WASHINGTON — A proposal to modernize how federal workers are paid based on the cost-of-living standards in their states was shot down after the largest federal employee union came out in opposition, according to Utah Sen. John Curtis.

The Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act earlier this week, greenlighting its version of the annual legislation that authorizes programs for the Defense Department and sets funding levels within the agency. During the vote, Curtis tried to include an amendment that would create a pilot program in Utah modernizing locality pay for federal employees that could later be applied on the national scale.

“Leading up to today, we thought we had an answer to one of the biggest issues in Utah. It’s called locality pay,” Curtis said in a video first ob

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