Other Recommendations Included

Under the bill, the increase would apply to both the FERS and CSRS retirement systems, with an additional 0.5 point increase in 2014, and 1 point increases in 2015, 2016 and 2017. After that the contributions would level off. Members of Congress and their staff – who already pay more toward retirement than executive branch employees but who received enhanced benefits – would have to pay still more, 8.5 percent also phased in over five years. In addition, federal employees newly hired in 2013 or later with fewer than five years of prior service would pay the entire 5 percentage point increase from the outset; under an earlier passed law, they are set to pay 2.3 percent of salary more. Under the new bill, future employees also would become ineligible, except for those subject to mandatory retirement, for the FERS "special retirement supplement,” a payment that roughly duplicates a Social Security benefit earned while under FERS until age 62, when eligibility to draw Social Security begins. The White House made a similar proposal earlier this year.