SFS) comprises the top four ranks of the United States Foreign Service. These ranks were created by the Foreign Service Act of 1980 and Executive Order 12293 in order to provide the Foreign Service with senior grades equivalent to general and flag ranks in the military and naval establishments, respectively, and to grades in the Senior Executive Service. Like military ranks and other Foreign Service ranks, the Senior Foreign Service grade system assigns rank in person, not rank in position.
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress. The United States Senate, along with the lower chamber of Congress, the United States House of Representatives, comprise the federal bicameral legislature of the United States. The Senate and House maintain authority under Article One of the U.S. Constitution to pass or defeat federal legislation. The U.S. Senate has exclusive power to confirm U.S. presidential appointments, ratify treaties, exercise advice and consent powers, try cases of impeachment brought by the House, all of which provide a check and balance on the powers of the executive and judicial branches of government.
Federal judge salaries in the United States are determined by the United States Congress and are governed in part by the United States Constitution, depending in part on the court on which the judge sits. In particular, United States federal judges confirmed under Article III of the Constitution have compensation that "shall not be diminished during their continuance in office." Other federal judges have salaries that may be adjusted without direct constitutional constraints, however statutory schemes usually govern these salaries. Debates over judicial salaries and their increase and treatment have occurred since the ratification of the Constitution.
An act to eliminate the 2013 statutory pay adjustment for Federal employees is a bill that was introduced into and passed by the United States House of Representatives in the 113th United States Congress. It was introduced by Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) on January 15, 2013 and it passed the House with a vote of 261-154 on February 15, 2013.
The bill H.R. 3343, long title "To amend the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to clarify the rules regarding the determination of the compensation of the Chief Financial Officer of the District of Columbia," is a bill that would change the amount of legal compensation the chief financial officer of Washington, D.C. could receive each year. Under this bill, the CFO compensation could equal the same compensation received by a senior executive service federal official. The bill was introduced in the United States House of Representatives during the 113th United States Congress. It passed the House on November 18, 2013.
The bill To repeal section 403 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 is a bill that would repeal the provision of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 that makes changes to the cost of living allowance to military veterans.
The 2015 United States federal budget was the federal budget for fiscal year 2015, which runs from October 1, 2014 to September 30, 2015. The budget takes the form of a budget resolution which must be agreed to by both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate in order to become final, but never receives the signature or veto of the President of the United States and does not become law. Until both the House and the Senate pass the same concurrent resolution, no final budget exists. Actual U.S. federal government spending will occur through later appropriations legislation that would be signed into law.
The Senior Executive Service Accountability Act is a bill that would make it less difficult to fire or suspend members of the Senior Executive Service (SES).
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