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Volcker Commission Calls for Pay Increase for Judges, Delinkage from Congressional Pay
Paul Volcker (photo right),shown here with Commisioner Bruce Laingen at the 2002 public hearings,
chaired the Commission that released its recommendations on bringing the federal government into the 21st century
The National Commission on the Public Service took a look back over 50 years of federal government and concluded, “the time has come to bring government into the 21st Century.” The Commission’s report, Urgent Business for America: Revitalizing the Federal Government for the 21st Century, makes 15 recommendations on the organization of, leadership for, and operational effectiveness in government. The report is based on a series of hearings, research, and
information gathered from government agencies, academic institutions and national associations by the Commission headed by Paul V. Volcker.
The Commission’s recommendations will be of more than passing interest to the Judiciary, potentially affecting how the Third Branch interacts with the reshaped Executive and Legislative arms of government. However, because the recommendations are, in the Commission’s words, “sweeping in scope,” implementation efforts will take time. The report identifies a handful of interim steps that, according to the Commission, should be taken promptly.
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An Interim Step Toward Implementation
"Congress should grant an immediate and significant increase in judicial, executive, and legislative salaries to ensure a reasonable relationship with other professional opportunities. Its first priority in doing so should be an immediate and substantial increase in judicial salaries."
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The Commission calls current judicial salaries “the most egregious example of the failure of federal compensation policies.”
“Unless this is revised soon,” the Commission report says, “the American people will pay a high price for the low salaries we impose on the men and women in whom we invest responsibility for the dispensation of justice.”
The report notes that the U.S. currently pays its judges substantially less than judges in England or Canada. In addition, a recent study by the Administrative Office of salaries of professors and deans at the top 25 law schools found that the average salary for deans of those schools was $301,639. The average base salary for full professors was $209,571. Both considerably exceed the annual salary of a federal
district judge.
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Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, Justice Stephen G. Breyer, and Chief Judge Deanell R. Tacha (10th Cir.) testified on the inadequate pay of judges at the Commission’s 2002 hearings. In his 2002 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary, Rehnquist identified the need to increase judicial pay as the most pressing issue facing the Judiciary. He said that, despite his annual entreaties, there has been no effective action taken to resolve the mounting problem of judicial and other high-level executive branch and congressional pay.
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The Commission recommends
Congress should grant an immediate and significant increase in judicial, executive, and legislative salaries to ensure a reasonable relationship to other professional opportunities.
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Rehnquist supports the Commission’s recommendation, saying, “The findings and recommendations of the Volcker Commission with regard to judicial pay underscore the severity of the problem and the need for swift action to raise the pay of federal judges. I hope that Congress and the President heed the Commission’s call.”
The Federal Bar Association similarly praises the Commission’s call for a significant increase in the pay of the federal Judiciary.
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“The Volcker Commission has clearly underscored the need for the President and the Congress to immediately address the critical need to provide meaningful financial rewards for public service, particular on the federal bench,” said FBA President Kent Hofmeister. “For too long our nation has allowed the salaries of our federal judges to erode to the perilous point of harm to the quality and independence of our judicial system.”
In a New Year’s Eve statement announcing adjustments to rates of pay for members of the military and General Schedule employees, President Bush appeared to support a pay raise for judges, “Due to Section 140 of P.L. 97-92, I do not have the authority to order a pay increase for federal judges,” he said. “I hereby urge the Congress to specifically authorize a pay increase for federal judges.”
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The Commission recommends
"Congress should break the statutory link between the salaries of members of Congress and those of judges and senior political appointees."
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“Congress has traditionally tied the salaries of senior executive branch employees and federal judges to its own,” the Commission reports, while acknowledging the political difficulties members of Congress face in justifying their own salary increases. According to the report, “Given the reluctance of members of Congress to risk the disapproval of their constituents, a phenomenon first seen in 1816, Congress has regularly permitted salaries to fall substantially behind cost-of-living increases and trends in private, education, and not-for-profit compensation.”
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“Whatever political difficulties they face in setting their own salaries, however, members of Congress must make the quality of the public service their paramount concern when they consider salary adjustments for top officials of the other branches of government,” the report states. “Salaries for leaders of the other branches should be based on the compelling need to recruit and retain the best people possible. Unlinking congressional salaries from theirs is an important first step in accomplishing that.”
The American Bar Association, at its mid-year meeting, passed a resolution supporting the Commission’s recommendations, urging Congress to enact an immediate and significant increase in federal judicial
salaries and break the statutory link between Congressional and judicial salaries.
“The deplorable disparity between salaries paid federal judges and what other professional opportunities offer often threatens the quality and independence of our judiciary and therefore the public trust and confidence in the judiciary,” ABA President Alfred P. Carlton Jr. said. “Congress must take immediate action to avert a
crisis in the federal judiciary. Adequate pay is necessary to recruit and retain qualified lawyers for the bench.”
The Commission is chaired by former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker, with 10 commissioners representing both political parties. Convened and
administered by the Brookings Institutions Center for Public Service, the Commission looked at the need for reform in federal government service.
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