IB 

Union Calendar No. 351

108TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 3737

[Report No. 108–586] 

To increase the minimum and maximum rates of basic pay payable to 

administrative law judges, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 28, 2004

Mrs. JO ANN DAVIS of Virginia introduced the following bill; which was 

referred to the Committee on Government Reform 

JULY 7, 2004

Additional sponsors: Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia, Mr. VITTER, Mr. BAKER, 

Ms. NORTON, and Mr. MORAN of Virginia 

JULY 7, 2004 

Reported with amendments, committed to the Committee of the Whole House 

on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed 

[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 

[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on January 28, 2004] 

A BILL

To increase the minimum and maximum rates of basic pay 

payable to administrative law judges, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; REFERENCES. 

2 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Pay 

3 Compression Relief Act of 2004’’. 

4 (b) REFERENCES.—Except as otherwise expressly pro5 vided, whenever in this Act an amendment is expressed in 

6 terms of an amendment to a section or other provision, the 

7 reference shall be considered to be made to a section or other 

8 provision of title 5, United States Code. 

9 SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS RELATING TO BASIC PAY. 

10 (a) ADMINISTRATIVE LAW JUDGES.—Section 

11 5372(b)(1)(C) is amended by striking ‘‘may not exceed the 

12 rate for level IV’’ and inserting ‘‘may not exceed the rate 

13 for level III’’. 

14 (b) CONTRACT APPEALS BOARD MEMBERS.—Section 

15 5372a is amended—

16 (1) by striking subsection (b) and inserting the 

17 following: 

18 ‘‘(b)(1) Rates of basic pay under this section—

19 ‘‘(A) shall consist of—

20 ‘‘(i) the rate for the chairman of an appeals 

21 board; 

22 ‘‘(ii) the rate for the vice chairman of an 

23 appeals board; and 

24 ‘‘(iii) the rate for all other contract appeals 

25 board members; 
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1 ‘‘(B) shall be initially adjusted by the Office of 

2 Personnel Management and thereafter adjusted under 

3 paragraph (2); and 

4 ‘‘(C) shall not be greater than the rate of basic 

5 pay for level III of the Executive Schedule nor less 

6 than 94 percent of the rate of basic pay for level IV 

7 of the Executive Schedule. 

8 ‘‘(2) Subject to paragraph (1)(C), effective at the begin9 ning of the first applicable pay period commencing on or 

10 after the first day of the month in which an adjustment 

11 takes effect under section 5303 in the rates of basic pay 

12 under the General Schedule, each rate of basic pay for con13 tract appeals board members shall be adjusted by an 

14 amount determined by the President to be appropriate.’’; 

15 and 

16 (2) by adding after subsection (c) the following: 

17 ‘‘(d) The Office of Personnel Management shall pre18 scribe regulations necessary to administer this section.’’. 

19 (c) CERTAIN SENIOR-LEVEL POSITIONS.—Section 

20 5376(b)(1)(B) is amended by striking ‘‘level IV’’ and insert21 ing ‘‘level III’’. 

22 SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS RELATING TO LOCALITY-BASED COM23 PARABILITY PAYMENTS. 

24 (a) MODIFIED MAXIMUMS.—Paragraph (2) of section 

25 5304(g), as amended by section 1125(a)(1)(A) of the Na-
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1 tional Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 (Pub2 lic Law 108–136; 117 Stat. 1638), is amended to read as 

3 follows: 

4 ‘‘(2) The applicable maximum under this subsection 

5 shall be—

6 ‘‘(A) level II of the Executive Schedule for posi7 tions under subparagraphs (A)–(D) of subsection 

8 (h)(1); and 

9 ‘‘(B) level III of the Executive Schedule for any 

10 positions under subsection (h)(1)(E) which the Presi11 dent may determine.’’. 

12 (b) ADMINISTRATIVE APPEALS JUDGES.—Section 

13 5304(h)(1), as amended by section 1125(a)(1)(B) of the Na14 tional Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 (Pub15 lic Law 108–136; 117 Stat. 1638), is amended—

16 (1) in subparagraph (C), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 

17 the end; 

18 (2) by redesignating subparagraph (D) as sub19 paragraph (E); and 

20 (3) by inserting after subparagraph (C) the fol21 lowing: 

22 ‘‘(D) a position to which section 5372b applies 

23 (relating to administrative appeals judges); and’’. 
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1 SEC. 4. TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS. 

2 Section 5304(h)(2)(B), as amended by section 

3 1125(a)(1)(C) of the National Defense Authorization Act for 

4 Fiscal Year 2004 (Public Law 108–136; 117 Stat. 1638), 

5 is amended—

6 (1) in clause (i)—

7 (A) by striking ‘‘(A) through (C)’’ and in8 serting ‘‘(A) through (D)’’; and 

9 (B) by striking ‘‘(vii)’’ and inserting ‘‘(vi)’’; 

10 and 

11 (2) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘(1)(D)’’ and in12 serting ‘‘(1)(E)’’. 

13 SEC. 5. APPLICABILITY. 

14 (a) IN GENERAL.—The amendments made by this Act 

15 shall—

16 (1) for purposes of computing any rate of com17 pensation for service performed in any pay period be18 ginning before the date specified under subsection (b), 

19 be treated as if they had never been enacted; and 

20 (2) for purposes of computing any rate of com21 pensation for service performed in any pay period be22 ginning on or after the date specified under sub23 section (b), take effect as if included in the enactment 

24 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 

25 Year 2004 (Public Law 108–136; 117 Stat. 1392). 
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1 (b) DATE SPECIFIED.—The date specified under this 

2 subsection shall be the earlier of—

3 (1) the first day of the first pay period beginning 

4 at least 90 days after the date of the enactment of this 

5 Act; or 

6 (2) such other date (not earlier than the date of 

7 the enactment of this Act) as the Office of Personnel 

8 Management may determine. 

9 SEC. 6. REPORTING REQUIREMENT. 

10 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 6 months after the 

11 date of the enactment of this Act, the Office of Personnel 

12 Management shall submit to the Committee on Government 

13 Reform of the House of Representatives and the Committee 

14 on Governmental Affairs of the Senate a written report con15 taining the following: 

16 (1) A list of all Executive Schedule positions, 

17 and the rate of basic pay in effect for and the total 

18 number of individuals occupying each such position. 

19 (2) A comparison of the rates of basic pay for 

20 administrative law judges, administrative appeals 

21 judges, and contract appeals board members (before 

22 and after taking comparability pay into account) 

23 with—

24 (A) the rates of basic pay for Executive 

25 Schedule positions; and 
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1 (B) the rates of basic pay for United States 

2 magistrate judges, United States bankruptcy 

3 judges, judges of a United States district court, 

4 and judges of a United States court of appeals, 

5 respectively. 

6 (3) A determination of whether rates of basic 

7 pay for administrative law judges, administrative ap8 peals judges, and contract appeals board members are 

9 incongruous with the rates of basic pay for the posi10 tions referred to in paragraphs (2)(A) and (2)(B), re11 spectively. 

12 (4) A recommendation on the extent to which the 

13 rates of basic pay for Executive Schedule positions 

14 should be adjusted (if at all), based on any deter15 mination under paragraph (3). 

16 (5) Any other information or recommendation 

17 which the Office of Personnel Management considers 

18 pertinent to the issue of appropriate rates of basic 

19 pay for Executive Schedule positions. 

20 (b) DATA AND METHODOLOGY.—The report of the Of21 fice of Personnel Management under this section shall in22 clude a statement identifying the data and methodology 

23 used in preparing such report. 

24 (c) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section—
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1 (1) the term ‘‘Executive Schedule positions’’ 

2 means positions under the Executive Schedule under 

3 subchapter II of chapter 53 of title 5, United States 

4 Code, and all other positions in the executive branch 

5 the annual rates of basic pay for which are individ6 ually fixed, or expressly authorized to be fixed, by 

7 statute, at the rate provided for a level of the Execu8 tive Schedule or at a rate determined by reference to 

9 a level of the Executive Schedule, but does not include 

10 administrative law judges, contract appeals board 

11 members, or administrative appeals judges; 

12 (2) the terms ‘‘administrative law judge’’, ‘‘con13 tract appeals board member’’, and ‘‘administrative 

14 appeals judge’’ have the meanings given them by sec15 tions 5372, 5372a, and 5372b of title 5, United States 

16 Code, respectively; and 

17 (3) the term ‘‘comparability pay’’ means com18 parability pay under section 5304 of title 5, United 

19 States Code, or similar provision of law.

Amend the title so as to read: ‘‘A bill to adjust the 

rates of pay payable to administrative law judges, and for 

other purposes.’’. 

Union Calendar No. 351

108TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 3737

[Report No. 108–586] 

A BILL

To increase the minimum and maximum rates of 

and for other purposes. basic pay payable to administrative law judges, 

JULY 7, 2004

Reported with amendments, committed to the Committee 

dered to be printed of the Whole House on the State of the Union, and or-