A proposed 5.5% pay raise next year for junior enlisted troops has won the backing of a key Senate panel in charge of government funding.
On Thursday morning, the Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously advanced a version of the fiscal 2025 Pentagon spending bill that includes funding to cover a 5.5% pay bump for E-1s through E-3s and a 4.5% raise for all other troops next year, according to a summary of the bill released by the committee. The full text of the $852 billion bill has not yet been released.
The bill supports plans for next year’s military pay raise advanced in June by the Senate Armed Services Committee in its annual defense policy bill, firmly pitting the Senate against the House — and its proposed 19.5% raise — as negotiations on both the policy and spending bills move forward.
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“I do want to emphasize that the bill does not just focus on aircraft, ships, weapons and equipment, critical though those are. It also gives our brave, highly skilled service members the pay and benefits they deserve,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the vice chair of the Appropriations Committee, said at Thursday’s meeting to consider the spending bill.
Committee Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., similarly said in a statement she was “especially glad this bill provides new resources to make sure the men and women who keep our…
