[Application of Pay Caps to Three Judicial Branch Positions]

GAO was asked whether the pay ceilings contained in various appropriations acts since 1976 limit the salaries of the Directors of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts and the Federal Judicial Center and the Administrative Assistant to the Chief Justice. Their salaries are set by statute to be the same as the pay of a U.S. district court judge. GAO held that the salaries of these three judicial branch employees are not subject to the pay ceilings contained in recent appropriations acts to the extent that the ceilings do not apply to district judges. By specific statutory authority, the three officials are to be paid the same as district judges whose pay has increased, despite the enactment of pay ceilings, because of constitutional protection accorded the judges against diminution of their salaries in Article III. By setting the salary of the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts at a rate the same as that of a district judge, Congress intended to link the salary to a comparable judicial position rather than to the Executive Schedule. It is not appropriate to undo that linkage in the absence of clear congressional intent to repeal or limit the operation of the governing regulation. The same analysis applies to the salaries for the two other positions in question. Accordingly, the salaries of these three judicial branch positions have been properly set at a rate the same as that of a district judge.