The American Bar Association's House of Delegates today voted to ask Congress to make it easier for federal judges to receive cost-of-living pay increases when other federal employees get them. Passage of the change would remove a continuing source of friction between judges and Congress. The ABA governing body met at the association's midyear meeting in Orlando, Fla.
Under a law passed in 1981, federal judges can only receive COLAs when Congress specifically approves them; they can't be lumped together with other federal workers. Efforts to repeal the provision have been tried but failed. Last November, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Cal.) introduced a bill that would remove the rule and make the COLA automatic when other general schedule federal workers receive them. The ABA's resolution also suggests Congress pass a similar measure regarding congressional salaries.
Lorna Schofield, chair of the ABA's litigation section, which sponsored the resolution, said in a supporting statement that the change "would ensure that federal judicial and congressional salaries do not keep losing more and more ground relative to the pay levels of white collar federal employees." Further slippage in pay will cause current judges to leave the bench, she said, and will "negatively affect" the ability of the federal judiciary to attract top lawyers.
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